Alabama High School Teacher Uses Obama Assassination As Classroom Example

In a high school geometry class, parallel lines and angles intersected with talk of presidential assassination Monday, when an Alabama teacher used an unfortunate hypothetical as a classroom example.

"He was talking about angles and said, 'If you're in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president,'" said Joseph Brown, a senior in the Corner High School geometry class, according to the Birmingham News.

The Secret Service went to the Jefferson County high school to investigate the matter after someone informed them about the statement. (The unnamed teacher was neither arrested nor charged with a crime).

"We did not find a credible threat," Roy Sex­ton, special agent in charge of Birmingham's Secret Service office, told the News. "As far as the Secret Service is concerned, we looked into it, we talked to the gentleman and we have closed our investigation."

According to district Superintendent Phil Hammonds, the teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave and may face eventual termination.

"As a district, we are embarrassed by his actions and what he said," Hammonds told the News. "There is nothing that can be said to rationalize what was said. We take this very seriously. There is no place in our society for a person to make these comments."

Comments

[Sethjj1975]

09:24 PM on 06/11/2010

It IS Alabama. Hardly surprising.

[Rooster Coburn]

12:53 PM on 05/28/2010

Gee, I had no idea geometry could be so controversial with lib-er-als!

[greenlass]

11:48 AM on 05/28/2010

This is disgusting. This institutionalized hatred of President Obama is outrageous and extremely dangerous. Even with the teacher gone, the damage is done to the students. I cannot believe a person would even DARE to do something like this! You cannot tell me that this is not a tacit endorsement of killing the President. I try hard not to be a hater, but this stuff keeps happening - like when guys show up with assault weapons where Obama speaks, or at rallies - and all I can think is these hicks are out of control!
I think Obama should wear a bullet proof vest whenever he steps out of the White House - the ugliness and the threat of violence is too real.

At the very least, the teacher should be summarily dismissed. In front of the whole school.

[Rooster Coburn]

12:55 PM on 05/28/2010

O.K., gotcha, just don't teach 'em geometry then!

[WhitneyKyle]

09:31 AM on 05/20/2010

What the teacher did was deplorable. I wonder, under similar circumstances how would I have reacted to this situation, the bullying of a special needs child. Maybe the same.
What is lacking that allowed this level of mayhem to occur in a school? One can't say its the recession and cuts, this has been going on for a long time, even back in the 90's heyday of Clinton prosperity.
The kid says his teacher should go to jail. Maybe, but probably not if I were on the jury. What injuries did this kid suffer? Why was't the kid asked what should be done about his behavior? If the kid is a hitter and bully, perhaps this kid's parents should be under fire as well. What happens when this kid grows up?
I'm just saying...

[vta]

08:36 AM on 05/20/2010

It's worse - there's even a facebook group - please join and talk some sense into these people:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=128073510537624&ref=ts

[vta]

08:24 AM on 05/20/2010

I live in the general geograhpic region where these events took place. It's unbelievable the amount of support this yahoo has. People are actually trying to make a free speech issue out of it rather than the recognize that at the very least it demostrates a serious lack of control and judgment. PLEASE, for the love of all that is holy, call the Jefferson County, Alabama school board and get this guy out of the classroom. Phone number is 205-379-2000. Superintendent is Phil Hammond.

[skepticalbrotha]

09:03 AM on 05/20/2010

Stuff like this is why I contend that Artur Davis has absolutely no chance of being elected Governor of Alabama.

[vta]

09:10 AM on 05/20/2010

I SO promise there are sane people here. Please call the school board, get on that facebook page - anything you can do....I'm begging....

[ohiomark]

08:18 AM on 05/20/2010

Books were written, a movie was produced and jokes were aired about the assasination of George W. Bush and those on the left called it "art".

Granted, that any suggestion of the assasination of a President is inappropriate, but let's not have a double standard here.

[FR]

12:00 PM on 05/20/2010

Let's not, indeed.

The movie was British and hardly well-received by ALL the left. Some reviewers were not left at all, some thought it was fascinating political drama, not partisan "suggestions." There have been plenty of movies where presidential assassination is a plot device. This one happened to take a specific president. I guess they thought the context of 9/11 and other events made for more drama.

The movie is hardly a "how-to" exercise, which is what the math exercise boils down to, whatever the genius intended. So really, let's compare apples to apples.

