teacher's t-shirt makes me deeply uncomfortable...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers shouldn’t be wearing political shirts

Say what?

I wear all kinds of shirts in favor of BLM, LGBTQ rights etc. Luckily I teach in DC at a school that has a mission that aligns with my views and so yes, I am allowed to wear "political" shirts. I wouldn't teach if I wasn't allowed to teach my kids about equal rights and justice. What then would be the point of education? If not to liberate.

Ok but BLM and LGBTQ are not political issues. It's human rights issues. War between two countries could be viewed more as political.

Both of these are ABSOLUTELY political issues, and neither should be being pushed in government schools.

[Anonymous]

Email the administration, put it in writing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I want to be clear that I'm not trying to "cancel" anyone. I Googled the teacher before school began and it seems that they are outspoken about social justice in general. Great - no problem. Richard Medhurst has a vast Internet presence, so I doubt the teacher is getting their news from RT. I'd just like to know if they happened upon one or two Medhurst pocasts/shows/articles that spoke to their particular values and bought the t-shirt, or if they actually subscribe to his his whole suite of beliefs. Because Medhurst is a propagandist - and also, apparently, an accused abuser of women and groomer of underage girls.
https://medium.com/@precious_sheen_dog_960/richard-medhurst-another-cog-in-the-pedo-to-political-journalist-pipeline-17e6af3be867

Silver lining: now you know. I would have a lot of questions about the social studies curriculum and how class participation gets graded. If the teacher is such a fan that they are literally wearing the t-shirt, this is an entirely fair question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I want to be clear that I'm not trying to "cancel" anyone. I Googled the teacher before school began and it seems that they are outspoken about social justice in general. Great - no problem. Richard Medhurst has a vast Internet presence, so I doubt the teacher is getting their news from RT. I'd just like to know if they happened upon one or two Medhurst pocasts/shows/articles that spoke to their particular values and bought the t-shirt, or if they actually subscribe to his his whole suite of beliefs. Because Medhurst is a propagandist - and also, apparently, an accused abuser of women and groomer of underage girls.
https://medium.com/@precious_sheen_dog_960/richard-medhurst-another-cog-in-the-pedo-to-political-journalist-pipeline-17e6af3be867

In the good old days (like maybe 2009), the shirt would have served to start a conversation between the teacher and parent and, in turn, resulted in both being better informed about the world they live in and those that inhabit it and made them both better people. Now, anything anyone says, does, wears is just grist for calls to summon the cyber-hordes and ruin the lives of those with which we might potentially disagree about something. Please, have a chat with the teacher. Inevitably, you will find out you have much more in common with them than you possibly could have imagined.

[Anonymous]

I am Jewish. I support Israel and I support the Palestinians. I am not tribal in that I understand the problems here, and, no supporting Judaism and Israel does not mean my empathy towards the Palestinians and the anger towards Israeli policy is anti Semitic. I expect my fellow Jews to consider "repairing the world" Tikkun Olam.

Your teacher isn't antisemitic. But ..what are you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Email the administration, put it in writing.

Definitely do this! You will be creating a written record you are THAT parent.

Email them today!

[Anonymous]

Was the logo just the RM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was the logo just the RM?

Sounds like it.

OP seems to really hates the teacher and is reaching for any legitimate reason to get mad at her. People weren’t buying the far fetched vague antisemitism, so she pivoted to sexual predator. I’m kind of curious what this teacher did in the first few days of school to get OP so hyper focused on taking her down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers need to be careful not to offend. You will offend many Jews if you wear a pro-Palestine shirt. So why wear it? Save it for when you aren’t at school on the job.

What about religious paraphernalia? Cross necklaces/emblams? Stars of David? Crescent moons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers need to be careful not to offend. You will offend many Jews if you wear a pro-Palestine shirt. So why wear it? Save it for when you aren’t at school on the job.

What about religious paraphernalia? Cross necklaces/emblams? Stars of David? Crescent moons?

