Teacher may be fired for refusing to allow religious bullshit in her classroom

There are several quandaries facing teachers when it comes to management of their students and dealing with kids’ attitudes and behaviors. Two of the concerns they face have to be how to deal with dissenting opinions in their classrooms, particularly when it comes to different faiths and beliefs, and what a teacher can or cannot do or say in response. Melissa Hussain, an eighth-grade science teacher at West Lake Middle School in North Carolina, recently had to deal with precisely these issues.

Of course, the best and proper way to deal with religious pupils is to stand for the secularism that is supposedly inherent to government schools. A teacher has to remind students that the classroom is no place for religion or proselytizing, especially in science classes, where rational thought and open-mindedness are a must and religious thinking only inhibits everything. Students may believe in whatever they want and may pray or read the Bible on their own time (or at least, in accordance to whatever school or class rules apply; some teachers are quite lax, others may be rather strict), but any sort of preachy attitudes or discriminatory behavior behavior aimed at others is, naturally, prohibited and merits reprimand, depending on the severity of the offense.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what Melissa Hussain had to deal with from her Bible-thumping students, who apparently took it upon themselves to try and impose their Christian religiosity in her classroom, reading Bibles instead of doing classwork and wearing Jesus T-shirts, and even going so far as to openly taunt her by openly singing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ and anonymously leaving Bibles and posters of Jesus on her desk. Compounding the problem is how these little twits were apparently spurred on by their redneck parents, who of course can’t be expected to know or do any better. You know, with them being rednecks and all.

However, things only escalated from there on. Fed up with the pompous little twerps, she took to venting on her Facebook wall. Unfortunately, the kids’ parents caught wind of her criticizing their sweet little Jesus-loving urchins online, and immediately launched a whine-fest demanding she be fired. The worst of it is that, as you can expect in such stories, they may be succeeding: Hussain has already been suspended (with pay) and is facing termination.

What could she have written and done that was so caustic and obscene as to warrant her removal from the faculty, you may ask? Here it is:

Hussain wrote on the social-networking site that it was a "hate crime" that students anonymously left a Bible on her desk, and she told how she "was able to shame" her students over the incident. Her Facebook page included comments from friends about "ignorant Southern rednecks," and one commenter suggested Hussain retaliate by bringing a Dale Earnhardt Jr. poster to class with a swastika drawn on the NASCAR driver's forehead.

[…]

Parents said the situation escalated after a student put a postcard of Jesus on Hussain's desk that the teacher threw in the trash. Parents also said Hussain sent to the office students who, during a lesson about evolution, asked about the role of God in creation.

On her Facebook page, Hussain wrote about students spreading rumors that she was a Jesus hater. She complained about her students wearing Jesus T-shirts and singing "Jesus Loves Me." She objected to students reading the Bible instead of doing class work.

But Annette Balint, whose daughter is in Hussain's class, said the students have the right to wear those shirts and sing "Jesus Loves Me," a long-time Sunday School staple. She said the students were reading the Bible during free time in class.

"She doesn't have to be a professing Christian to be in the classroom," Balint said. "But she can't go the other way and not allow God to be mentioned."

Actually, if the only way God is “mentioned” is through proselytizing and taunting, then yes, she damn well can. Public school classrooms are not a pulpit upon which students can parade their beliefs in nonsense, or especially, use their religiosity to taunt others who may not believe in their brand of superstition. While I’m not sure about Hussain sending a student to the office because they “asked about the role of God in creation” (lack of context leaves it unclear whether this was an overreaction to a simple question or getting rid of a willfully obtuse or derisory student), and Hussain’s claim about the Bible on her desk being a “hate crime” is ridiculous (harassment, yes, but not a “hate crime” by any definition), the rest of what appeared on Hussain’s Facebook page looks like some awfully tepid and reasonable stuff, along with some more aggravating comments left by her friends. (But then, Christians of this sort just love employing guilt-by-association, don’t they?)

It would be a complete travesty if Hussain should lose her job over something this stupid – and, as usual, the local representatives are far too busy worrying about their own asses to stand up for her:

Thomas and Jennifer Lanane, president of the Wake County chapter of the North Carolina Association of Educators, said she wasn't aware of the details of the Hussain case, but said that teachers need to be careful about information they put online.

"We are public figures," Lanane said. "We are held to a higher standard."

Yes, they are, especially in their role as educators to spread knowledge and good sense amongst youths. However, this “higher standard” also includes supporting and defending those who are being victimized and who’ve done nothing wrong, which is the case with Melissa Hussain, who’s only crime so far is to have been taunted and irritated into venting (in a rather controlled and non-inflammatory manner) on Facebook, where her friends added some sharper barbs. If the Lananes can’t stand up for teachers they claim to represent in the face of absurd accusations, then they need to step aside at once and let someone with some spine take their place.

(via Pharyngula)