Another Day, Another School Attacks Freedom Of Speech

On Wednesday, we posted about a young girl suing her school after it stomped all over her First Amendment rights, all because she supported the Second Amendment. Madison Oster is fighting back, as she should. In fact, her father–at the suggestion of Bearing Arms readers and commenters on Facebook–started a GoFundMe for people to contribute to Madison’s fight.

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However, Madison isn’t the only teen fighting for their First Amendment right to defend the Second. Not by a long shot.

A Lodi, California teen is speaking out over the treatment she and other students received from a teacher after having the temerity to wear a National Rifle Association shirt.

An angry mother is speaking out after she says a Lodi High School history teacher targeted students wearing T-shirts advertising the National Rifle Association.

“She was basically being attacked in class,” said mother Charlene Craig.

Two sophomores were wearing the NRA shirts when they say they were singled out in class by their teacher, who started schooling them on why guns are bad.

It happened during history class on Friday.

“He basically yelled at her, telling her that she would be writing an essay if she disagreed with him.”

Craig says her 15-year-old daughter was lectured, while another student was sent to the principal’s office for refusing to take off the NRA shirt- a shirt that supports lifestyles they’ve grown up within families of hunters and farmers.

The shirt in question doesn’t actually feature a firearm, something that many schools forbid on student clothing. Instead, it features the bottom of shell casings lined up with an American flag superimposed on them.

In other words, a shirt that should have been perfectly fine. As the above-linked report notes, the rules explicitly say weapons. A round is useless by itself.

The problem here is that some teachers believe their animosity toward the Second Amendment and the NRA is somehow righteous and should be supported at all levels, including by the students’ parents. They believe that righteousness should make them immune to criticism or punishment. These are the same teachers who can’t be trusted with firearms because they suck at their jobs, mind you.

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Well, they aren’t. I’m damn proud Craig is speaking out about the treatment her daughter received.

For the record, the school acknowledged that the shirt is fine and says it will refresh the training staff received on the dress code.

Frankly, the problem isn’t the dress code, or even the training teachers have on it. The problem is a teacher who can’t separate their own political beliefs from their job, which is to educate students on a specifically defined topic. History, in this case.

In fact, I wonder if the history teacher in question has ever bothered to look at why we have a Second Amendment and what the historical figures from that period said about the right to keep and bear arms. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say that he didn’t. If he did, he clearly didn’t understand anything he read on the topic.

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