Academia

Teachers Displays Union and Confederate Flags In Civil War History Class . . . School Forces Teacher To Retire
unknown  Woody Hart, 70, taught history at the Sutter Middle School in Folsom, California.  In a class on the civil war, Hart displayed the Confederate flag to middle schoolers in his history class along with the union flag.  That educational display reportedly led to Hart being forced into retirement.
 Folsom Cordova Unified School District treated the confederate flag effectively as hate speech and said
“We recognize that regardless of context, to many of our students, families, and staff, the Confederate flag is a racist symbol of hate. Although this matter is under investigation, it is important to reiterate: Any employee who is found to engage in behavior that creates an unsafe environment for students will face full consequences, including the possibility of initiating termination proceedings.”
In this case, the flag — which was found across the room from a Civil War Union flag, potentially in preparation of a history activity — was removed from the classroom before school began today. It is our schools’ responsibility to provide a safe learning environment for all children.”

“Regardless of the context”?  Context means a lot.  Listening to a speech of Adolph Hitler in a politics class is very different from listening to the same speech in a meeting on the “Jewish problem.”  It would seem obviously relevant to a discussion of the civil war to show the respective flags.

Hart was the subject of an earlier complaint over a comment that he made with regard to lynching.  Yet, the statement of the board seems to treat any showing of the confederate flag is a form of hate speech.  What do you think?

67 thoughts on “Teachers Displays Union and Confederate Flags In Civil War History Class . . . School Forces Teacher To Retire”

  1. Why was this man not immediately executed? Why on earth is he teaching history as it happened?

    Feelings are at stake here people. Feelings.

  2. I have brought all number of things to school for my students, however you usually clear it with your supervisor. I have a feeling this guy is not very PC and doesn’t put up with the little crap from his supervisors. This is not an offense, unless they can find it in the handbook someplace. However, having written a handbook, they can be parts that a vague enough to drive the Death Star through.

  3. A safe learning environment consists of the truth. This was the flag of the northern armies. This was the flag of the southern armies. That actually happened. These are the flags.

    Erasing reality does not make anyone safe.

  4. The Left has oveplayed its hand and no wonder left of center thinkers are repulsed. Folks like me who voted for Obama twice would never think of voting for the identity politics ridden Democrats. They are removing themselves from the political process for a generation. Good riddance to them and their balkanizing ideas.

    1. mespo, I said here prior to the election that anti-PC was the issue percolating below the surface that would get Trump elected.

      1. You were spot on. They’ve alienated middle voters and they are hard to get back as the Republicans learned. if the Repubs make inroads into A-A communities, the Dems has better read what happened to teh Whigs.

        1. When you have only 2 choices, and this year too very bad ones, the key to victory, IMHO, is to keep your whackos in the attic w/ duct tape over their mouths. Both sides have plenty of crazies. But, of late, w/ the MSM being chief enabler, the lefts SJW/PC whackos have been lionized on TV and print media. And, the apolitical, hard working, swing voters have been going Republican as a result. The Dems have not yet figured out this OBVIOUS fact.

  6. A student commented on the teacher’s earlier issue:

    “First of all, everyone commenting here does not know the full story. As I was not a witness, I also do not know the full story but I will try to explain it as best I can. Mr. Hart has used this example a few times before. The FULL statement is something like “In the 1800’s, many people in the south were racist. Their view of equality was ‘Hang one black person, hang them all'”. McIntyre was probably not paying attention in class and only heard part of it. Interview more people in the class and you will here more. For the rest of the people in the comments, learn more about the story before you put damaging comments.”

  8. Knowledge is power, education is supreme. You forget the past, you are doomed to repeat the same.

  9. Americas schools are run by radical Leftists idiots from top to bottom. We need to clean out our school systems

    1. No, they’re run by smarmy bureaucratic microbes who haven’t one non-derivative opinion on any question.

  11. This is a legal blog. Of sorts. One issue here is the manner in which the fired teacher could obtain reinstatement and back wages for his firing. And other damages and attorney fees.
    A lawsuit filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 is in order. The perps who fired him can be defendants. So should the school district. Those who fired him were probably the Superintendent of schools and perhaps the principal. They conspired to deprive him of civil rights to free speech. Section 1985 is thus a factor in the Complaint.
    Why, you all might ask, is this a violation of his civil rights? Well, the teacher had a right to discuss and speak on issues of public importance and on matters of public concern in a classroom within the context of history and to his students. The flag itself is protected speech. Not that the flag says anything but his putting a flag in the class is about showing the history of the other side of the equation in the Civil War. This guy is not advocating that The South Shall Rise Again! No. He is showing the public, his students, the participants in an American historical event. He was damaged by being ridiculed, fired, and deprived of job and money in the nature of salary. He was damaged and has a claim for damages to his loss of reputation and the defamation. Punitive damages are in order. Attorneys fees are in order under Section 1988. Injunctive relief and declaratory judgment should be granted. Preliminary injunction should be granted in short order.
    Students should be entitled to also sue as plaintiffs. Their rights were deprived.

