Take a look at this photo taken inside a classroom in Penfield, NY. Bob Lonsberry brought this to the attention of X (Twitter) saying, “This is the real reason they don't want your kids to have phones in school.” Lonsberry is a conservative talk show host on WHAM radio and WSYR radio out of the Rochester area and a well-known regional personality.
Tasha Potter, Ed.D., Superintendent of Penfield Schools, said this was all taken out of context. Essentially, nothing to see here – move on. You can see for yourself. Is this as simple as “taken out of context”?
Superintendent Potter said to the District’s families, “We want you to know that the words on the chalkboard were taken out of context and stemmed from two different lessons in two different classes. The first word ‘republican’s’ was written on the board during a lesson on the use of possessives. The remaining words were written on the board during a lesson about word choice.”
It might be true, as the Superintendent says, that the words were part of two different lessons, ‘possessives’ and ‘word choice’, but it is also true that the teacher – and more importantly the students – could clearly see the first word on the board - ‘Republican’s’.
While the Superintendent’s explanation of the word ‘Republican’s' being used as an example of a possessive word does hold water, that it is accidental that the next three words “Repulsive, Nauseating, and Disgusting” were written just below 'Republican’s' holds no water at all. None.
Potter goes on to say, “While it is unfortunate that these words ended up on the board together, there was never any discussion during class about political parties and whether or not they are good or bad. I want to make it clear that as a district, we do not discuss or criticize anyone for his or her political beliefs. Although there was no ill intention, we acknowledge that seeing these words together and out of context may have harmed and upset some students and families. “
It seems unlikely that absent any prompting from the teacher and the presence of the word “Republican’s” already on the board that every other word in the next lesson would be so negatively charged. Those aren’t the kinds of descriptive words that most people think of right away – let alone teenagers in a lesson on “word choice”. The normal course of thinking and speaking would likely have most people saying neutral or more positive words.
A study conducted by Verdant Labs that looked at the Republican-democrat divide based on job type showed that among English teachers, there are 97 Democrats for every three Republicans. There are slightly more Republicans among math and science teachers and in high school teachers overall, there are 87 Democrats for every 13 Republicans.
South Shore Press (SSP) had a conversation with Gerry Kassar, Chairman of the New York State Conservative Party about the effects of political parties and ideologies overtaking public education.
SSP: What do you think about the defense of “out of context” from the school superintendent?
Kassar: They play us for jerks and secondly they are doing a disservice because anyone could see through the ridiculousness of that statement (from the superintendent). It's actually very sad, very sad.
SSP: Does it surprise you to see something like this so openly displayed in the classroom of a public school?
Kassar: I'm not surprised that the teacher ran an exercise like this prompting these types of responses from students. But, the superintendent’s explanation that this is taken out of context and purely accidental is just - It's like, what do you take me for already? It's not actually unusual in the liberal-to-progressive world that seems to have grown out of Higher education establishments teaching ‘Teaching’ to get a result like this in the classroom.
SSP: So, you think this all begins at the university level, where the leftist ideology is taught and rewarded, even enforced?
Kassar: I think that's some part of it. The most leftist part of the of the higher education system is the area where many of the individuals are working towards their teaching degrees. These people are very comfortable with these views. Frankly, I believe a person can have any view they want, but they cannot be un-professional and communicate those views to a young audience – their students.
SSP: We see this play out not just in lower-grade classrooms, but on college campuses.
Kassar: We’ve heard from those college presidents in recent months, that all resigned, how things are being taken out of context, right? When you close down Columbia University for purposes of demonstrating against the United States and against and against Jewish students on behalf of Palestine, that’s not taken out of context. That is that is not something that is a simple free speech item like some of them portrayed it to be in their testimony in front of Congress.
And, the general public did not agree with any of these college presidents. The average person knows what they saw. Maybe these Ivy League students learned a lesson? Maybe some sort of logic and common sense does eventually prevail in people? Everybody eventually understands that when they get past college and they had to get a job, right, right?
SSP: No matter what these college presidents said or what the protesting students said, when companies started saying they would not hire young people who had protested to kill all the Jews, that seemed to make a difference to some.
Kassar: Let me let me just say this, the expression ‘pupil’ for the younger kids is designed to indicate the kids look through their pupils. They take it all in, right. Right through their eyes. The word ‘student’, which is for an older group, is based on the idea that they study the commentary.
What you're talking about here, in this school where the picture was taken, really falls into the pupil category more than the student category. Many teachers understand that they are really just working their thought processes into younger people's minds. Maybe it’s not intentional indoctrination, but they are professionals that have a code to work under and they are not supposed to break that code by telling or prompting students what to think or encouraging political positions.
Many of them, not all of them, absolutely not all of them, but many of them have an attitude and a position objective in mind with these young people and they are working towards their objectives. It is extraordinarily sad when you have a superintendent, or any management level individual, make excuses like happened here?