Brickbat: Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?

Jezenia Gambino says her daughter is too embarrassed to return to the elementary school she attends in Port St. Lucie, Florida, after the girl's fifth-grade teacher asked her if she and another girl were dating in front of classmates. Gambino says her daughter later got a text from the other girl, who was concerned about the questioning. "She wasn't sure if they should hang out together anymore because of what happened in school. She didn't want anyone to think they were gay," said Gambino. The teacher has been reported by the school system to the Florida Department of Education for having an inappropriate communication with the girl.

Comments

[Adans smith]

Why would a teacher even ask a question like that of little kids? This crap of kids thinking their gay or trans when their still in grade school seems to be an agenda for some of the radical LTGBDEXZ what ever people. Targeting kids is just sick. And still no corona cases in my county or the near by ones.

[loveconstitution1789]

Good portions of what teachers teach kids, is worthless social knowledge rather than academics.

Even with the single greatest invention to allow easy access to vast amounts of knowledge, Millennials and GenZers tend to be stupid.

[Cyto]

Hey, they have YouTube. You can get walkthroughs on any level of any video game in history on there. And you can watch people open boxes of things they bought on Amazon.

(us old-timers even use it to look up videos on how to replace the motor on our clothes dryer. )

[JoeJoetheIdiotCircusBoy]

Agreed. They tend to be as stupid as the boomers and GenXers I run into who still can't figure out how to use a computer, basic computer software, smart phones, a TV remote, the console interface on their new car, etc. etc.

[Shitlord of the Woodchippers]

Progressives want to make homosexuality and transgenderism normal and heterosexuality the outlier. They also want to drive Christianity out of our society. Social conditioning of young children is part of the process.

Every evil thing progressives have been accused of is absolutely true.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Gambino believes the district has not done enough to protect her daughter and has enrolled her in homeschooling to finish the school year.

Another satisfied customer. Or not. Who cares? They're getting her money either way.

[Jerryskids]

The teacher has been reported by the school system to the Florida Department of Education for having an inappropriate communication with the girl.

Will this complaint be forwarded to the Attorney General's office with a recommendation that the AG send an officer from the Florida State Police to the school and issue a beat-down and a 3-second tasering or macing (officer's choice!) to the teacher? Why is "the school system" even getting involved, can't the principal simply call the teacher into the office and tell the teacher not to be asking kids potentially embarrassing questions and, if necessary, explain to the teacher why asking kids potentially embarrassing questions is not a good teaching method? Maybe suggest to the teacher that having a private conversation with the student and apologizing for the embarrassing question might be in order.

At that point, you can determine real damn quick whether the teacher was asking a sarcastic question of a couple of disruptive students who keep talking to each other and passing each other notes in class, whether the teacher was simply asking an innocent but awkward question, or whether the teacher is a he/she/it deliberately asking provocative questions just to freak out the squares who ain't hip to today's culture.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

I think we can determine if the teacher was acting in good faith, if she added, "not that there is anything wrong with that".

[Dan S.]

Exactly. It does sound like an inappropriate question to ask fifth graders, but not in the way that word has been effectively weaponized of late ("reported by the school system to the Florida Department of Education for having an inappropriate communication with the girl"). I'm also a bit surprised the kids are taking it so seriously. I would have thought they would just think it a very silly question, and move on.

[Necron 99]

Wait, 5th graders have cell phones? I'm so out of touch.

[loveconstitution1789]

You're not out of touch. It's ridiculous that all kids that age have cell phones. Especially since many schools are now prisons where a parent drops their kids in the custody of the school and get the kids from the custody of the school officials.

A latchkey kid or a kid walking home, alright, a cell makes sense in case something happens.

Remember when you hear some parents complain that they cant cut anything from their budgets. Add in that it is "wrong" to allow some kids to have and other kids to have not.

[Still Curmudgeoned (Nunya)]

My kid was the weirdo. He didn’t have a phone until high school. He got one then because it is difficult navigating the technology of the school without it. All of his friends would text his mom to ask for him from their phones. Funny thing is, his friends that all have cellphones all think we are rich. I’m not rich, but I don’t spend money in stupid places.

