Ticklish Ears

From Michelle Malkin we get the story of a Marine who was not allowed to talk to Middle School students in Greene County, GA. Apparently, the Marine, Sgt. Zach Richardson, was a friend of one of the teachers at the school, Matthew Lund. Lund’s students had written letters to Richardson and some of his buddies while they were in Iraq.

Lund claims he submitted the proper paperwork for Richardson to visit but the principal ignored it. Then, on the day of the visit, the principal refused to let Richardson visit the kids because the proper paperwork had not been filled out.

That’s bad enough, but the richest part is the principal’s defense of her actions:

“My decision not to allow Zach Richardson to speak with the students on Monday came out of my regard for the safety and welfare of our children.”

Chew on that for a minute or two. Letting a US Marine visit your school somehow makes things less safe. A commenter to Ranting Right Wing Howler states the obvious:

Having a Marine in the classroom would INCREASE the childrens [sic] safety by several hundred percent…

As a veteran myself, I find this principal’s statement insulting. And her actions are … shall I say it? … unpatriotic.

The principal has no excuse for keeping Sgt. Richardson out of her school. Knowing what nonsense public school students are often subjected to (as a Kindergartener, my daughter was taken to a sales rally for her school’s second fundraising project of the year), I wouldn’t buy any “this is a distraction from their studies” line.

And not having the proper forms? Look, this is why she’s a principal. To make on-the-spot decisions like: maybe a visit by a Marine should be an exception to the rules.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Culture, The Academic Echo Chamber. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.