In case you hadn't heard the audio of the exchange between the student and teacher, here it is:
This is a disgusting example of what is going on in the country's classrooms. The student involved has said that he decided to record the class because this is typical of this teacher and he wanted to expose it. It is shocking to know who has control of our children several hours a day. Apparently this teacher either doesn't know the 1st Amendment or feels it doesn't apply to anyone that speaks out against Obama.
This
teacher needs to be FIRED, NOT suspended WITH pay. If you agree,
contact information for officials of the school and school district are
at the bottom of the post....let them hear from you.
UPDATE: Angry high school teacher suspended with pay for preventing students from ‘disrespecting’ Obama
SPENCER, N.C. – Talking bad about President Barrack Obama is against the law, and you can be arrested.
That’s
what a North Carolina teacher angrily told her students during a recent
classroom discussion about bullying, politics and the presidential
election.
Audio from a cellular phone recording
captured North Rowan High School social studies teacher Tanya
Dixon-Neely in a heated discussion with students regarding allegations
that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney bullied fellow
students during his high school years.
A defiant student in the class claimed that President Obama has also
admitted to bullying, and that’s when the teacher lost her temper and
any sense of objectivity.
“Stop! Stop! Stop! He is a wonderful president. Obama is the
president,” Dixon-Neely is heard screaming. “He is due the respect that
every other president is due.”
The student was not swayed. He argued that it’s fair to criticize
Romney and Obama, since both are candidates in the 2012 election.
“If you are going to talk trash about one side, you have got to talk trash about the other,” he says.
The teacher fired back with misinformation, claiming Obama enjoys special legal protections due of his status as president.
“Let me tell you something, you have to realize that this man wants
to become what Obama already is. There is no comparison,” Dixon-Neely
said. “You cannot disrespect the president of the United States.”
Both Romney and Obama are men, and should be scrutinized equally, the student persisted.
“Obama is not God. He is still a man,” the boy said.
The thin veil covering the teacher’s personal preference for Obama then flew out the window.
“You will not disrespect the president of the United States in this
classroom,” the Dixon-Neely exclaims. “As a teacher I’m not supposed to
allow people to disrespect the president of the United States. I’m not.
You can have different beliefs, but you will not disrespect him in
here.”
She tells her students that criticizing Obama equates to slander, and they can be arrested if they speak ill of the president.
“You are not supposed to slander. I’m saying to you, you are not
supposed to slander,” Dixon-Neely said. “People were arrested for saying
derogatory things against (President) Bush.”
“As a social studies teacher I cannot allow you to slander any president in here, past or current,” the teacher said.
The student then reminds the teacher that criticizing Obama isn’t
illegal, and preventing him from doing so violates his First Amendment
right to free speech.
The cell phone footage of the argument has been viewed on YouTube
over 167,000 times over the weekend. Officials in the Rowan-Salisbury
School System suspended the teacher with pay today amid a district
investigation, according to the SalisburyPost.com.
District spokeswoman Rita Foil told the news site that “this incident
should serve as an education for all teachers to stop and reflect on
their interaction with students,” then declined further comment.
Catawba College political science professor Michael Bitzer told the
Post it seems obvious that the teacher’s affinity for Obama overshadowed
the facts.
“Her point about not being able to say anything ‘disrespectful’ about
the president does fly in the face of the First Amendment, and while
she may wish to enforce that edict about ‘respecting’ the president, the
issue seems to have gotten personal on her part,” Bitzer wrote to the Post.
“Her belief (about the ramifications) if one slanders the president
isn’t very accurate – if you ‘threaten’ the president, that is another
story, and that is a criminal offense,” Bitzer wrote.
CONTACT INFORMATION...PLEASE LET THEM HEAR FROM YOU.
Tanya Dixon-Neely teaches at North Rowan High School, which serves grades 9-12 in the Rowan-Salisbury Schools district. Based on its state test results, the school has received a GreatSchools Ratingof only 2 out of 10.
The school’s principal: Mr. Darrell McDowell North Rowan High School
300 N Whitehead Ave
Spencer, NC 28159
PHONE: (704) 636-4420
FAX: (704) 639-3033
Superintendent of Rowan-Salisbury school district: Dr. Judy Grissom
PO Box 2349, Salisbury, NC 28145
Phone: 704-630-6102
We are at a critical time in American's history.. We as citizens have
the responsibility to stand up for the principles of freedom that made
our country great. This is inspired by the book, "The 5000 Year Leap"
written by Cleon Skousen.
“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?” — George Washington
Discover the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Founding
Fathers which they said must be understood and perpetuated by every
people who desired peace, prosperity, and freedom.
These beliefs have made possible more progress in 200 years than was made previously in over 5,000 years. Thus the title "The 5,000 Year Leap".
The following is a brief overview of the principles found in The 5,000 Year Leap, and one chapter is devoted to each of these 28 principles.
Principle 1 - The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.
Natural law is God's law. There are certain
laws which govern the entire universe, and just as Thomas Jefferson
said in the Declaration of Independence, there are laws which govern in
the affairs of men which are "the laws of nature and of nature's God."
Principle 2 - A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.
"Only a virtuous people are capable of
freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of
masters." - Benjamin Franklin
Principle 3 - The most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.
"Neither the wisest constitution nor the
wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose
manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to
the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who
... will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and
trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." - Samuel Adams
Principle 4 - Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.
"Of all the dispositions and habits which
lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable
supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that
morality can be maintained without religion." - George Washington
Principle 5 - All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent, and to him they are equally responsible .