    2. I don’t disagree but that will take years. I’d suggest the guy do what he’s done and get the court of public opinion to weigh in on it. It might be enough for cooler heads to prevail when the board catches the backlash.

      1. Ideally, it wouldn’t take a ‘backlash’ for the board to call in the principal, the dean of the school’s faculty, and the superintendent and say ‘explanations, pretty please, and we’ll hear from one of you at a time while the others are salted away in the next room’.

        1. Oh, and bring in the teaching department head and the fired teacher as well. Give them no notice so they cannot concoct any lies.

    1. Yep. And the excuse will be “We have to protect America from homophobes, misogynists, racists and climate change deniers” just like the Nazis had to protect Germany from the Communists. Although, the Nazis really did have to protect Germany from the violent commies, who were a real threat. Unlike us homophobes, misogynists, racists and climate change deniers.

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

  13. A career can be ruined by uttering a sentence or two that, depending on the beholder, is either neutral or world ending. When the latter belief is held by those in power, the fate is damning. Welcome to the realm of subjective authoritarianism.

  14. What a bunch of crap. No wonder the SJWs are darn stupid. I hope he sues the beejesus out of the district. But at 70, he probably won’t. This reminds me that I have to order a big Rebel flag.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  15. Your Hitler speech analogy is interesting. But let’s say in a class on WWII, the teacher displayed the Nazi war ensign. It’s the direct analog to the Confederate Stars ‘n’ Bars.
    The first thing I’d ask is: “Why does he even own a Nazi war ensign?”

    2. My husband had a teacher back in the day whose dad had fought in WWII and brought back a bunch of stuff snagged from Germany, one being the Nazi flag. The teacher did show that flag in class while teaching about the Nazis, but that was back in the 80s when people did not get bent out shape over such things.

    3. Teachers buy things to interest their students and they use their own money.

  16. Read the article at the link about his lynching analogy remark. Can’t imagine why they disciplined him for the flag incident when he should have been fired for the lynching analogy.

    1. The Article about the lynching indicates the black student was offended, and that of course is unfortunate. But how about an apology? A commitment to re-evaluate the possible consequences of his teaching methods. Does everybody have to be fired? To me it sounds like he may just be a teacher who gets involved with the class, and is excited about teaching. Lynchings happened, inequality was (and is) real. There were confederate and union flags and soldiers. This PC culture has produced a generation of individuals who have been conditioned to be defensive, overly sensitive, easily offended, and looking for a reason to engage in retaliation. I am not referring to the student in this article, but to the likes of those who would fire a teacher for displaying historical flags etc.

    2. There must have been other reasons besides the flag, however, if this teacher follows the news at all, he would know that the incident of the deranged young murderer wrapping himself in the Confederate flag a couple years ago, advanced the perception that today flying the Confederate flag is hate speech.

  17. We all need to start flying confederate flags everywhere. Commando raids in liberal bastion, just running the confederate flag up flagpoles. And hell, I was raised in New England and taught to hate them rebels.

  18. Are they going to ban showing the British Flag because we won and they didn’t in 1776. Are they going to ban showing the hammer and sickle or the swastika flags when teaching about WWiI? Why not just ban teaching…and the administrative staff and then close the schools. Why not of what use are closed minds.

    That should be a basis for teaching the real history including the valid point South Carolina had in seceding and the valid point the North had in banning slavery AND the invalid point of not making the effort equal with preserving the union and the invalid point of not following the Constitution and basically as Obama did suppressing civil rights (along with Bush and others.)

    So the kids grow up uneducated better than learning lies.

  20. Simply shocking the battles they choose to fight. Appreciate you work and sharing your blog with us.

    1. Agreed. I think political correctness will be the true cause of our downfall, if polemic itself has been ruled unconstitutional, and I also think that currently it would appear the liberal mindset is the greater of two displays of blatant fascism. No context is permitted, and context is a key component of justice and fairness. In a word: insanity. I have never seen such fear of phantoms in my life.

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