What would you do if a teacher blurted out an obscene word
in a high school classroom?
This hypothetical question is prompted by the following
event, which has been spreading around the Internet like
wildfire:
Last night in New York City, Sue Simmons, a popular
anchorwoman on a local news broadcast, used the "f"-word
during a live news promo on WNBC-TV.
She was delivering the teaser for a story about rising
grocery prices when, suddenly, the video switched to a
cruise ship that had a passenger go overboard.
Ms. Simmons, who was off-camera at the time, blurted
out, "What the f**k are you doing?!"
So, what if either a tenured or probationary teacher made
that exact same remark in the heat of anger to a high
school student during class?
Would your response depend upon whether you'd heard about
the incident from the teacher directly, the student whom
the remark was directed to, the parents of that student,
the parents of other students from that same class, or the
superintendent's office?
Would your response depend upon your prior opinion of the
teacher?
Would your response depend upon any local or Internet
publicity or notoriety that the teacher's remark received?