OldLady
Diamond Member
- Nov 16, 2015
- 69,568
- 19,611
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Only one poster piped up about the embarrassing consequences of a group of Virginia parents who sparked a wave of mass hysteria that ended up closing their school district Friday due to security concerns. That thread got shut down for swearing, so I'll try my first OP.
Everyone could have done better here.
The teacher should have realized the religious content of the callligraphy exercise would create concerns, especially in December 2015, but maybe she hasn't been watching enough cable news....
The parents should have acted more like grown ups in their communications with the school, but maybe they forgot they weren't on an anonymous message board....
The school should have ... well, it sounds to me as if the school administrators did their best for a week to tamp out the fire, until the hostility spread like a wild fire through social media outside their district and their state....
So now this embarrassing incident has been reported internationally, the parents look foolish, and 10,000 kids missed a day of school. Hopefully, things will have calmed down by Monday...
It isn't so much that some parents had objections to the assignment, but that they created a wave of mass hysteria, that bothers me. Anxiety is high and social media has saturated our lives and our consciousness. It's a nice, dry pile of kindling waiting for any passing spark to ignite. There are many divere opinions on USMB, as it should be. This is just a reminder that your words are very powerful, so aim carefully.
Everyone could have done better here.
The teacher should have realized the religious content of the callligraphy exercise would create concerns, especially in December 2015, but maybe she hasn't been watching enough cable news....
The parents should have acted more like grown ups in their communications with the school, but maybe they forgot they weren't on an anonymous message board....
The school should have ... well, it sounds to me as if the school administrators did their best for a week to tamp out the fire, until the hostility spread like a wild fire through social media outside their district and their state....
So now this embarrassing incident has been reported internationally, the parents look foolish, and 10,000 kids missed a day of school. Hopefully, things will have calmed down by Monday...
It isn't so much that some parents had objections to the assignment, but that they created a wave of mass hysteria, that bothers me. Anxiety is high and social media has saturated our lives and our consciousness. It's a nice, dry pile of kindling waiting for any passing spark to ignite. There are many divere opinions on USMB, as it should be. This is just a reminder that your words are very powerful, so aim carefully.