Kentucky Teacher Removed For Burning Flag In Class
Posted on August 22, 2006
There is quite a lot of controversy going on at one Kentucky school.
A middle school teacher in Louisville has been removed from the classroom after burning two American flags in class as part of a civics lesson.
Dan Holden, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Stuart Middle School, burned two flags Friday as part of a lesson on freedom of speech, said Jefferson County schools spokeswoman Lauren Roberts said.
The students were asked to write an opinion paper on the flag burning, Roberts said.
Holden, a teacher in the school district since 1979, has been reassigned to non-instructional duties while the incident is under investigation.
Roberts said the flag burning did not appear to be politically motivated, based on an interview with Holden.
The district also alerted city fire officials.
“Certainly we’re concerned about the safety aspect,” Roberts said, along with “the judgment of using that type of demonstration in a class.”
Pat Summers, whose daughter was in Holden’s class, told The Courier-Journal of Louisville that more than 20 parents showed up at the school Monday, upset over the incident
“She said, ‘Our teacher burned a flag.’ I’m like, ‘What?”‘ Summers said.
Of course some of you are saying that flag burning is protected by the First amendment. This may be true, but teachers are not supposed to take sides when teaching these controversial issues. If this teacher only burned the flag as an illustration to the issue the law may be on his side, but I don’t see why this would be necessary to actually physically burn the flag in class to teach such a lesson. What kind of response did this man expect if not outrage and controversy? There is also the issue of safety which is the school’s main concern. If this teacher finds it absolutely necessary to gain the contempt of his students and their parents by burning our flag during class, he could at least take the “illustration” outdoors.
Of course the ACLU are “watching this closely.”
Beth Wilson, director of Kentucky’s American Civil Liberties Union, said the school district is allowed to decide what’s instructionally appropriate.
But “if a school is masking their objections to flag burning under the guise of safety, it raises questions about freedom of speech and academic freedom,” she said. She said the ACLU would monitor the case but is not involved at this point.
Regardless of the ACLU’s concerns, the majority of these children are quite disturbed by their teacher’s questionable “illustration.”
Stuart sixth-grader Kelsey Adwell, 11, said students were abuzz about the incident on Monday.
“They just can’t believe that a teacher would do that - burn two American flags in front of the class,” she said. “A teacher shouldn’t do that, even though it was an example.”
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, News
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6 Responses to “Kentucky Teacher Removed For Burning Flag In Class”
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Of course, the teacher has been put on ‘non-teaching duties’ because you can’t just FIRE a teacher…
From what I can tell, you’re completely against the First Amendment except when it favors one of your tenous positions. Then it’s rah-rah-rah. What if the teacher had exercised his right to free speech by reading from the Bible for an entire class period?
Point being, what is desirable and what is permissble don’t always match up. Get used to it.
Oops…should have been “tenuous” and “permissible.” I suck at this.
I think you missed the point. I never said he didn’t have the right to burn the flag. I just said I think it was stupid on his part and unsafe to do indoors for sure. If he would have read the Bible to the students for the entire class for the purpose of indoctrination I would be against it. If an outside group were to come in and speak or read the Bible, I wouldn’t have a problem as long as equal access was given to other groups with different views.
And if he chose a side in a controversial political position to the point of emphasising it without showing the other side…this would also be indoctrination. When he is teaching children his speech is limited. He can’t indoctrinate.
I’m not saying he was indoctrinating here. I just think his choice was stupid.
Currently it is not illegal to burn the flag. If he discussed the pros and cons of banning flag burning it would be fine with me.
To me the safety issue is huge. Lighting something on fire could have started a much larger fire. Depending on the school’s fire protection such as fire walls, sprinklers, etc at the very minimum it could have caused major smoke and water damage from fire hoses or sprinklers. At the worst a large fire could have started possibly causing injury or death to students, teachers, or fire and police. If anything he should be charged with reckless endangerment.
That said, there may very well be a few things that you can learn by studying the training and diet strategies of the most successful natural bodybuilders and physique competitors.