I was unable to find the books you mentioned, but I did run into blogs claiming, with great fanfare but little actual citations, that the left was always shopping this topic. What were these books, and were they suggestions/ how-to exercises?

I don't know how the jokes stack up. I do feel some nowadays are not meant as jokes.

Please note: most people on this blog who protested the "math problem" explicitly said they'd would object to it for ANY president. So would I.

But SOME day, we might just start to think about the entire picture honestly -- and wonder if there is a difference, just a teeny one, and whether there are bigger issues involved, just a few, when the president is the first non-white president of the U.S.

Let's not have double standards.
But let's also wonder if the situations are absolutely "the same."

[FR]

06:28 AM on 05/20/2010

ENOUGH with the "it was just an example" or "just a math problem."
Doesn't anyone ever see context or content anymore?

Of course it was just that, that doesn't make it intelligent or remotely acceptable.
Want a "rifle-problem" for your geometry class? Then shoot at aluminium cans or rattlesnakes, not at presidents.

Let's see, how acceptable are these " just examples" ...?

Shoot the pregnant lady Bonus point for hitting the baby.
Shoot the guy with all the teabags on his hat.
Shoot the classmate.

What? they're just generic examples, in fact MUCH more generic than The president.
Yeah, I didn't think so either.

[WeAreTheWorld]

11:20 PM on 05/19/2010

I'd rather have this guy teaching my children than Shari Lynn Davis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te2QIwLQouw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im483ptyazI

[twinite]

11:06 PM on 05/19/2010

.....and if you aim straight down, you shoot yourself in the foot. What a disgusting "example". I certainly hope he doesn't remain unnamed for too long.

[december30]

10:02 PM on 05/19/2010

I have said it oh so many times on HP. The election of Barack Obama really stirred the racists pots. It is so unbelievable already.

[joyce628]

06:30 PM on 05/19/2010

"So a man thinketh so is he". This teacher should be disciplined. I am tired of the total disrespect for president Obama and the office of the presidency. Enough is enough already.

[twhiting9275]

07:04 PM on 05/19/2010

Yet throwing a shoe at Bush is ok? Come, come now.
The example was just that, an example. CERTAINLY not the best example, but it was still an example that will be remembered for quite some time.

[jamaicalover]

07:16 PM on 05/19/2010

Was that done in America?

[joyce628]

07:50 PM on 05/19/2010

I am not a Bush fan, but when I saw that Iraqi journaoist throwing his shoe at president Bush, I took offence to the guy attacking the president of the USA. It was not ok then nor is it ok now. I am not blinded by party politics that I cannot think intelligently and do what is right, especially for the country on the whole.

[citizen1787]

06:26 PM on 05/19/2010

fire the teacher!

[twhiting9275]

06:26 PM on 05/19/2010

An "example" is not a plan to do this. While I agree the example was pushed a bit too far, this example isn't worthy of calling someone a "racist", a "bigot", or anything else. The man was using a real life example (although a very poor one) to demonstrate geometry. I, for one, am proud of his attempt to make the classroom real. While I don't support the example 100%, it's clear that he seriously just wanted to use an example here.

[AverageJill]

06:52 PM on 05/19/2010

There's nothing to be proud of here. He could have had the hypothetical as shooting at a can, or at worst, a deer. Never, never explain math with an example of violence against any person, much less a well known one.

[twhiting9275]

07:02 PM on 05/19/2010

Like I said, it was definitely not a great example, however it got the class involved. In fact, it did so much that some of them reported it. That example will definitely be remembered for a few years, and the story will probably be told to a few kids, etc.

The hard part of teaching is getting the student to involve themselves with, or to care about, the curriculum. In this case, I'd say the teacher did well above and beyond. A better example? Absolutely. Maybe he should have used a dummy as an example, but that wouldn't have hit it home as well as the one he used.

[jamaicalover]

07:20 PM on 05/19/2010

By what logic are you defending this?

[garymc8]

06:26 PM on 05/19/2010

Little PIGGIES never got over having their @$$e$ kicked in the civil war. Still want the black/brown man to do all their work.

[emilyy]

06:32 PM on 05/19/2010

bahaha. you're stupid.

[FR]

06:32 AM on 05/20/2010

Actually, s/he may right.
You, on the other hand, are just calling names.