Many found it beyond inappropriate:
He read the comments verbatim, even naming the students who wrote them in some cases, witnesses said.
“He was doing it loudly and pretty angrily,” student Rachel William. “Some of the teachers tried to stop him, and said things like ‘You shouldn’t be naming students.”
Student Stephen Small said “Some teachers immediately were outraged to hear the language that was used … some people still feel it was inappropriate to read them word for word.”
This guy wants to be Governor or Senator, but he’s not above bullying kids at high school.
With Harvard Pilgrim CEO Charlie Baker sounding more like a potential 2010 gubernatorial candidate (and with Brown recognizing that he would have a very hard time defeating Baker in a GOP primary), Brown thinks he has a better chance at walking into a GOP Senate nomination and taking on Senator Kerry in 2008.
But first he’ll have to explain to every parent in Massachusetts why he thinks it’s OK to bully kids at school just because some kids called him names on a website.
How do you react when someone attacks you personally and goes after your kids?
<
p>
Scott Brown did not bully kids. He read allowed the hate filled comments they posted about him and his family.
<
p>
<
p>
<
p>
The names of the students were on the web page, its not like he had to have the posts investigated.
<
p>
Why don’t you have anything to say about the inappropriate aspect of bringing his family into this? Because you disagree with his politics its OK?
<
p>
And this information was posted on a teacher’s page. Was he promoting this type of dialog? What kind of example or lesson is that?
<
p>
OK so it was a couple of questions.
JK, the difference is that Sen Brown is an adult, and should know better than to single out students in public. The fact that their comments were on the internet does not mean that all the other students at the assembly were aware of that fact. Now they are, thanks to the senator. It is very easy for an adult to intimidate a kid. It is certainly not appropriate for a state senator to do it, period. If he had a problem with the comments aimed at him and/or his daughter, he should have dealt with those families directly. WHat a bully.
A) Holding an assembly where you call out the kids in front of their entire class (or the entire school) just to stare them down?
<
p>
or
<
p>
B) Contacting the school principal to alert the principal to the inappropriate website posts and privately dealing with it? Maybe ask the principal to meet with the individual students or speak to their parents, behind closed doors, not in front of their classmates.
<
p>
I haven’t seen the actual posts on Facebook.com, but I can’t imagine it’s any worse or more absurd than what teenage flamers write about other public figures in entertainment and politics.
<
p>
I would imagine that if even the teachers were trying to stop Brown at a certain point, then he must have been getting pretty well out of line. If Brown wants to set an example, he should try exhibiting a little discretion and a little class. Calling out students, for whatever reason, in front of their classmates, ostensibly to embarrass them, seems to be a form of intimidation and bullying.
<
p>
Why else call them out in front of their classmates instead of behind closed doors with the principal and their parents?
It is my understanding that this was a Catholic school – I haven’t really read the sotry, but heard it on the radio.
<
p>
If I were Sen. Brown, I would NOT have used the explatives, but I WOULD have said, “Johnny Jones called my daughter, who has nothing to do with politics, a vile name. Freida Kahlo called me a worse one. And Sam Spade used not only bad language, but accused me of racist acts. They are not representative of your student body, and they should be ashamed, as well as the teacher that tolerated such language and character assassination on his web page, sending a signal that such discussion and unfounded accusation are acceptable in a civilized society. The teacher made the worst blunder of all.”
<
p>
We could do with a little more public shaming when the occasion warrants; and fewer lawsuits and private fixes so nobody need ever know, and bad behavior can continue unchecked.
It was at King Phillip Regional High School in Wrentham, which is, as far as I know, a public school. Why that would make any difference one way or another is beyond me.
<
p>
When the kids brought his family into it, they crossed a line, sure. But is Scott Brown or his family impacted in any way by what highschoolers say about them on the internet? It’s not as if they were cyberstalking his daughter.
<
p>
Anyway, even if the kids were wrong, that doesn’t make Brown right for going into the school and intimidating them. It’s no different, Peter, then if someone you insulted on the Internet called you up at home and said “I know where you live, stop talking about me.”
PP – If the goal is to nip inappropriate behavior in the bud, again (beyond just being more mature), a private meeting with the principal and the students or the students’ parents and Senator Brown would have been far more appropriate.
<
p>
With some teenagers being rebellious rabble-rousers, you don’t think Senator Brown’s “performance” at the school would actually encourage a couple of students to increase this type of behavior? It’s not possible that one student might think, “Hey, if insulting Scott Brown got him to come to our school, let’s insult Governor Patrick or Curt Schilling or Britney Spears and they might come by.”
<
p>
And if the teacher was posting inappropriately (and I have no idea one way or the other without having seen the Facebook entries), then the school should deal with it. Privately. Not in front of the entire school.
<
p>
Bad behavior should not continue unchecked – be that bad behavior the students’ or Scott Brown’s.
is an adult, so it’s not too much to ask that he actually act like one and model the social behaviors civil societies value.
<
p>
Public humiliation and embarrassment do not teach; they merely humiliate and embarrass. Anyone with judgment as poor as that of Mr. Brown is not suited for higher office. If a teacher was involved, then it’s a matter for school administration, parents, the students themselves, and Mr. Brown. Geez. The guy needs to get a grip.
Best chance to bring back Yankee Republicanism and defeat Senator Windbag, oh well, the other names mentioned in that article are all conservative hardliners, Browns anti marriage, as is Healy, Card is associated with the evil administration, and the other State Senators I am unfamiliar with but presumably are not pro marriage and are socially conservative.
<
p>
Oh well. Edward Brooks is still alive isn’t he? Or perhaps one of the Democrats will have the spine to challenge Kerry?
So I’m not so certain that EVERYBODY is anti-marriage. There’s a whole lot of assumin’ going’ on.
Any other names you want to serve up? We do know of maybe one more, don’t we?
i thought when PP said ‘lifestyle’, she meant Tarr voted down a new golf course or something. silly me, i forget that some people don’t understand the difference between hobbies and human biology.
He’s got the looks. He talks the talk. He walks the walk. But WHAAATTT? Angrily denouncing his high school critics in front of their class? Repeating profanities at school? One would think his skin had long ago grown a little thicker and his manners a little more refined.
<
p>
From what is out on the google news feeds, it seems that this was meant to be some sort of civics lesson. Civility should have been in important part of the lecture.
<
p>
I’m betting his gambit did not reduce the profanity on the FaceBook page.
…such as they are.
<
p>
So I don’t see how I or anyone else is really in a position to know the tone or context of Sen. Brown’s use of the f-word, other than that he didn’t use it as an expletive, but as a quote.
Suffice to say, however, that I would not have used the full word in that setting. Its use probably wasn’t necessary for him to make his point.
<
p>
But I have had a lot of experience with bullies, male and female, and I’ll say without hesitation that if (and only if) the names of the persons posting the obscene internet comments were not in doubt, then there was absolutely nothing wrong with publicly exposing them. In fact, the louder, the better.
<
p>
Bullies, internet and otherwise, do not respond to polite entreaties and reason.