Tacoma, Washington sixth grade technology teacher Brendan Stanton needs to be fired, but that’s only the beginning. His conduct needs to be widely publicized, and the consensus needs to emerge that the kind of conduct he engaged in…
1. Is unacceptable.
2. Is abusive
3. Is indoctrination rather than education
4. Is all too frequently allowed, enabled, and even surreptitiously encouraged in the educational system
5. Must stop.
Those who are inclined to defend Stanton should also be flushed out, condemned and declared to be what they are, and what they are is not reasonably disputable. They are deliberate enemies of American values and democracy. They should have a metaphorical red E, not on their chests, but their foreheads.
Now that all of that is out of the way, and I’ve had a stiff drink, here’s what Stanton did.
Each day, Stanton asks his remote learning students at Perry G. Keithley Middle School students a daily question, requiring students to write their answers in the online chatroom. According to a screenshot, one boy wrote:
“I admire Donald J. Trump because he is making America great again. And because he is the best president the United States of America could ever, ever have. And he built the wall so terrorists couldn’t come into in the U.S. Trump is the best person in the world. And that’s why I admire him.”
Can’t have American students professing admiration of the President of the United States now, noy when a virtuous and woke teacher runs the class! Stanton kicked the vile child t out of the chatroom, deleted what he wrote lest it corrupt others whose brains and opinions he was assiduously molding to his personal specifications, and proceeded to attack the President and the student.
Incidentally, according to Gallup’s annual poll, President Trump tied with Barack Obama in 2019 as the most admired man in America. Parenthetically, he wouldn’t make my top hundred (neither would Obama).
“The example that was shared in the chat, which I went ahead and erased for us, was not appropriate right?” Stanton told his class. Especially as that individual has created so much division and hatred between people and specifically spoken hatred to many different individuals, ok? Again, that individual has spoken hate to many individuals and I don’t think is an appropriate example for a role model that we should be admiring.”
Unfortunately for Stanton, he was busted, okay?
The boy’s mother, Elsy Kusander, entered the room to hear Stanton “berating the President” so she began recording what was being said on her phone. Kusander contacted Stanton to discuss the incident, and led him into what President Clinton’s defenders called a “perjury trap,” because he didn’t know she had made a recording.
Stanton claimed using President Trump wasn’t an appropriate answer because the question before the class was about “a computer programmer they admired” Students could name, he said, “someone from the community” if they couldn’t think of a programmer.
(Gee, who would I name as my most admired programmer? Such a wide range of options…)
The teacher also sought to blame another student who had been “offended” at the young Kusander’s answer. “I do try to keep politics out of the classroom… because students have different opinions, right?” Stanton told the mother.
Imagine his face…well, under the mask anyway… when she revealed, “I came into the room, and you were talking, I got my phone and I recorded part of your conversation. I clearly saw and recorded what you were saying…”
Here was Stanton’s huminahumina:
“I do apologize if my words were not perfect at the time. If I used… if I said that Trump was ‘hateful and divisive,’ that may have been what I used at the time, but my purpose was in bringing us back to the conversation of computer scientists and the positive role that they’ve played in our history.”
Three rationalization from the Ethics Alarms list!
- #19, The Perfection Diversion, or “Nobody’s Perfect!” and “Everybody makes mistakes!”
- #19A, The Insidious Confession, or “It wasn’t the best choice, and
- #64. Yoo’s Rationalization or “It isn’t what it is”
Then he offered to apologize to her son, saying that he “totally” respected him “and his opinion” as an individual. “I appreciate you having this conversation with me,” Stanton said.
I bet.
We now know beyond a reasonable doubt that Stanton is a liar, a toxic sufferer from Trump Derangement, an unprofessional teacher, and an untrustworthy one. He is also, based on his uncritical and standard Trump Derangement rhetoric, not very bright. How many other teachers like this infest that school? That school system? What administrators are enabling them? I salute Ms. Kusander for what she has done so far, bringing the story to the news media and nicely embarrassing the teacher. Still, it is not enough.
This needs to be fanned into a national conflagration. The mainstream media has to be made to explore it, because as we all know, they will bury the story if they report it at all. What happened to her son is not just a local incident, but the symptom of national and perhaps fatal national sickness. All parents need to be shaken out of their apathy and confront it.
Ethics Alarms 
Our grand daughter, then in sixth grade, was emotionally distraught about global warming a few years ago as a result of the baloney she was being forced fed at her school. This sort of stuff is just unacceptable.
Bill Joy
The only thing unique is this teacher was caught. My wife is in an administrative position at a public school. Since the return from summer she comes home highly frustrated. I would characterize her as a Trump hater but fully recognizing that the left / opposition / media have lost all touch with reality.
About 1/3 of the teachers are still rational and the rest have gone full Trump derangement. She now tells formerly reasonable people to cease and desist from any conversations about politics and current events.
This has been going on for years now. Why do people include a completely unrelated and completely gratuitous swipe at Trump in a casual email? When did that become permissible, even, evidently, laudable? It’s almost as if they’re saying, “Who goes there?” The sign of the cross must be made during any contact. “Alluha Akbar!” We both have to say, “Trump is horrible,” then we can begin to discus the weather. Bizarre.
I teach higher ed. I encourage political conversations so that students can fully see where they gather information, who to believe, to practice ethos/pathos/logos/kairos and critically think. I do not direct any agendas but allow them to learn respect and to foster conversations. Keeping kids from thinking about politics won’t allow them to engage in these big questions that will side-swipe them in the future.
The topic on the table here is making kids think a particular way about politics, right?
” I would characterize her as a Trump hater but fully recognizing that the left / opposition / media have lost all touch with reality.”
