Classroom Bullying in North Carolina (UPDATED)

Stamp out classroom bullying now – especially when it’s done by teachers.

Want to see how far some teachers will go to preach politics? Check this North Carolina teacher – and don’t miss in particular her taunting of a child with a father in Iraq. Read on for the transcript.

Diantha Harris [Teacher in Ashville, North Carolina]: We want to talk about the presidential election. OK? But I want to ask you, who are you pulling for? Raise your hands.

[Kids raise their hands.]

Black Boy: Obama

Diantha Harris: You’re pulling for Obama. [Speaking to another student:] Who you’re pulling for? And if you’re pulling for John McCain, that’s fine say him as well. [Black girl makes sure to put her hands down.] Who are you pulling for?

Black Boy: Obama.

White Boy: John McCain

Diantha Harris: John … Oh Lord … John McCain!

White Girl [Kathy]: John McCain

Diantha Harris: Oh Jesus! John McCain! … OK. Now I want to ask you something. [To Kathy:] Why are you pulling for John McCain? And it’s OK! But, why are you pulling for John McCain?

Kathy: I think it’s because … uh … my parents are going for him too.

Diantha Harris: OK. Your parents are going for him? [To another student:] Why are you pulling for Barack? Or … rather … Barawk…

Black Boy: Because I just want a black president sometime.

Diantha Harris: OK. You want a black president? [Addresses another student.]

Black Girl: The reason I want to pick Barack Obama is because he is making good changes, in the good country and stuff like that.

Diantha Harris: So, he’s making good changes for our country? [Harris shakes head in affirmation.] OK, now can you tell me just a little bit more like, like what type of changes?

Black Girl:  Like … not having … um … a fight between Iraq, and having soldiers killed.

Diantha Harris: So in other words, Barack is going to end that war [nods her head vigorously] in Iraq. [To the class:] What do you all know about that war in Iraq? [To Kathy:] Now talk to me, because your dad is in the military!

[Kathy bites her lip.]

Diantha Harris: Talk!

[Silence.]

Diantha Harris: It’s a senseless war! [Stares at Kathy.] And by the way, Kathy, the person that you’re picking for president said [Harris shakes her head] that our troops could stay in Iraq for another hundred years if they need to! [Kathy bites her lip, looks ashamed. Other kids stare at Kathy, laugh, smirk.] So that means that your daddy could stay in the military for another hundred years!

[Kathy is on verge of tears.]

[In an interview later:]

Diantha Harris: Now I can support whomever I want to support, as long as I don’t brownbeat [sic] another person for the candidate that they supported. Like I have some students that support John McCain, and when they told me that, I said ah … “that’s good’ and I just moved on. So, I think that everybody is entitled to their own personal opinion. And we have something in our school system that’s called Kids Voting. In my class … Barack Obama won. [Harris grins.]

As my sister, currently homeschooling her children in North Carolina, points out:  “Reason #326 to home-school your children.”

-Also passed on to Andrew Bolt (thanks, mate!)

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UPDATE: 9:00PM Eastern US Time.  The Asheville Citizen-Times has just put out a defense (at 6:17pm) which says that this lady is now based in Cumberland (teaching 5th Grade), having left Asheville.  And that, by the way,

Harris on Thursday [November 6th] said she wasn’t advocating for one candidate over the other … She said her comments of “Oh lord” and “Oh Jesus” were her way of engaging her students to spur discussion. “I wasn’t necessarily pulling for one person or the other,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Fayetteville. “If I was pulling for just one person then I would have never said the other person’s name.” She said her comment to the child whose father was in the military was not meant to change the child’s mind about supporting McCain.

As my nephew would say, “Whatever.”

If anyone out there knows anybody at the the following military facilities in Cumberland County, please let them know about this video:
Fort Bragg [82nd Airborne etc]
Pope Air Force Base
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cumberland
Womack Army Hospital

Here is the Cumberland (NC) County Schools website.  Here is their “Contact Us” page.

More Contact Details:

June St. Clair Atkinson
State Superintendent of Public Instruction
919.807.3430

Phyllis West
Senior Policy Advisor to the State Superintendent
919.807.3434

Monique Wertis
Special Assistant
919.807.3432

Priscilla Weber
Special Assistant
919.807.3436

Mary McArthur Elementary School
3809 Village Drive Fayetteville, NC 28304
Phone:(910) 424-2206 Fax: (910) 424-3451

Lola B. Williams
Principal
http://www.mmes.ccs.k12.nc.us/email/lolabwilliams.htm

Diatha Harris (Teacher/indoctrinator)
http://www.mmes.ccs.k12.nc.us/email/diathaharris.htm

UPDATE 2: How crazy is it that this had to be brought to our attention by the foreign (Finnish) media?

UPDATE 3: The YouTube video may have been pulled.  If you cannot access it, it is an excerpt from the documentary “From Bill to Barack” by Folke Rydén and Bengt Norborg, that aired on election night, Finland’s Swedish language Channel 5: http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/shared/mediacenter/index.jsp?&d=13276&a=1294753&lid=puff_1296095&lpos=extra_0 [From 13:30 ~ 22:00. The YouTube part is from 19:00]

UPDATE 4: Curiouser and curiouser! This teacher and her husband met George Bush Snr. in 1992. Exchange With Reporters During a Visit With the Harris Family in Asheville, North Carolina,
September 5, 1992

UPDATE 5: Michelle Malkin, Doctor Bulldog & Ronin first post and update, Gateway Pundit (and probably heaps more)

UPDATE 6: Thanks to KGS from “Tundra Tabloid,” the spark which I’ve now discovered  seems to have started this whole thing, including uploading the relevent clip to YouTube.  Great catch, KGS!

UPDATE 7: A warning on the Tundra Tabloids site from a contact says, “It should also be noted that Tundra Tabloids is apparently a strong backer of European neo-Fascist groups, a rather unpleasant association that I’m not at all comfortable with. Personally, I thank them for bringing this story to light, but I wouldn’t be directing anyone to their site or associating with them in any way.”   They also seem to have some kind of snarky flame-war going with LGF, something I’m not at all interested in getting involved in.  Just FYI.

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***FINAL UPDATE***

CCS Superintendent Issues a Video and Text Statement

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