This is the disease that is liberalism and it is comes courtesy of the party of criminal frauds aka Democrats. This is what they meant when they were tossing that word around , "progressive". Yes the democrat disease is progressive. "NO QUESTION ABOUT IT"

This has to be Chimpy McHalibushitler's doing with his No Child Left Behind Act.

If we had more money for schools, instead of baby-killing soldiers, this would have never happened.

Hurting children for laughs is about as low and disgusting as a person can get.

I think a few more awards should handed out, like the "School District Most Likely to Get Sued In the Near Future" award, the "Teachers Most Likely to Be Told They Can Go Find New Jobs" award, and of course, the always-popular "Most Likely to Find Out That Parents Don't Forgive or Forget" award.

Winners will receive lovely steel bracelets which lock behind their back, and a personal conference with a judge to dicsuss new vocational options, and of course private quality time with large, foul-smelling individuals who pass around child abusers like trading cards.

No doubt what they were *thinking* was to reproduce the sort of "graduation" traditions from high school.

You know, those snarky awards that 17 and 18 year olds give to each other? (Mine was a "humanitarian award" which was actually sort of fun, if embarassing, because it was for putting my car in the ditch to avoid running over a squirrel. Yes, ice was involved. The year book "prophecy" and little "sayings" were more hurtful, but my best friend was on the year book committee and made them take out the worst one about me.)

But now we "graduate" kindergarten. "Graduate" from elementary. "Graduate" from middle school. Often enough with little gowns and graduation hats.

So, what they were *thinking* was graduation.

Which just means they were doubly stupid.

I don't get it. What were those teachers even trying to say??

MunDane: Traitorcrat in action. Keep telling us how patriotic you people are - please.

Synova:

But now we "graduate" kindergarten. "Graduate" from elementary. "Graduate" from middle school. Often enough with little gowns and graduation hats.

As an American ex-pat living in the Philippines I "tolerate" this same kind of crap out of the schools here. (private in my case but public schools do the same)

Jeebus... my pre-schooler had a grad ceremony complete with cap and gown.

The teachers in this case would get one hell of a lot more than a "reprimand" if I were their boss.

They'd hit the unemployment line.

"I don't get it. What were those teachers even trying to say??"

I can't figure that out either. If it were high school it might be "too ugly to ever get laid."

To put the idiocy into perspective... when my brother was just old enough to have figured out where babies came from my Mom found him crying because he could never have children. He felt better after she explained a father's part in it.

It might not be the most common thing, but children think about that. I think it partly ties into their own identity and existence as they figure out how the world works.

Maybe the kid deserved it.

He may really be an awful kid that no one can stand, and probably too dumb to even know he was insulted.

Such kids do exist.

No child deserves to be treated that way, Ken. Come on, get serious...

Do you have children? If so, could you ever imagine hurting your child this way?

Does anyone wonder why the death rate in schools is so high and soon to be higher. If one of those children was mine, the teacher would be fired or die, no other choice and more parents are going to start making the same decisions. It's the only way out with the liberals, Someone will have to kill a bunch of them to wake up those left. I'm serious as a heart attack, this has to and will happen in the near future. Push people enough and they'll take action. Of course when someone beats a teachers skull (no brain to injure) with a baseball bat the rest will start screaming to ban guns. The democrats really are mentally ill. Gaza will look like a Sunday picnic.

"Such kids do exist."

They grow up to democrats like Lee Ward.

"They grow up to democrats like Lee Ward."

Let me guess, Rob, you were home-schooled, right?

Apparently this is part of Decatur Intermediate Learning Center's "One Child Left Behind" policy.

I remember the high school traditions referred above, with the snarky jibes. At our school, they were the Senior Class Last Will and Testament ("I, Joe Jones, leave Cathy Smith hunting crabs at the beach") and the Senior Predictions ("In ten years, Mitzi Galore will be putting on her makeup in her McDonald's drive-thru booth").

They were mean, nasty, and intended to be - BUT they were also written by students for and about their peers.

Teachers doing it to young kids just isn't acceptable. They should be fired, not reprimanded. If the school administration approved the practice, or knew of it but failed to order it stopped, they should be fired also.

Sorry Lee, I just think some kids are born rotten.

You know, the kids who set cats on fire. The kids who abuse other kids, and so on.

I have met a few of these types. They deserve whatever they get.

"I just think some kids are born rotten."

True, on one hand. But then on the other, it may sometimes be parent's fault. Maybe it's actually the parent that should get the ridicule and "recognition".

Teachers like that are another example why parents decide to home-school their children. Yet another example of why our public schools suck.

Okay, let me be clear up front.

What the teachers did was inexcusable. They should be fired, and this incident should follow them so closely that a career change should be necessary. By which I mean no self-respecting school, public or private, should ever employ them again.

But... with regard to this child and his family...

WHAT. THE. F*CK.

"Words cut deeper than any knife could. They hurt," said his stepfather, Joseph Sims. "When you hurt a child like that, you not only hurt him mentally, but it does hurt physically because you withdraw within yourself. That is what Matthew has done."

Give me a break.

When I was a kid, it was "Sticks and stones will break my bones but word will never hurt me."

Now, as an adult, it's the same.

