15 year public school conservative bullied

[fundiefun]

freedomworks.org/blog/benjibacker/15-year-old-wisconsin-conservative-meets-bullying?source=FWFBBenjisBlog

I came across this article on facebook this conservative public school student feels he is being bullied for his conservative beliefs and thinks that teacher's unions are a load of bs and public schools are indoctrinating students to be liberals. It makes me wonder what his home life is like if he is this fired up at 15 years old.

[gustava]

Freedom Works is ultra, ultra conservative. This kid sounds like a pain in the ass.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Interesting. I just started googling around this guy now seeing your post, and it seems he's pretty much restricted to the conservative blogosphere. Looking for contrasting articles is not pulling up anything just yet.

However his story is conveniently hitting all the favorite anti-teacher talking points of the right wingers, even as he says he's in full support of public schools. He apparently hit some really lucky teacher too, if his teacher really does earn $100K a year with benefits (unless POSSIBLY he's including the value of those benefits in the $100K, which is a cute rhetorical trick a lot of righties use when talking about public sector workers only). A quick google gives the Appleton, WI high school teacher salary range:

http://www.teachersalaryinfo.com/wiscon ... -district/

Average is $52,934, and even the 90th-percentile is only $67,894. He conveniently doesn't give the teacher's name so it's not possible to look it up.

Meanwhile all the business of teachers taking him aside to spout political views? Without any cites one way or the other who knows, but all I can say as someone who both works for the public sector (nothing to do with teaching though) and who knows a lot of teachers, I find it hard to believe that sort of thing would be tolerated. Heck, we're told we can't have political materials of any sort in our offices, on our bulletin boards, wear buttons, they even tried to say you can't have political bumper stickers on your cars in the parking lot (but that one failed). Perhaps Wisconsin is radically different, but I'm thinking this story needs a bit of salt consumed with it...

Far more commonly I know former college students who would swear up and down while in college that they were given bad grades on papers due to their political views (this 15 year old doesn't seem to claim that, though) who when you look into it, were just shitty writers who couldn't make an argument - and admit it as adults, which is where I'm hearing it from :)

So - who knows. I'll google around though now 'cause I'm curious!

[Jinger Jar]

The post reads as if it was written by an adult trying to sound like a teen. Actual teenagers are far more concerned with their peers and what they think than their teachers and their views, especially their views on state politics. A more convincing post would have reconted how a conservative teenager was bullied by lberal classmates.

And this writer seems to have an awful lot of teachers with both the time and the inclination to explain their politics to their students. And in this age of pacing charts, standards, lesson objectives, daily assessments of learning outcomes, and high-stakes testing schedules no less. :think:

I call bs on the whole thing.

[itaintmebabe]

I see the hand of Scott Walker behind this.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

FWIW, he's been active in conservative politics and supporting the Republican party since he was at least 12 (there are articles and videos of him at age 12 on the internet). Most people, regardless of how active in politics they get as kids (and there are plenty on all sides of everything) don't get tons of news coverage. Dad insists it's all the kid's own initiative, however.

His dad is president of a company called "Loansifter." Benji attends Appleton North high school in Appleton, WI. I must admit I'm wondering just how the teachers of Appleton North reacted to these articles, but dunno yet.

Dunno about any Scott Walker influence either but the kid supports him (naturally) and is in favor of making it so that recall elections can't happen.

[FreeJosie]

The post reads as if it was written by an adult trying to sound like a teen. Actual teenagers are far more concerned with their peers and what they think than their teachers and their views, especially their views on state politics. A more convincing post would have reconted how a conservative teenager was bullied by lberal classmates.

And this writer seems to have an awful lot of teachers with both the time and the inclination to explain their politics to their students. And in this age of pacing charts, standards, lesson objectives, daily assessments of learning outcomes, and high-stakes testing schedules no less. :think:

I call bs on the whole thing.

Yep, my first thought was "BS" too. He has THAT many teachers who badmouth Scott Walker and argue politics in the classroom?