Matthew: I have a feeling that we are married to the same person… 🙂
I think you left out the best part:
“At Seattle’s Catharine Blaine K-8, one teacher taught students as young as 11-years-old to refer to a riot as an “uprising” and rioters as “freedom fighters.” A second grade teacher at Grove Elementary in Marysville pushed a shockingly anti-police video to students. In Gig Harbor, at Discovery Elementary, students were recommended a book instructing them to become Progressive activists.
Remember to talk to your children and ask them about what they’re learning. And don’t be too shy to record what you witness teachers saying to your kids if it’s inappropriate. If you don’t, the video from the classroom may not be uploaded as you expect.”
These eLearning sessions with parental involvement is dragging the political biases kids are spoon fed at every step of the educational process kicking and screaming into the disinfecting light of day.
I guess that’s some kind of silver lining, right?
That school district spends over $14k per student and has a 22% math proficiency to show for it , pathetic
A useful analogy to dealing with public education is how Flint Michigan finally began dealing with the lead contamination of the water supply.
They stopped using it until they correct the problem.
If Joe Biden is truthful about wanting to systemic injustice in public education he should immediately demand we give vouchers to every child and let the parents choose where they send their kids. I doubt he meant education justice meant free to choose.
2nd pg first line. . . .wanting to end systemic injustice in education. .
Well written Jack Marshall, thank you for your candor. Here is a quote from the school’s web site written by the principal.
“PRIDE stands for Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Dedication, and Empathy. As a student of PGK you will have the opportunity to act out PRIDE characteristic everyday. The more you act out PRIDE, the more PGK becomes a part of you!
Based on these beliefs, Brendan Stanton should be fired immediately because he lied. In addition, he is void of respect, integrity and empathy!
#64 needs to be moved to #1, it’s being used so much. Public trust is on mighty thin ice. People are pulling kids out daily.
https://coloradosun.com/2020/09/29/coronavirus-colorado-schools-enrollment/?fbclid=IwAR3n8DKc3-1fUzXt_Jzj87wMzGfRAVNwn9O566edWg5anLagnjK9vc3wCfQ
Well, GOOD.
You might want to look at the website whataretheylearnng.com where parents are reporting on their observations of virtual learning classes. I know I’m being a Pollyana , looking for a good outcome from the Covid lockdown (not acceptable for this ethics site) so I will simply point out that the issue is front and center among parents who care.
What % would that be, do you think?
And clearly in the category of “better late than never.” How long has this been going on?
So, a possible symptom of COVID-19 is a loss of the sense of smell. That made me think about a possible, pending irony of pending history…
I just finished reading about Jack’s latest enumerated Unethical Rationalization…
This teacher’s taking-of-advantage sent me down that rationalization road…
Someday, I predict, some apologist for socialism (or similar) is going to sneak an e-book in front of a few eyeballs – I picture the title: “Generation XY – When Enough of The ‘Woke’ Awakened to Smell the Shit They Had Been Shoveled.” It would be a continuation of the shit-shoveling, of course – a tutorial on yet another excuse for why the 21st century’s failed American experiment (with socialism) had, as usual, “become possible” – with that familiar “lesson learned” condescension.
I am glad I won’t be alive on earth in my current body to experience the consequences of today’s kids’ inevitable mass realization of how their “educators” beguiled and duped them. Maybe Generation XY will once again populate the (American) human race with a preponderance of real men.
I am going to re-post my comment above – with a little “tidying-up.” When I tried to post it last night, I could not get any confirmation that it went through – never saw it on either screen, whether I was logged in to WordPress or not. So I reviewed it this morning and re-worked it.
What Lucky the Eeyore really meant to say is…
So, a possible symptom of COVID-19 is loss of the sense of smell. That made me think about a possible pending irony of pending history…
Last night, I had just finished reading and pondering about Jack’s latest enumerated Unethical Rationalization, “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining,” aka Pollyanna’s Mantra.
And then, I read about so-called teacher Brendan Stanton. Stanton’s taking-of-advantage of the student who voiced approval of President Trump sent me down that Rationalization Road…
Someday, I predict, some “historian,” aka apologist for socialism, is going to sneak an e-book in front of a few eyeballs – I picture the title: “Generation XY – When Enough of The ‘Woke’ Awakened to Smell the Shit They Had Been Shoveled.”
The book will be a continuation of the shit-shoveling, of course. It will be yet another tutorial, dopesplaining yet another excuse for why the American experiment with socialism in the early 21st century AD (make that, the early third century “AM” – After Marx) had failed – or, as future socialist “historians” will likely put it, how the failed experiment “became possible.” (Of course, we know that socialism never fails. You see, the causes of the failure are always external to The Sacred Idea of socialism. Thus, as usual, the dopesplainer will fix blame for the failure on carefully selected scapegoats; all blaming will be fastidiously rationalized.)
I am just glad that I won’t be alive on earth in my current body to experience the consequences of today’s kids’ inevitable realization en masse of how their “educators” beguiled and duped them. Maybe Generation XY will once again populate the American psyche and society with a preponderance of real men. If I can’t hope, I may as well not think.
Found it in spam, Lucky—and I have no clue why it was there.
Thanks. It might be because I use more than one computer to post – and/or, while I try to avoid doing this, I am sure I have logged in at the same time using multiple computers – just speculating. (Translation: I am a breathing Dark Web target.)
The icing on the cake was that the teacher also tried to shame the mother into accepting his politics. He, according to one source, asked her, “We know that our neighbors at the southern border are not all terrorists, right?” That’s when the mother revealed that she was from Honduras and was very strongly against illegal immigration.
Brendan Stanton, a middle school teacher at P.G. Keithley Middle School, should be fired and his license should removed by the state. Clowns like this discuss “hatred” when they are the ones demonstrating it everyday while on the public payroll.