It happens all over, for all kinds of reasons.

I agree, the teachers involved should be disciplined. The harshness of the discipline should be predicated on many things, not least of which is what actually occurred. The word "allegedly" is still in the charge.

I recall a local teachers' strike in which an elementary principal made a speech to the children about how horrible the teachers were, when several teachers' children were in the assembly. She lost her administrative position and was transferred to another school, where she received the benefits that the teachers struck to obtain.

Students in a neighboring district have been punished for refusing to attend an in-school program by a speaker who used religious evangelism to convey his anti-drug message. Lawsuits were filed, and settled. The activity was not repeated.

I also remember an elementary school PTO program on woodland ecology in which the presenter, with no warning, launched into an attack on nuclear generation of electricity, a professional activity of a sizable minority of students' parents. I didn't get a chance to speak up because my third-grade daughter did. (I was so proud!) We didn't hire her again, and the word went out on the grapevine so other groups were warned.

Apart from the erosion of respect for authority figures that occurs with such abuse of authority by teachers and administrators, their behavior makes it difficult to enforce school discipline aimed at curbing bullying. It's bad for teachers to act that way. It's even worse if it also happens at the bus stop, on the playground, in the restrooms... And if the teacher did it, it must be OK for Bobby or Tiffany to do it too, right?

I find this observation, quoted in the article, to be equally bigoted:
"Teaching tends to be a profession comprised of people of a liberal mind-set," said Rick Kenney, a senior at Gardiner Area High School in Maine who has enlisted in the Army. "Take those teachers, stick them in this area, and the results are disappointingly predictable."

This indicated a deeper problem, the assumption of children of conservative households that you can't expect anything better from liberals. But if he's a senior, he's probably only 18 years old. Though from what I read of some of his older colleagues, perhaps to expect improvement with age is to expect too much.

I wonder if future reporting will include an accounting of how many disappointingly predictable liberal teachers attacked military children. Two? Ten? Twenty? Forty? Out of how many hundreds? One is too many, but still, blanket condemnation of teachers because of the behavior of some is just as destructive as the attack on children is hateful.

Regards--
Mary Anne