Feel the Rainbow? Texas teacher fired over rainbow stickers

i hope Crosses get this treatment.

 

Sorry if this has already been explained. The exact reason why it happened was because Abbott got attacked for it from Huffines during primary season. Huffines specifically called out the website link as Texas and Abbott promoting the gay and trans agenda. And in my opinion, Abbott doesn't really care either way (and didn't know about it), but bends with the winds and fearing the far right, immediately shut that page down. The whole Texas doing the border wall thing wasn't an Abbott idea - he stole it from Huffines and yelled it louder.

 

this is gonna be a fun one

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/21/supreme-court-praying-football-coach/

excerpt:

The case calls for the Supreme Court once again to find the line between the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which forbids government endorsement of religion, and its free speech and free exercise clauses, which forbid restraints on the private observance of religion.

The 9th Circuit majority said the district was justified in its actions. The Supreme Court has recognized that public employees give up some of their First Amendment rights, because their speech can be construed as being that of the government. And the appeals court said that even if Kennedy’s prayers could be seen as private speech, the district could take action to avoid the appearance of an establishment clause violation.

Kennedy’s lawyers told the Supreme Court in his brief that the reasoning “is incompatible with this court’s precedents and the traditions of religious liberty they embody.”

“Teachers and coaches remain individuals with First Amendment rights on school premises, and the suppression of the individual religious expression of teachers and coaches is not permitted, let alone required, by the First Amendment,” the brief says.

It cites the court’s landmark 1969 decision that neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

In an amicus brief filed by Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and others, the court is asked to imagine Kennedy taking a knee for another reason — to protest racial injustice during the playing of the national anthem.

“That practice, like Kennedy’s prayers, is controversial — courageous to some and offensive to others,” the brief says. “But if Joe Kennedy had taken a knee to protest racial injustice, the District almost certainly would not have argued that his speech was somehow the state’s. Rather, there would have been no question that it was protected private speech.”
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more at the link

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From what I understand of that case is that yes the coach absolutely should be allowed to. He was doing a personal prayer after the game on the 50 yard line. If players or others wanted to join him that was their business. It wasn't like he was calling his team together for a "team prayer" where there was an expectation of players joining in the prayer if they wanted to be part of the team.

 

The shift to the extreme right that accelerated since 2016.

 

Didn't know it was viewed as posterization. Thought it was just viewed as exclusionary. Funny how people interpret symbols. My own interpretation is if someone has a cross up, it's because they proudly belong to the Christian religion. Nothing more.

The unfortunate situation is many States are pushing strongly against LGBT in 2022. 2022 is a record year of anti-LGBT laws (it's pretty obvious now that this is a Republican election strategy). That push from the States impacts the local, including school boards.

 

It depends. If a teacher has a cross on her person or at her desk is one thing. I think putting it up in the door window of the hallway is another.

THis is the similar debate regarding putting up the 10 Commandments in court rooms. A judge can certainly have the 10 Commandments displayed in his personal chambers but putting it in the courtroom is a different matter.

That is true too. And I've said repeatedly that even the proponents of the FL law are admitting that it will do very little and is a solution in search of a problem.

 

Used to play on a team that did this. I'd stand back with my arms behind my back, clearly not taking part. The amount of s*** I got for that was loud and it was frequent. I still never took part because 1) I'm Jewish and I'm not taking part in a prayer for Jesus...and 2) I knew better in high school that this wasn't proper.

It's not private when it's the head coach in the middle of the field seconds after a football game. It's not personal when it's a large group. I'm sure the players were permitted to not take part. I'm also sure those players were looked at differently and probably were given a lot of flak from their fellow players. The expectation of it might not have been publicly stated...but it was there.

 

Yup If coaches want to individually pray then let them have it. But demeaning students who don't partake explicitly violates the first amendment.

 

@generalthade_03 He's not black, you owe me. I know I'll never get paid though...

 

Ok, but he has defeated Huffines now. Maybe he can let up on the jackassery now?

 

I think his political calculus is still similar to primary season as it's more about vote mobilization than trying to appeal to some median voter. It's possible he thinks enough moderate voters who don't care about GLBT issues will vote for him that he can't really afford to turn towards the middle and scare away the hardcore conservatives. As crazy as most here think Abbott is, for a rich, funded, connected, ingrained 2-term Texas governor, it wasn't great that he only received 66.5% of the vote in the primaries in a divided field. For comparison, Beto won 91.4% of the vote. Abbott is probably thinking that converting Beto voters is a lost cause, so he has to appease the portion of the hardcores who hate him. A lot of conservatives hate Abbott. It's not prevalent here because many here are softcore conservatives who just pay lip service and like Trump. There's a huge subgroup of Trump loving, Abbott hating conservatives in Texas who won't vote for Beto, but may go 3rd party or not show up at all. That's the group that Abbott has been courting the most over the past year.

 

To be fair, there are black Jews...I'm just not one of them.

 

well there are numerous dissimilarities here, not sure you can compare them. The sticker case is a district-wide policy for ALL employees applied fairly across the board, in large part to avoid exactly the kind of mess the district finds itself in now.

the football case started as the coach alone, joined voluntarily by some players, then joined voluntarily again by some spectators, and then finally got so big from people volunteering to join the post-game "prayer" that the district decided it had become a spectacle, and then shut that specific instance of what you're calling "protected speech" down.

but this is what the Supreme Court is gonna have to figure out. should be an interesting decision

 

I actually agree with this, that sticker had no business being in a classroom.

The way the teaching shortage is going in Texas, they cannot be so quick to get rid of teachers.

 

This is true, not having a contract renewed is a mark against you as if you were fired.

 

I have to disagree here, I admit that I don't know everything that happened to here but that teacher knew what she was doing, and I am sure other teachers or admins talked to her about the sticker.

If that is didstrict policy the principal had no choice and it was probably out of her hands to renew the contract.

No principal in this day and time needs to be navigating stuff like that, and it's not the teacher's job to be offering counselling or talking about that typeof stuff anyway.