The American Founding Fathers considered
the existence of the Creator as the most fundamental premise underlying
all self-evident truth. They felt a person who boasted he or she was an
atheist had just simply failed to apply his or her divine capacity for
reason and observation.
Principle 6 - All mankind were created equal.
The Founders knew that in these three ways, all mankind are theoretically treated as:
Equal before God.
Equal before the law.
Equal in their rights.
Principle 7 - The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.
The Founders recognized that the people
cannot delegate to their government any power except that which they
have the lawful right to exercise themselves.
Principle 8 - Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights.
"Those rights, then, which God and nature
have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are
life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually
invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any
additional strength when declared by the municipal [or state] laws to be
inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislation has power to abridge
or destroy them, unless the owner [of the right] shall himself commit
some act that amounts to a forfeiture." - William Blackstone
Principle 9 - To protect human rights, God has revealed a code of divine law.
"The doctrines thus delivered we call the
revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the Holy
Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found by comparison to be
really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their
consequences to man's felicity." - William Blackstone
Principle 10 - The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.
"The fabric of American empire ought to
rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of
national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original
fountain of all legislative authority." - Alexander Hamilton
Principle 11 - The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes ... but when a long train of abuses and usurpations ...
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide
new guards for their future security." - Thomas Jefferson in the
Declaration of Independence
Principle 12 - The United States of America shall be a republic.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the republic for which it stands...."
Principle 13 - A Constitution should protect the people from the frailties of their rulers.
"If angels were to govern men, neither
external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.... [But
lacking these] you must first enable the government to control the
governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." - James
Madison
Principle 14 - Life and liberty are secure only so long as the rights of property are secure .
John Locke reasoned that God gave the earth
and everything in it to the whole human family as a gift. Therefore the
land, the sea, the acorns in the forest, the deer feeding in the meadow
belong to everyone "in common." However, the moment someone takes the
trouble to change something from its original state of nature, that
person has added his ingenuity or labor to make that change. Herein lies
the secret to the origin of "property rights."
Principle 15 - The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a minimum of government regulations.
Prosperity depends upon a climate of wholesome stimulation with four basic freedoms in operation:
The Freedom to try.
The Freedom to buy.
The Freedom to sell.
The Freedom to fail.
Principle 16 - The government should be separated into three branches .
"I call you to witness that I was the first
member of the Congress who ventured to come out in public, as I did in
January 1776, in my Thoughts on Government ... in favor of a government
with three branches and an independent judiciary. This pamphlet, you
know, was very unpopular. No man appeared in public to support it but
yourself." - John Adams
Principle 17 - A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power by the different branches of government.
"It will not be denied that power is of an
encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from
passing the limits assigned to it." - James Madison
Principle 18 - The
unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the
principles of government are set forth in a written Constitution.
The structure of the American system is set
forth in the Constitution of the United States and the only weaknesses
which have appeared are those which were allowed to creep in despite the
Constitution.
Principle 19 - Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by the people.
The Tenth Amendment is the most widely
violated provision of the bill of rights. If it had been respected and
enforced America would be an amazingly different country than it is
today. This amendment provides:
"The powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Principle 20 - Efficiency
and dispatch require that the government operate according to the will
of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect
the rights of the minority.
"Every man, by consenting with others to
make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an
obligation to every one of that society to submit to the determination
of the majority, and to be concluded [bound] by it." - John Locke
Principle 21 - Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.
"The way to have good and safe government
is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many,
distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent [to
perform best]. - Thomas Jefferson
Principle 22 - A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.
"The end of law is not to abolish or
restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of
created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no
freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence of
others, which cannot be where there is no law." - John Locke
Principle 23 - A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.
"They made an early provision by law that
every town consisting of so many families should be always furnished
with a grammar school. They made it a crime for such a town to be
destitute of a grammar schoolmaster for a few months, and subjected it
to a heavy penalty. So that the education of all ranks of people was
made the care and expense of the public, in a manner that I believe has
been unknown to any other people, ancient or modern. The consequences of
these establishments we see and feel every day [written in 1765]. A
native of America who cannot read and write is as rare ... as a comet or
an earthquake." John Adams
Principle 24 - A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." - George Washington
Principle 25 - "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none."- Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address.
Principle 26 - The core
unit which determines the strength of any society is the family;
therefore the government should foster and protect its integrity.
"There is certainly no country in the world
where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America, or where
conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated." Alexis de
Tocqueville
Principle 27 - The burden of debt is as destructive to human freedom as subjugation by conquest.
"We are bound to defray expenses [of the
war] within our own time, and are unauthorized to burden posterity with
them.... We shall all consider ourselves morally bound to pay them
ourselves and consequently within the life [expectancy] of the
majority." - Thomas Jefferson
Principle 28 - The
United States has a manifest destiny to eventually become a glorious
example of God's law under a restored Constitution that will inspire the
entire human race.
The Founders sensed from the very beginning
that they were on a divine mission. Their great disappointment was that
it didn't all come to pass in their day, but they knew that someday it
would. John Adams wrote:
"I always consider the settlement of
America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and
design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the
emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."
General Motors is becoming China Motors. Forget the spin. The evidence
is clear and convincing. Did U.S. taxpayers save GM for China? Listen to
the candid comments of GM's CEO.
"This blog or any content... on my facebook site may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit. This blog does not always agree with certain personal views of the published authors, but I will overlook such views many times in order to gain knowledge from the more important subject matter of the article/op-ed."
SPENCER, N.C. – Talking bad about President Barrack Obama is against the law, and you can be arrested.