What about it? Get it all out of public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I want to be clear that I'm not trying to "cancel" anyone. I Googled the teacher before school began and it seems that they are outspoken about social justice in general. Great - no problem. Richard Medhurst has a vast Internet presence, so I doubt the teacher is getting their news from RT. I'd just like to know if they happened upon one or two Medhurst pocasts/shows/articles that spoke to their particular values and bought the t-shirt, or if they actually subscribe to his his whole suite of beliefs. Because Medhurst is a propagandist - and also, apparently, an accused abuser of women and groomer of underage girls.
https://medium.com/@precious_sheen_dog_960/richard-medhurst-another-cog-in-the-pedo-to-political-journalist-pipeline-17e6af3be867

In the good old days (like maybe 2009), the shirt would have served to start a conversation between the teacher and parent and, in turn, resulted in both being better informed about the world they live in and those that inhabit it and made them both better people. Now, anything anyone says, does, wears is just grist for calls to summon the cyber-hordes and ruin the lives of those with which we might potentially disagree about something. Please, have a chat with the teacher. Inevitably, you will find out you have much more in common with them than you possibly could have imagined.

OP here. This would be my hope, if I was to bring it up - with the teacher, not the school administrator. I had no intention of speaking to anyone's boss. I have only met the teacher a couple of times at this point but I like them well enough and their experience suggests that they are a good educator.

My concern is that Richard Medhurst seems to be sort of an Alex Jones-type figure, and I would definitely be concerned if my kid's teacher showed up in an Alex Jones shirt. To me, that's literally wearing an ideology on your sleeve. I would question the teacher's judgment.

[Anonymous]

OP, you deleted the ISRAELI comedy sketch video? Really?

Did you think that was antisemitic too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you deleted the ISRAELI comedy sketch video? Really?

Did you think that was antisemitic too?

Op here, I haven't reported or deleted anything in this thread, and I disagree with anything being deleted from this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should not wear clothing that says anything. I don’t care if a t-shirt says “BLM”, “KKK”, “Support Israel”, “Trump”, “Biden”, “Yankees”, “Love”, or “Candy is Sweet“. None of it is appropriate.

Totally agree. I’m surprised this is even a question for some people.

I had a parent who wore a “I hate you” shirt everyday at pickup. At my old school a parent wore a “F*ck Y*u” shirt on a field trip. But yes my Love shirt is sending the wrong message. We surely don’t want more Love in this world.

Forgot to mention. There were zero asterisks on the shirt and this was 3rd grade. You know where kids can read

I actually find that kind of hilarious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a shirt for the podcast or YouTube channel or something of Richard Medhurst.

OP here - this was me. Richard Medhurst. He's not a real journalist.

Sorry, I really don't see what the issue is. People are allowed to support Palestine. Including your child's teacher.

Hmmm... I don't really have an opinion on what OP's kid's teacher wears, but I think it's important to draw some distinctions here.

1. Support for Palestine is not anti-Semitic. BDS is not anti-Semitic. Criticism of Israeli policy (or even the Zionist colonialist project of founding a state populated largely by Europeans in Palestine by displacing indigenous inhabitants) is not anti-Semitic.

2. Some criticism of Israel is motivated by anti-Semitism, but by no means all. Some anti-Semites are even pro-Israel (I don't understand it, but I've experienced this).

3. At this point Israel is an extremely corrupt state willing to deal with lots of unsavory people, spy on allies and commit shocking attrocities. It is exactly most Arab states and all superpowers in that regard. There is a lot to criticize about Israel.

4. Russia and China have large-scale and sophisticated disinformation campaigns that include funding and supporting both anti-Semites and critics of Israel (as well as Nazis, the Klan, Q-anon, anti-Vaxxers and all sorts of other kooks and scum).

5. Richard Medhurst seems to be a more extreme Glenn Greenwald-style Russian/Syrian stooge. I would not want my kid trying to learn anything from someone touting his brand of extremism. Although many of the things he says are true, his ideological framework is clearly in the idealogue/stooge category.