http://hotair.com/archives/2018/02/14/anti-military-city-councilman-refuses-resign/
High school government teacher Gregory Salcido made waves last month when he was caught trashing the military in his classroom. Reacting to a student who wore a Marines sweatshirt to class, Salcido said, "They're not like high-level thinkers, they're not academic people, they're not intellectual people; they're the freaking lowest of our low." The video went viral and Salcido was placed on administrative leave.
But Salcido also has a second job. He's a city councilman in Pico Rivera, the same LA suburb where he teaches. Tuesday night, he made his first public appearance since his comments went viral at a city council meeting. The council voted on a resolution asking Salcido to resign, which he has refused to do. He spent an hour listening to nearly 50 critics, many of them veterans. ...
None of it seems to have gotten through to Salcido. Instead of a genuine apology, he doubled down on calling people who join the military poor students. ...
In case it wasn't clear, serving your country is the equivalent of flipping burgers to Gregory Salcido. Look, I get that teachers have their own opinions about a variety of things and some of that is bound to come up in the classroom. If a veteran becomes a high school teacher and wants to talk about positives aspects of the military during an appropriate lecture, I wouldn't have a problem with that. Similarly, if a capital P pacifist wants to talk about his pacifism during a lecture on anti-war activism, I think that's fine.
What's not okay is what happened here. KTLA 5 reports that the student who was wearing the Marines sweatshirt Salcido objected to is 17-year-old Victor Quinonez. Why is he wearing a Marines sweatshirt? Because his father is a Marine Corps vet who served in Afghanistan ...
Salcido was way out of line. He singled out a student and made him an object lesson for the class because of his sweatshirt. He dumped all over the boy's father, implicitly calling him a moron, and then ordered the kid never to wear a Marines sweatshirt to his class again. All of that goes way beyond sharing a personal perspective as part of a lesson plan. This was closer to harassment. ...
I'm generally not a fan of forcing people out of their jobs over some slight infraction. Personal feelings aside, if it were one incident and Salcido apologized to the student and the family and promised never to do it again, I'd say cut him a break. But his response last night was basically: a) make himself the victim and b) double down on calling members of the military losers. If I'm the Pico Rivera school superintendent, I'd be looking at Salcido's comments at this meeting and wondering how long it will be before he appears in another viral video, mouthing off to another student.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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