A 15-year-old in South Carolina is suing her school district for violating her civil rights after a teacher assaulted her in the hallway for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Marissa Barnwell, a Black honor roll student at River Bluff High School, was walking to her classroom on November 29, 2022 — her birthday — when a teacher, Nicole Livingston, grabbed her and held her against a wall while the pledge was being recited.
Livingston, whom Barnwell does not have a class with, demanded that Barnwell stop walking and acknowledge the pledge, according to the lawsuit, which lists the teacher and the state Department of Education as co-defendants. Livingston then sent Barnwell to the principal’s office to face further discipline.
Although other students were walking in the hallway and not reciting the pledge, Barnwell was the only student targeted, the lawsuit notes. Barnwell was the only Black student in the hallway, and the school is predominately white.
After discussing the situation with Barnwell, the principal decided against punishing her and agreed to watch security camera footage of the attack. Barnwell’s mother later called the school, in tears, after learning that her daughter had been targeted.
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Yeah it really seems completely wild. Like you have a forced prayer every day to a bourgeois state and every time I bring it up with a yank they say some dumb shit like well you don’t technically have to say the pledge if you don’t want to so it’s ok - like mfs really think just because there’s a loophole you can escape through if you’re brave enough that this type of shit doesn’t have a completely toxic effect on the formulation of brains
And like, you can get out of saying it but even if you can’t get in actual trouble for it there’s a good chance an adult will fucking shout at you for it.
By the way, outside of “look out for that bus” and similar messages, yelling at a child is never acceptable, and doing it should disqualify you from ever working with children ever again. Imagine being an adult with such poor control over your emotions that you would angrily yell at a child. It’s fucking embarrassing.
I’m a teacher. Honestly in general teachers are fucking idiots whose minds have been warped by occupying a position of complete power where everybody has to listen to what you say for six hours a day. Most of them are total squares who obeyed all the rules in high school and don’t really understand why a child wouldn’t - so if a child doesn’t obey it’s something they’re doing because of a moral failing that needs correcting. IDK I have to deal with these people every day they are lame af.
I’ve worked with kids and lost my patience at them and raised my voice but I handle that by taking them aside and apologizing for it after.
That was until my new boss came in and came down on us with so much stress and bullshit and bullying and stupid standards that I started having to raise my voice to coral the crowd a lot more because it seemed like the only way to handle it. Multiple people that worked there said they “hate how she makes us be with the kids” and I was bullied out of the job but another person quit over it.
Anyway I was so loving and nurturing to my kids that none of them were ever really upset when I raised my voice because they knew that I still loved them so it wasnt a big deal really.
Just adding a little perspective. I agree that you shouldnt yell at kids but my point here is that people are human and mistakes are made and I dont think that should be completely disqualifying. Otherwise very few people could be teachers lol because very few people have infinite patience. Also the part about how bad bosses can make working environments so nasty that the kids end up suffering for it.
