Viki Knox fans
I want to thank Viki Knox, the Union Township (N.J.) high school teacher who decided to proclaim her condemnation of gays on Facebook, for making it possible for me to re-use much of an earlier post. This saves me a lot of thought and time.
That one involved Jerry Buell, a veteran high school teacher who was suspended indefinitely earlier this year by Lake County, Florida’s Mount Dora High School for posting an anti-same-sex marriage rant on his Facebook page. In his post, prompted by New York’s decision to legalize gay marriage, Buell said that the news made him want to throw up, that gay marriage was “a cesspool,” and that homosexuality was a sin. Knox went Buell one better, going to the heart of the matter by declaring that homosexuality is a sin that “breeds like cancer” and describing it as “perverted.” She also wrote:
“Why parade your unnatural immoral behaviors before the rest of us? I/we do not have to accept anything, anyone, any behavior or any choices! I do not have to tolerate anything others wish to do.”
The school district is investigating to see if Knox violated school policies, as gay advocacy groups call for her firing. But everyone should call for her firing. As I wrote regarding Buell:
“I do not believe that the government should or can tell employees what they may do or say in their personal lives, nor is it the government’s proper role to insist that certain opinions, political or social, must conform to some consensus or norm. It can and should insist, however, that what teachers do and say do not undermine their ability to teach all students, or the ability of all students to trust in their good will and unbiased regard…If Buell had written that most girls were dumb, that Hispanics made him angry, that blacks made him fear for his life or that over-weight kids made him sick, nobody would be claiming that he had a constitutional right to keep his teaching job. In addition to the burden his hateful opinions placed on students who might be gay, they also are a threat to encourage bigotry on the part of his non-gay students.”
This is as true of Viki Knox as it was of Jerry Buell. Let’s broaden the principle and call it “The Munroe Rule,” after student-hating teacher Natalie Munroe. If you teach, you can’t go on Facebook or your blog and denigrate students or groups they or their parents might belong to. If you have to denigrate people online, don’t teach.
One more thing: Have we not reached the point where any teacher who is so careless, foolish and irresponsible as to post blog, Twitter or Facebook rants against their students (as with Munroe) or to ridicule or attack groups that their students may or do belong to (as with Knox, Buell, and special ed teacher Jeremy Hollinger) must be judged too untrustworthy (and dumb) to teach anyone or anything, including sea monkeys?
I think so.
Ethics Alarms 
You might not know this, but I’m a teacher. On Thursday nights, I teach a bunch of inner-city carrier pigeons TV/VCR repair, and I’ve kept quiet on my Facebook about it. Some of them struggle, some of them make nests in my hair, but their struggle isn’t something to broadcast to the world.
And what is this “hair” of which you speak?
It’s this stuff I have on my back.
I love this … The Munroe Rule … a “teachable moment” for those clearly too dumb and/or untrustworthy to teach. 🙂
Could this be considered a corollary to the “Naked Teacher Principle”? In both cases, the key component is damage to the respect and authority the teacher needs to do her job.
It is definitely a correllary of the Naked Teacher Principle, or vice-versa.
The Munroe Rule at work already!
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/10/19/teacher-fired-for-anti-semitic-comments-at-occupy-wall-street/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl13%7Csec1_lnk3%7C105720
PERFECT!!! Thanks for the link.
My question is where is the line where an employeris not allowed to fire an enployee for something they say?
Better to say that employees can say whatever they want if they don’t cross two lines.
1) Their speech does not impede their ability to do their job. I.E. a teacher undermines students’ willingness to learn by hate speech towards them.
2) They do not put words in their employer’s mouth. If a representative of a company states an offensive or simply controversial opinion while in his capacity as a representative, he will deter potential customers.
An employer should not fire an employee for public or private opinions that do not and cannot affect the company or the employee’s job performance. What CAN an employer fire an employee for? A legal issue, not an ethical one.
We are all spending a lot of time blaming school systems, idiotic teachers, and fascistic administrators. Another question should be asked: What the hell are institutions doing when they confer teaching degrees? What does one have to know to get a teaching degree or teacher certification? Who is doing this? How can they be accredited? Anybody know? As PG Wodehouse was fond of saying, “Go to the source, I say.”
But one more time: this is why my son is home-schooled. Not because we are religious fanatics, communists, atheists, or snobs, but because the public school system is run by the Munroes, Knoxes, Buells and Hollingers, and little education and no good can accrue to my son by contact with either them or their ilk. And only SOME of the private schools are free of these morons; those that are are just as expensive as college, unfortunately. So if you live in a state that allows home-schooling, look into it. There are a wealth of resources available to home-schoolers (group sessions, extra-curricular activities, affordable tutors, free curricula, etc.). And of the home schooled kids I know, every single one got through the SATs and is in college, including the Ivy- and sub-Ivy institutions.
The old adage that “if you can’t do, teach” has become “if you can’t flip a burger, teach. And make a hell of a lot more money doing it.”
Tell it to the teachers unions.
In MA, real estate values are directly tied to the quality of the public school systems. Affluent towns whose votes chose to have high real estate taxes and/or override Prop 2.5 and can afford to and choose to pay top salaries to recruit and keep the best teachers see property values soar and retain their value while the opposite is true in other towns. The home I live in cost nearly 3 times what it would cost in the town I grew up in (also in MA, a nice middle class town) but there is no comparison in the school systems. Particularly for students who are academically gifted or have special needs. Our public schools are better than or as good as many elite private schools. And we pay for this in real estate taxes and home costs. But every time I’m with other special needs parents I am acutely aware of the disparity of services provided to my special child in our town vs what other special children are getting in their public schools. Even as school budgets have been cut throughout the state, our town has not reduced services. And even though I have been able to afford to stay here – not an easy thing thru divorce and health issues – I firmly believe that it is morally wrong that all children in this country are not receiving a first-rate education in our public schools. Excellent public education should not be limited to the wealthiest communities. Until America gets our priorities straight in this regard we will continue to fall further and further behind other nations academically. And as for the colleges turning out unqualified teachers – 1/2 of all graduates graduated at the bottom 1/2 of their class. Those are the ones willing to work for a smaller paycheck.