I agree that in the public square, we should have a wide playing field for people to say just about whatever the hell they feel like. That’s why neo-Nazis, the KKK, racist groups, and virulently homophobic groups can congregate, advocate, and recruit without having to fear the law. In the US we have more protections for this kind of speech than in most European countries.

However, we’re not talking about the public square, we’re talking about the classroom, and we rightfully deny some of the above mentioned groups a voice in our classrooms. Chris seems to think that the freedoms applicable to the public square are fully applicable to the classroom, but they are not. It is the teacher’s job to be “intolerant of intolerance” and to deal with those who voice their opinions (regardless whether the teacher agrees or disagrees with the opinions) in unacceptable ways. This is not “censoring”; this is classroom management and bully prevention.

Let me drop back and say this: based on the expectations on teachers today — the nonsense they’re expected to deal with from political schoolboards, parents, administrators, not to mention the kids… it’s a job that’s a hell of a lot tougher than people give credit for.

If McDowell let himself get carried away with the moment — which can happen with teachers who care too much, not too little, it’s entirely understandable (I hope I communicated that), but the reaction of officials would be unsurprising.

Just as unsurprising would be McDowell hitting it pitch-perfect, but the school board utterly misinterpreting it, willfully or not, to placate angry conservative parents.

I’m offering a contrarian voice — because we all know that Tim’s 100% right in this article — the question is, how the hell do we get people to hear it?

I disagree. You can’t have tolerance if you allow intolerance.

[T]olerance is not defined by the extent to which it allows intolerance to prevail.

Tolerance is also not defined by censoring others who hold opposing beliefs.

You cannot preach tolerance and at the same time be intolerant of people with opposing views. Tolerance is not about suppressing intolerance whenever it rears its ugly head – that’s just more intolerance.

Mr McDowell crossed the line by suspending the student who disagreed with him, and the School Board was correct in reprimanding Mr McDowell for his inappropriate action. The correct action for Mr McDowell was to have allowed the class to continue to discuss the issue. However by suspending the student who disagreed with him (and thereby censoring that student and his beliefs), Mr McDowell showed his own intolerance to opposing views.

As for the child who proclaimed that “I don’t accept Gays. It is against my religion. I am Catholic.” The correct response from Mr McDowell, as Mortanius said above, should have been: “You do not have to approve of gay people in order to accept that some people are gay.”

As Wanda Sykes so brilliantly said “If you’re against gay marriage, don’t have one.”

To be fair, there are plenty of gay websites in which comments are void of even the vaguest of coherency and in which opinions (based on nothing whatsoever) are insisted upon as being “true”, regardless of evidence to the contrary. These sites also tend to encourage vilification and personal insult as a manner of discourse.

In other words, we have some great readers here at BTB.

I see an intelligence in the remarks that never happen when it comes to the comment threads in TownHall.

I bigotry does make people lose IQ points. I mean from average to brain damaged.
Bigoted statements don’t make sense, they are all over the map when it comes to definition and at the same time are so reliant on the narrowest of stereotypes, and reduction, this is how bigots stop seeing the object of their prejudice as even human.
Because the properties they give their target on so many levels have IMPOSSIBLE or non existent traits.

And they keep insisting it’s true, even though it couldn’t possibly be supported with evidence.

Most of the time they seem to take bits of things that sound like it works and mish mash it into a stew so that none of what they are using could be connected to what it’s original intent, context or evidence was.
It’s childish really, with a self centeredness only seen in toddlers.
Unfortunately it’s adults engaging in this, and they are taken much too seriously.
We seem to be the only people who can discuss something in it’s complexity and comprehensive analysis it deserves.

The folks we are confronting have a gnat’s attention span for such things.
Tiresome. Tiresome and frustrating. Perhaps they seem to have a bottomless supply because they have the luxury of being so focused on one thing, while the rest of us have many other situations to worry about.

This makes even less sense than the earlier quote. Is he saying that it is only unacceptable to persecute a minority if there is no history or tradition that supports the oppression?

I continue to be amazed that any rational person would deify the Confederacy.

And the shame of the Catholic church is it’s failure to stand up in support of gay rights (gay people being treated fairly). Most Christian churches deserve no respect due to this significant moral failing. They should be champions of fair treatment, not the opposite.

And this school board sounds like it should be in Texas—where they don’t care about reality (evolution & climate change & extinctions) and only support narrowminded agendas. Shame on them!

The Confederate flag DOES represent a failed opponent to this nation’s creed of freedom. It represents a terrible chapter in American history that shouldn’t be a source of pride or support at all.
The import of the Confederacy can’t be stressed enough to young people as a bad thing.
And one wonders when some people will get the hell over it that the Confederacy LOST.
The casualties of that war were a terrible lesson in the moral creed of freedom.
But our country gained much in the Confederacy at this point being non existent.

The Pride flag however, and the colors worn in solidarity, represent something similar if say, blacks had designed a flag for themselves subsequent to the war, and wore a color specific in solidarity for those who died in bondage.
Gay people are another minority that is going through a historically unprecedented process in a nation unwilling to recognize their humanity.
Just as this nation was reluctant for 100 years after the Civil War to do the same for blacks.
I’m willing to bet McDowell knew this, and tried to impart this to the students.

This is why I firmly think that any parents with children in any given school, should be required to take a course so they too can be updated on the latest facts and their social significance.
Ignorant, fearful parents shouldn’t be allowed to punish a teacher (or school official) for doing a significant and important job in ADVANCING their child’s learning development.

I expect children to be thoroughly taught about the historical significance of the process and history of the Holocaust.
That doesn’t mean that a child should be supported as a matter of ‘free speech’ to wear a Nazi armband to represent his beliefs.