Bizzaro thinking.
April 7, 2008 - Editorial from the Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ) - "from South Jersey to you"- a Gannett-owned (USA Today) newspaper:
Responding to concerns of Hispanic parents and leaders, the state Department of Education has intervened in the controversial reassignment of a Camden school vice principal.------------------------
Former Sumner Elementary Vice Principal Theresa Brown is accused of forcing Hispanic children to eat their lunch on the floor for two weeks. It allegedly was punishment for one of the students spilling a large container of water on a classroom floor. Accidents happen. Yet, even if the water was purposely spilled, there is no justification for the humiliating consequence meted out to the elementary students.
The students' understandably outraged parents claim their children were treated inhumanely because they are Hispanic and Brown is African American. This allegation cannot be dismissed without further investigation.
Racism by anyone, especially a school leader, cannot be ignored. It must be confronted and excised from the classroom, school and district.
As an African American, it is inconceivable that Brown would inflict the kind of emotional damage on children that she herself might have experienced. Camden school board members are obligated to protect students from such behavior. They should have made public any investigation they completed. If Brown did make those children eat on the floor, the board should have acted to fire her, not transfer her to the East Camden Middle School where she will continue to be an authority figure.
We urge state education officials to be transparent in their investigation and to demonstrate the leadership the Camden school board has failed to show.
TT - To begin with, the assistant principal, Teresa Brown, unless she is over the age of 70, is unlikely to have ever experienced such treatment simply because she is black. And even then, the likelihood would be highest in Little Rock, Arkansas, Bill Clinton's home state. It's a ridiculous assertion. It's equally ridiculous to assert that her actions were anything more than bad judgement. Calling it "racism" is typical media agitation. No one is more color conscious or race bigotted than the media in their blind assertion that everyone, except themselves, are racists.
The woman showed poor judgement. Period. Pitting one group of citizens against another is good for dramatic effect, but the losers are usually the minority groups manipulated for the sheer thrill of causing a controversy.
Considering the lousy academic performance that has resulted in the state takeover and/or state watch of nearly a half dozen school districts in New Jersey - including Camden - for poor academic performance, the fraud, and the corruption found in New Jersey schools and government, not to mention, problem teachers, the manufactured outrage by the newspaper is transparent and pathetic.
