Thanks to Talk Left, I read about THIS latest episode of stupidity and intolerance:
LAKEWOOD — A seventh-grade geography teacher at Carmody Middle School was suspended with pay today when he refused to take down three foreign flags on display in his classroom.
Eric Hamlin said the flags of China, Mexico and the United Nations were relevant to the unit on the fundamentals of geography he teaches during the first six weeks of the semester. He’s used the same display for most of the nine years he’s taught in Jefferson County, Hamlin said.
The foreign flags are in addition to the standard U.S. flag found in all classrooms.
Hamlin said principal John Schalk escorted him from the building Thursday before classes began. He was handed a letter saying the matter is under investigation and warning him to remain off school property.
Jeffco Public Schools spokeswoman Lynn Setzer said Schalk believed Hamlin was in violation of a state law on display of foreign flags on public property.
Schalk interprets the law as allowing foreign flags as part of a specific lesson, but not for the duration of the six-week unit.
Hamlin has more than 50 flags that he uses during the course of the year. He asks students to consider the symbolism different countries put on their flags, such as the stars and stripes on the U.S. flag.
Pretty threatening line-up there. Can you feel your American soul being sucked out and destroyed just gazing upon them? We might as well just wall ourselves off, if the world is this threatening to us. Sure hope the children have learned their lesson … the world is scary, and it’s better if you know nothing about it.
Unfrickenbelievable.
In a follow up interview in the Rocky Mountain News, Mr. Hamlin says:
“Since flags are symbols of a nation and the people who live in that nation, if a flag of a foreign nation in a geography class can’t be displayed, and only the U.S. flag can be displayed, we’re sending the message that America is number one, everything else is below that,” Hamlin said.
Well, exactly sir, don’t you GET it? We’re the best, number one, and they all hate us for our freedom, and because our flag is cooler. The principle hides behind some mealy-mouthed procedural point:
Setzer said Schalk believed Hamlin was in violation of a state law barring display of foreign flags on public property.
Schalk interprets the law as allowing display of foreign flags as part of a specific lesson, but not for the duration of a six-week unit, Setzer said.
Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said Hamlin could have removed the flags, then appealed the principal’s decision to higher administrators. By refusing to remove the flags, Hamlin was insubordinate, Stevenson said.
“He defied a direct, reasonable request from a principal. That’s what’s at issue here,” Stevenson said.
Direct, maybe, but I don’t think “reasonable” is a word that applies to that request. It turns out that he gave in and took down the flags the morning they escorted him out, but the principle apparently needed to demonstrate his authoratay to drive the point home. As for the idiotic jingoistic law this thing was based on:
The 2002 law bars the display of foreign flags on state buildings. Among the exceptions are foreign flags used as “part of a temporary display of any instructional or historical materials not permanently affixed or attached to any part of the buildings or grounds . . ..”
Mark Silverstein, the legal director of the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that exception would appear to cover Hamlin’s display.
Hamlin said he’s begun drafting a written request for ACLU representation.
“We’ll read the letter and decide what action, if any, to take,” Silverstein said.
Hamlin has more than 50 flags that he uses during the course of the year.
No wonder there are so many idiotic fundie churches in Lakewood, CO … the soil there seems ripe with bullshit, enabling stupidity to grow and flourish.