Except for having a pool. That money pit is about to take $10,000 grand away from me. Anyone know a good pool resurfacer in the Dfw area?

[mad.casual]

A latchkey kid or a kid walking home, alright, a cell makes sense in case something happens.

Now imagine you allow your child to be a 'latchkey kid' for all kinds of activities besides school. That school isn't some exception to their personal development or exploration of the world.

Sure, some parents use phones in lieu of a helicopter, but that means some parents use a phone in lieu of a helicopter.

[Cyto]

Outstanding!

Also, the helicopter cell phone can act as a geofence. You can make sure they really are at practice and not up to no good.

I watch the kids arriving in the morning at middle school. A lot of them are wandering in quite late - clearly mom and dad had to go to work before the kid left. I'd have a cell phone on my kid in that situation too.

[mad.casual]

I'm a little bit curious as to why you would assume they don't/can't? If you didn't have the money for a phone and/or an extra line, that makes sense but 5th grade is 10 yrs. old. Were you not allowed to talk on your home phone at 10?

And I'm not saying you specifically are guilty of this but I also don't get the simultaneous: "Kids should be allowed (legally) to take and share selfies.", "Kids should be smart enough not to take and share naked selfies.", and "Kids shouldn't be allowed to have phones until they're 18." Give a phone to a 10 yr. old and you'll get years of polite, normal, well-adjusted use out of a phone where standards and expectations are easy to enforce. You won't even get minutes of that with any except the most (almost pathologically) well-behaved teens. It seems in some people's minds there's this weird immaculate conception when it comes to childrens' phone/social habits.

[Cyto]

They all have cell phones by 6th grade. 5th is a little on the early side - but probably 40% have them by then. In middle school, they all have cell phones. Teachers have cellphone caddies by the doors with the kid's names on the pockets - so they can tell if they put their phone up there.

And the driving force isn't just the kids. It is the moms. They want to "be able to get in touch" with their kid when they need to. I talk to all of the moms... it is unanimous. The dads? We are mostly in the "yeah, this is a bit ridiculous, but what are you gonna do?" camp.

I'm the only follower of civil liberties issues, so I'm the only one who is terrified that some chick is going to send my son a picture of her boobs and get him put on a sex offender registry for the rest of his life.

[I am the 0.000000013%]

The teacher was probably just checking to see if the student was available for 'dating'.

[Cyto]

Whaddaya gonna do? It's the Pizzle.

I should have the kid talk to my 4th grade daughter. I watched her handle that suggestion (albeit not from a teacher). When some kid said, "you're gay", she said, "That's right, I kiss girls all the time!", rolled her eyes and went on like nothing bothered her in the least.

Sometimes "screw you and the horse you rode in on" is the appropriate answer.

That being said... when I encountered a similar teacher-sanctioned insult in middle school, we went after her guns blazing and she lost her job. These sorts of things usually are not isolated incidents, but a part of a pattern of general incompetence.

[R Mac]

Your daughter sounds stunning and brave!

[Cyto]

We call her "The Bulldozer".

She's headed in her direction. You are welcome to come along or not as you please. But she's going over there. No deviation from her path..... a bulldozer.

When "over there" is in the right direction, her focus and intensity are amazing and wonderful. When "over there" isn't where I'd rather she'd be headed.... well... parenting is always a challenge, isn't it?

[James Anthony]

This was a leading question. No one should be forced to pay people to force a secular religion on the children of parents who believe differently.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

The way I'm reading this:

[Progressive] Teacher [to 10 year old child]: "Are you sure you're binary? Come on, join our team! It's the cool thing to do, unless you want to be part of the oppressive patriarchy, and you don't want that, do you?"

"And to the rest of you, how do you really KNOW who are truly the sex that was forced on you by birth? We need to have a conversation about this."

So glad my daughters are very functional adults and not dealing with this bullshit any more.

[Flaco]

Teacher might want to pick on a family with a different last name.