There has been a roaring debate over the decision of the New Orleans city council to tear down all Confederate era statues, which many have argued is wiping out history rather than dealing with it. The most controversial decision is the removal of the iconic statue of Robert E. Lee in the downtown. One casualty of that debate is Nicholas Dean, principal of Crescent Leadership Academy, who was forced out of his post merely because he went to see the historic change and was pictured with a Confederate flag in the background. Not his flag, mind you. Just a Confederate flag held by a protester.
Ironically, Dean was only on the scene briefly around 2:30 am to see the statue go down but left when there was no movement by the construction crew. However, the flag in the background led to outrage for those at the alternative school serving students in seventh through 12th grades who have been expelled from other schools. Dean aptly noted “I went to see history in the making and now I am history.”
Malik Bartholomew shared the photograph and denounced Dean: “Why is this man, a principal of a school of black and minority students, advocating for monuments of hate?”
I have previously written about concerns that public employees are increasingly being disciplined for actions in their private lives or views or associations outside of work. We have previously seen teachers (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) students (here, here and here) and other public employees (here and here and here) fired for their private speech or conduct, including school employees fired for posing in magazines (here), appearing on television shows in bikinis (here), or having a prior career in the adult entertainment industry (here).
Of course, this is not even a case of a public employee flying a Confederate flag, which we recently discussed (here and here). This is a case of merely being seen in front of a flag. Even if a teacher were protesting the removal of the statue, why shouldn’t teachers be afforded such free speech protections? There is a growing assumption the public employees must now conform their political and social media views to satisfy the community as a condition of public employment. Most teachers have made sacrifices financially to teach. Few thought that they also had to surrender free speech rights in the bargain.
US is rapidly moving toward its own version of cultural Stalinism and the real powers in the country (Wall Street, permanent State Dept bureaucracy, MIC, MSM, Silicon Valley, CIA and other “deep state” organs) are completely indifferent. They’re preoccupied with leaking classified material to carry out their anti-Trump coup. Presumably, the main thing they’re concerned with is that Trump may yet still take actions to undermine their senseless Cold War II against Russia. Look at UK, France and Germany-they’d be be better off out of NATO and under Russian (instead of US) protection. Or maybe they could just quit being vassal states of the American Empire and try to make it on their own. But it would likely be difficult for them to free themselves of
the suicidal mentality they’ve internalized over years of Harvard-State Dept supervision.
I’ve lived for awhile in the Czech Republic. I most emphatically assure you that those people do not want the Russian overlords back.
It seems, once again, that Turley has the facts wrong.
Those who “can”: do.
Those who “can’t”: teach.
Those who “can’t teach”: teach teachers.
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This principal needs a pal.
Well, your flag decal won’t get you ,…
Into heaven anymore!
It’s already overcrowded…
From your dirty little war!
Jesus don’t like killing..
No matter what the reasons for…
And your flag decal won’t get you…
Into heaven, any more!
This seems like it’s almost deliberately misleading…
The man was sent home while the incident gets investigated…
Even that seems like overreach but he wasn’t fired…
I’d guess he has a pretty good case (legally) if the school does something over the top here, like actually fire him for simply being there…
Free NOLA from the Landrieu family!
As a NOLA native, I am heartbroken and sickened to see Landrieu pander to the family’s base while the city burns with a per capita murder rate far above Chicago’s. Makes me long for the days of intellectually honest crooks like Edwin Edwards. The Landrieu family is composed of political elites who see themselves as entitled to hold high political office, no different from the Clintons.
Wait for it!!! I believe this is a ramp-up for his sister, Mary, running for mayor.
New Orleans politics is no longer even a “spectator sport.” It’s just nauseating to see how easily the criminally corrupt manipulate the willfully ignorant.
Trump is a prime example.
Trump is a prime example.
Ignorant yes, but I’m certain he is learning just how corrupt the career political class is.
SMH! I keep reading comments questioning how are these people going to function in the real world. Then I read stories of how the real world is being infected by these people. I believe the real world is not inoculated against this pandemic. That’s a shout out to our public education system.
Well, he worked at a school where a critical mass of the clientele are the spawn of stupid and excitable people. It’s a reasonable wager they threw a hissy fit, it was then explained to them what he was doing there and why, and they continued their hissy fit because backing down was too much of an injury to their pride.