[Wolfie]

Yep, my first thought was "BS" too. He has THAT many teachers who badmouth Scott Walker and argue politics in the classroom?

This.

I'm a music teacher and even then I don't talk politics in the classroom. My students may have figured out where I stand, but I don't talk to them about it, or even treat them any different if they say that they think differently. (I have a CTA button on my backpack and an Obama sticker on my car, but that's about it.)

[m_mdon]

However his story is conveniently hitting all the favorite anti-teacher talking points of the right wingers, even as he says he's in full support of public schools. He apparently hit some really lucky teacher too, if his teacher really does earn $100K a year with benefits (unless POSSIBLY he's including the value of those benefits in the $100K, which is a cute rhetorical trick a lot of righties use when talking about public sector workers only). A quick google gives the Appleton, WI high school teacher salary range:

http://www.teachersalaryinfo.com/wiscon ... -district/

Average is $52,934, and even the 90th-percentile is only $67,894. He conveniently doesn't give the teacher's name so it's not possible to look it up.

Bahahahhaha, a teacher making $100K a year. Administrators and superintendents? Definitely, but a regular classroom teacher? Never. And if there's a district that pays THAT much money, it looks like I'm moving!

[doggie]

He would only be a conservative if he was programmed to be by parents. he is really too young to get that way on his own. Plush ow would anyone know unless he made a ass out of himself like conservative Christians tend to.

[JMarie]

Yep, my first thought was "BS" too. He has THAT many teachers who badmouth Scott Walker and argue politics in the classroom?

AND he says he's subjected to harrassment and indoctrination, but still supports public schools??

[JMarie]

Bahahahhaha, a teacher making $100K a year. Administrators/and superintendents? Definitely, but a regular classroom teacher? Never. And if there's a distric that pays THAT much money, it looks like I'm moving!

If he's really only fifteen, and he really did write that, his teachers deserve every penny of their $100K salary.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

FWIW, he went to a charter school for elementary.

[Savoring Samsara]

Actual teenagers are far more concerned with their peers and what they think than their teachers and their views, especially their views on state politics.

Depends on the teenager. One of my more indelible bad memories from high school involved my civics teacher REALLY having it in for me in the classroom and basically spending an entire semester bullying and shaming me in front of the class for my political views. (He was conservative, I was liberal. I particularly remember, during a debate about gay marriage in which I was on the "pro" side, saying something like "I feel that any two people who love each other should be able to marry" and him slamming a fist on his desk, making fake crying noises, and getting in my face yelling, "The Supreme Court doesn't care about your feeeeeeeeeeeelings.") That was definitely a bigger concern for me than what my peers thought that semester, because I was afraid he was going to fail me for speaking up, though he ultimately gave me a very good grade. In retrospect, he acted the way he did because he thought I showed promise as a debater or something and he was trying to toughen me up and force me to get better at defending my arguments. It was still an asshole way to behave to a 16-year-old and it's stuck with me to this day, as evidenced by the fact that mutter years later I am still now posting on a message board about what a dick Mr. Jeffries was to me in the 11th grade. :lol:

That said, I agree that this kid sounds like a total douchebag and most of his blog post can safely be filed under shitthatneverhappened.txt.

[RachelB]

FWIW, he's been active in conservative politics and supporting the Republican party since he was at least 12 (there are articles and videos of him at age 12 on the internet). Most people, regardless of how active in politics they get as kids (and there are plenty on all sides of everything) don't get tons of news coverage. Dad insists it's all the kid's own initiative, however.

His dad is president of a company called "Loansifter." Benji attends Appleton North high school in Appleton, WI. I must admit I'm wondering just how the teachers of Appleton North reacted to these articles, but dunno yet.

Dunno about any Scott Walker influence either but the kid supports him (naturally) and is in favor of making it so that recall elections can't happen.

Ah. Appleton is the birthplace of both Joseph McCarthy and, IIRC, the John Birch Society. I highly doubt that he can't find any sympathetic conservatives in his high school.

