A few days ago, I wrote of a Texas elementary school teacher, who, in response to the police officer abusing black teens in McKinney, suggested that the reinstitution of segregation might be a good thing.
I just learned that this teacher, Karen Fitzgibbons, has been fired.
I invented a device that makes you read this in your head using my voice!
My first reaction is that the Professor Farnsworth quote, “Good News, Everyone.”
Certainly, I don’t want any children taught by an open racist, which Ms. Fitzgibbons post clearly indicates.
On the other hand, it is profoundly worrying when a public employee is fired for expressing their political views as a private citizen, no matter how abhorrent.
In this case, I think that the firing is justified, I think that she no longer had the credibility required to deal with students and their parents, and any decision made regarding minorities in her class would naturally be suspect.
I do hope that the school district is reviewing any disciplinary actions involving minorities.
Skepticism of her entire career as an educator is justified.
From http://uscivilliberties.org/biography/3931-holmes-oliver-wendell-jr-18411935.html
'Holmes upheld the right of a township to discharge a police officer for undesirable political activity. ‘‘The petitioner may have a constitutional right to talk politics,’’ Holmes wrote, ‘‘but he has no right to be a policeman.’’ '