You have to hand it to politicians and civic association functionaries among the black population. Looked at collectively, they are adept at very little, cannot seem to represent the material interests of their supposed clientele, seem to have no clue how to address quality-of-life issues among those clientele, and make use of their idle hours demanding political patronage, laying down their marks and engaging in repellent little end-zone dances. It’s all about insisting on R-E-S-P-E-C-T but doing little which merits any actual respect.
And here we see it. Confederate historical monuments have to be destroyed in acts of vandalism, but homicide rates of 49 per 100,000 (10x the national mean) are totes OK.
Would the principal have been fired for being anti-monument? I doubt it! This is what King Mitch created. I did not see a single solitary Confederate flag prior to this sorry ass event. He is borrowing from the leftists playbook: Divide and Conquer. Yet, his rhetoric is that of “inclusion”. Bull****! And, yes. You are correct. All of this while the crime in NO is out of control.
Reminds me of a customer who took me to task. I was helping a friend at his garden center. As is common, most centers sell bird feeding supplies. The problem, we sold niger seed. Ignorance prevails among the holier than thou ones. .
The left are creating more Trump voters daily. But this elimination of history is just flat ass wrong. WTF is happening??
You recall around about 2006 the NAACP hired a new executive director. He was a retired corporation executive (from Verizon) whose idea was to re-orient the organization so that it resembled more the Urban League – i.e. engaged in more practical social work projects and less in lawfare. He lasted about two years and eventually resigned, saying life was too short to be continually tangling with the board and particularly its president, Julian Bond. (It’s a reasonable inference that Mr. Gordon thought a man of his skills and accomplishments should not have to take orders from a n’er do well like Bond). After he departs, the board passes a resolution rededicating themselves to their historic mission and declaring their top priority to be a ‘federal hate crimes bill’. An organization which tells you that’s their mission is telling you it’s a completely unserious organization.
Well, that’s the thing with New Orleans black political class. They cannot get a blessed thing done that’s worth doing, but they can pull down some old statues and flip the bird at the whites in Metairie in the process.
You got it! Spot on!!
“However, the flag in the background led to outrage for those at the alternative school serving students in seventh through 12th grades who have been expelled from other schools. Dean aptly noted “I went to see history in the making and now I am history.”
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Dean was Lord of the Flies and now deposed by them. Why would anyone want to teach these days?
I can’t imagine how asinine the work environment is at the school.
This is shameful.
Those that deny history or hide history are doomed to repeat history. How long has the Democratic party been the shameful Party of Slavery, Jim Crow Black Laws, Anti civil rights laws and pro fascist socialists. I was shocked when that Party exploded that it took a Castroite latino to take it over with the permission of a bunch of white identify Massa’s and not ONE black who seized the opportunty to take over and erase what is now THEIR shame.
And if we deny our history, how do we really know who we are and how we arrived where we are today. Our past defines us. Sadly, the politically correct view does not allow for viewing that past and analyzing it. There were men of bad faith and bad deeds on both sides. Per usual,, both sides failed to listen and/or work to understand the thinking of the other. That legacy is in effect today.
I really wonder where all this started. Some weird people make a fuss about nonsense! And the other weird people are listening and acting. Safe spaces on college campuses for student marshmallows. How are they going to fare in the real world? I am so tired of protestors, especially the ones who can’t tell you what they are protesting. Walking out of graduation ceremonies because they have a problem with the speaker? Mike Pence, who would have a problem with Mike Pence? One of few in DC who wants to solve problems.
I wonder how long before some Regressive Orwellian Democrat proposes to tear down every Catholic Mission in California. Also, time to rename San Francisco and every Spanish named city in the USA.
Am I the only one who sees how these Regressive hacks emulate the 1984 characters who eliminated words from the nation’s glossary, in order to practice better mind control?
Not sure who or how many see what you see, but Orwell was a prophet. It would be nice to know where these useless hacks come from and why, who and how they got to be so useless. It would be nice if they used their powers for reason but they will forever be guided by their emotions. Logic has no place.
People needs civic education. Or maybe a psychological treatment.
Nicholas Dean had to go to satisfy the rabid blood lust of the Democrats to promote their lying narrative about race. I just hope this guy was a Democrat, sooo that he had it coming. If he is a Republican, then I feel sorry for him.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Let any school science teacher or college question any aspect of the “orthodox” historiography (hysteriagraphy) of the “holocaust” and see how much “freedom of speech” they have.
It is beyond ridiculous. We live in an era of select groups taking offense and the “remedy” they demand is some sort of willful purge. It has stopped making any sense at all.