[Bloo]

Yeah, no. Hey, Benji, pics or the bullying didn't happen.

*crickets*

Thought so.

[snarkyjan]

My own guess is that his idea of being bullied was an invitation to stuff it from his more liberal classmates, when he tried to buffalo THEM.

[Wolfie]

Depends on the teenager. One of my more indelible bad memories from high school involved my civics teacher REALLY having it in for me in the classroom and basically spending an entire semester bullying and shaming me in front of the class for my political views. (He was conservative, I was liberal. I particularly remember, during a debate about gay marriage in which I was on the "pro" side, saying something like "I feel that any two people who love each other should be able to marry" and him slamming a fist on his desk, making fake crying noises, and getting in my face yelling, "The Supreme Court doesn't care about your feeeeeeeeeeeelings.") That was definitely a bigger concern for me than what my peers thought that semester, because I was afraid he was going to fail me for speaking up, though he ultimately gave me a very good grade. In retrospect, he acted the way he did because he thought I showed promise as a debater or something and he was trying to toughen me up and force me to get better at defending my arguments. It was still an asshole way to behave to a 16-year-old and it's stuck with me to this day, as evidenced by the fact that mutter years later I am still now posting on a message board about what a dick Mr. Jeffries was to me in the 11th grade. :lol:

Um, did you go to school in Sacramento?

[JesusFightClub]

The kid never let it go that he was conservative. It looks like he brought it up every opportunity he could get and then whined that he was being persecuted and indoctrinated when people disagreed with him.

"If teachers want bullying to end with homosexuals, other races or religious beliefs, they should want it to end with every type of bullying possible, including political views. "

Ah, this is the problem. He's defining people holding different views to his and challenging his own stridently held views as "bullying". In that case, mate, be prepared to be "bullied" your entire life, as you grow up and realise not everyone believes what you do.

[RachelB]

The kid never let it go that he was conservative. It looks like he brought it up every opportunity he could get and then whined that he was being persecuted and indoctrinated when people disagreed with him.

"If teachers want bullying to end with homosexuals, other races or religious beliefs, they should want it to end with every type of bullying possible, including political views. "

Ah, this is the problem. He's defining people holding different views to his and challenging his own stridently held views as "bullying". In that case, mate, be prepared to be "bullied" your entire life, as you grow up and realise not everyone believes what you do.

He has an adolescent version of the very confused understanding of U.S. First Amendment rights that some totally persecuted people (many of them fundies) seem to have. They claim that their freedom to speak is abridged whenever they face consequences for what they've said, because they can't grasp that freedom to speak is not the same thing as freedom from criticism, and because they forget that other people also have the freedom to speak (and assemble, and boycott).

[Stephanie66]

FWIW, he went to a charter school for elementary.

Charter schools in WI are public schools, paid with tax dollars. My sister teaches at a charter school in Racine, WI and is a part of the regular Racine School District.

Charter schools differ by state. Some are privately run for profits, others are part of the school district. The primary difference is funding and how they get their students. In my sister's school, it's strictly first-come-first-served. In private charters, they can pick and choose students.

[RosyDaisy]

First of all, politics and religion have no place in public schools except as it pertains to courses in the curriculum. Second, challenging someone by questioning what they have said about their beliefs is not even close to bulling or persecuting. Conservatives and fundies wouldn't know persecution if it bit them on the ass.

[Savoring Samsara]

Um, did you go to school in Sacramento?

No, this was in the Midwest United States. Holy crap, are there two jerky conservative high school civics teachers named Mr. Jeffries out there?d :o

[Wolfie]

No, this was in the Midwest United States. Holy crap, are there two jerky conservative high school civics teachers named Mr. Jeffries out there?d :o

Pretty sure the one I'm thinking of has retired. He was teaching English and world religions when I had him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he taught government/Civics at one point too, he had his pets and his not favorites, I was in between. I did have a high school English teacher who hated me, but she is retired.