If I depend on what others think or say about me to define my self-worth, I sell myself short, and leave myself with a long, arduous journey through life.

These parents should teach this kid some coping techniques double quick. But it probably will do no good.

He's too far gone down the road to becoming another whining, blame-everyone-but-me-for-everything liberal basket case, dependent on government largesse for every basic need.

Liberal parenting in action.

The proper responses?

To the teacher who awarded the "Most Likely Not To Have Children Award," ask if his/her parents had any children that lived.

To the teacher who awarded the "Sir Clowns-A-Lot Award," say, "Well, it sure beats the 'Sir/Madam Feces Breath Award' in your office."

Grow a goddam pair, kid.

After I the comments I stand on what I have done for 13 years...Home school.

The kids need role models not snot nosed teachers. And if teasing from kids were the case this would be different. This was done by a bunch of whining teachers, crying that they were just joking. Hey joke on someone else's dime, or get a job where you work with people that are not depending on you for guidance, education, and love.

I've seen kids messed up early on first, by their parents. They couldn't get a break from their teachers, either. "Growing a pair" could also mean growing up violent.

Their are teachers that screw up royally by being child molesters, or being overly violent themselves and get away with it until they finally get caught. Yes, I did see examples of this in my own school when I was growing up. Fortunately, I was never the recipient of such abuse. I suppose in a perfect world, there would be one perfect answer.

I agree with pgg about this. Seems to me that the people involved were just trying to have fun, as shown in the "Sir Clowns-a-Lot" reference.

Jeez, people, I thought you guys were the ones giving the FuzzyLibs a hard time about being so touchy-feely about everything. There's no guarantee anywhere that you'll never be offended, but beyond that, I don't see the offensiveness about this unless the parents were of the professionally-offended class along with Jesse Jackson and his ilk, who go around looking for trouble at every opportunity.

And LAB, learning to deal with the little emotional bumps and bruises is called "growing up." You can't put your kid in a bubble either physically or emotionally. Let them live and learn to deal with this sort of stuff.

If they'd have said something like that about me when I was in grade school, my parents would have been laughing louder than anyone...

"Emotional bumps and bruises" are supposed to be helped along with the support of a teacher, Paul.

I suppose that if the kids father were a logger they would have made him wear a sign reading MY DADDY KILLS TREES becuase their so into this GAIA.EARTH MOTHER pagan new age poppycock bull kaka SCREW CAPTIAN PLANET

This is what you get with government schools and the NEA. Now if they gave out the awards in Spanish, no one would have been offended (except the illegal alien kids).

But wait a minute! I thought the liberal mantra was for our teachers to put an emphasis on "self-esteem". So what is it? Self-esteem or ridicule? Which role is the proper one for the teacher? Should they teach the "sticks and stones" metaphor? Or should they be wielding the sticks and stones?

"pgg": When that ridicule comes from an authoritative figure it does considerably more damage. Had this come from his peers, you may have an argument with your "sticks and stones" analogy.

LAB said:
>>"Emotional bumps and bruises" are supposed to be helped along with the support of a teacher, Paul.

You're right, but I just don't see anything hurtful here. A lot of kids ENJOY being the class clown. I can remember the kids who made me laugh and I certainly didn't think they were inferior because of it.

I think the whole issue is that people seem to have lost their sense of humor lately. You can blame it on political correctness or whatever, but the bottom line is that good-natured banter is now considered tantamount to insulting someone. I would much rather have a teacher who wasn't afraid to let his humanity show by cracking a joke or something than one who just sat behind his desk like an automaton...

Paul,

I think the whole issue is that people seem to have lost their sense of humor lately. You can blame it on political correctness or whatever, but the bottom line is that good-natured banter is now considered tantamount to insulting someone. I would much rather have a teacher who wasn't afraid to let his humanity show by cracking a joke or something than one who just sat behind his desk like an automaton...

You don't get it. This kind of ridicule by a teacher toward a 11/12 year old in front of his peers is totally unacceptable. This person (can't call the asshole a teacher) should be FIRED. What a disgrace to teachers everywhere. What did this asshole thing he was teaching with this exercise in idiocy? Goverment schools.. What a fricking joke.

"Severus Snape, a teacher at the school, declined to comment."

The PC thing is calling teachers "educators." This kid just got educated a new one. Immediate firing of whoever came up with this gem of an award is the only acceptible outcome, with suspension of any other teacher who signed the award.

I have had about seven great teachers, dozens of good teachers, four poor teachers, and one that was rotten to the core. He never did anything this bad, though.

Some kids like getting teased and being a clown, others don't. The teachers should have known which was which.

The high school graduation stuff I "laughed off" hurt pretty dang bad. It was all about how stupid and slow I was... not because I was stupid or slow, but because I didn't fit in. And that was when I was 18.

And it wasn't the teachers doing it.

I've never had to put up with anything remotely similar in my life. Not at college, not in the military, not at any job.

This idea that it is important for children to learn to smile while people around them are mean confuses me because once out of school, somehow, meanness stops being so acceptable. The "skill" learned simply isn't applicable to real life.

Unless we're learning to endure abuse.

Like that's a *good* thing.

Thx, BillyBob. Saved me some time.