What would you do if you found out that a little girl was telling
your child, “His name is Obama bin Laden” and, “It’s not Hilary—it’s Hitlery”? A
writer on the blog Daily Kos, who is one of few Democrats in a Texan town, was faced
with this dilemma when her eight-year-old daughter Abigail reported that one of
her classmates was repeatedly making these comments. This was around the time
that Abigail’s class was voting for president in the Scholastic presidential
election.
Darcy writes, “I doubt if the little girl even knows who
Osama bin Laden or Hitler are, but my kid does. She is upset about
the comments, and I am stunned.”
Darcy’s husband wanted Abigail to learn to deal with the
taunts herself, but Darcy ultimately decided to speak with Abigail’s teacher. The
teacher, according to Darcy, “decided to use the incident as a teaching moment
to address mudslinging.” (For what it’s worth, the mudslinging didn’t seem to
help McCain in this third grade classroom: Obama won 17-5.)
I think Darcy did the right thing. No matter what your
political affiliation is, that kind of hateful speech has no place in schools. By making
mudslinging into a classroom dialogue, the teacher had a chance to teach the bullying
girl and other students just what it means to call someone Hitler or bin Laden.
Do you think that hateful comments about political figures
count as bullying? Was the mother right to go to the teacher with her concerns?
Related Post:
The Kids Have Voted!
