Should a history teacher be forced to resign for showing a Youtube clip about Trump?

MIDDLETOWN  - A popular Middletown High School South teacher was made to resign for showing his students a video clip that poked fun at Donald Trump, according to news reports.

Joe Ventre agreed to step down at the end of the year after administrators — prompted by at least one parental complaint — took issue with the history teacher showing a segment from HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," according to the New York Post.

Parents and students voiced their displeasure with the decision at a school board meeting earlier this week.
One student's online petition has gathered more than 2,100 signatures as of this morning.

Signers called the teacher's forced departure "ridiculous" and "a travesty of justice." Others described Ventre "kindhearted", "amazing" and "a model teacher."

http://www.app.com/story/news/education/in-our-schools/2016/04/22/middletown-nj-ventre-donald-drumpf/83379230/

http://nypost.com/2016/04/22/teacher-axed-for-showing-make-donald-drumpf-again-video/

Not sure why he showed the video.  Without the proper context, it seems like a waste of time.  However, this doesn't come close to being a firing offense.

So, in Middletown, they can fire a teacher for ruffling the feathers of Trump supporters while in MSO, we can't fire teachers with good cause?  If this teacher has tenure, I don't think this will get past an admin law judge.

"According to The NY Post" roughly translates to "total horse*****."

Today, the staff member withdrew their letter of resignation," he said. "Therefore, there is no action regarding this employee before the (school) board at this time."

tjohn said:

Not sure why he showed the video.  Without the proper context, it seems like a waste of time.  However, this doesn't come close to being a firing offense.

So, in Middletown, they can fire a teacher for ruffling the feathers of Trump supporters while in MSO, we can't fire teachers with good cause?  If this teacher has tenure, I don't think this will get past an admin law judge.

That's what I'm thinking. I also wonder how he was talked into resigning. Maybe there's more that wasn't in the new story.

If the teacher was a social studies teacher or maybe an English teacher, it could be justified. If it was done in a math class or science, more difficult to justify.

The “Last Week Tonight” bit, lampoons Donald Trump’s ancestral surname.  If a student had their name lampooned by other students in the playground would it be a form of bullying? 

There is the point that Trump is a public figure, but the Youtube clip should not have been shown in the classroom.  By by teacher.

It is certainly not an offence that should lose one a job. This time. But he does need to agree to be more evenhanded. I am not a fan of Trump at all but in our town's middle school the teachers do express a lot of anti-Trump views to the students and nothing anti about any of the other candidates. That is not proper. Regardless.

Of course it's proper to ridicule an obvious object of ridicule. Are we really supposed to pretend that the Trump candidacy is just like any other? If you ask me a teacher would be quite derelict in not pointing out the quite disastrous nature of Trump. 

Sometimes you can't be evenhanded because it simply makes no sense to do so, and requires you to ignore history and reality. Teachers are there to impart wisdom - not to pretend that black is white.

drummerboy said:

Of course it's proper to ridicule an obvious object of ridicule. Are we really supposed to pretend that the Trump candidacy is just like any other? If you ask me a teacher would be quite derelict in not pointing out the quite disastrous nature of Trump. 

Sometimes you can't be evenhanded because it simply makes no sense to do so, and requires you to ignore history and reality. Teachers are there to impart wisdom - not to pretend that black is white.

Should have shown a video of the gulag fetishist then.

lord_pabulum said:

The “Last Week Tonight” bit, lampoons Donald Trump’s ancestral surname.  If a student had their name lampooned by other students in the playground would it be a form of bullying? 

There is the point that Trump is a public figure, but the Youtube clip should not have been shown in the classroom.  By by teacher.

Wasn't the lampooning  a response to Trump poking fun at Jon Stewart for changing his last name?   

Jackson_Fusion said:

drummerboy said:

Of course it's proper to ridicule an obvious object of ridicule. Are we really supposed to pretend that the Trump candidacy is just like any other? If you ask me a teacher would be quite derelict in not pointing out the quite disastrous nature of Trump. 

Sometimes you can't be evenhanded because it simply makes no sense to do so, and requires you to ignore history and reality. Teachers are there to impart wisdom - not to pretend that black is white.

Should have shown a video of the gulag fetishist then.

I suppose that makes sense somewhere.

The smart thing to do is clear it with the principal in advance. I showed documentaries that were edgy, but I always got permission. And if they were graphic, they had the option not to watch.