2 California teachers in trouble for showing classes Nick Berg beheading
 

Two Teachers Taken Out Of Classrooms
Local parents are outraged that students from two high schools allegedly watched or listened to the graphic beheading of an American in Iraq while in class under the supervision of teachers.

Two teachers in the Grossmont Union High School District have been taken out of their classrooms for allegedly allowing students to see images of the actual decapitation.

A full investigation by the district is under way, said school officials.

Kristi Sarff, the parent of a high-school student, said she found it unacceptable that the students would be shown American hostage Nick Berg's decapitation.

"I would be appalled if I found out he was in a classroom and saw that," said Sarff. "It's one thing in the privacy of your home, but it's not something a public school should be showing."

The two teachers, one from Grossmont High School and one from El Capitan High School, are on administrative leave for allegedly allowing students to see graphic images of the decapitation.


Off-camera, a student at Grossmont High told NBC 7/39 that his social-sciences teacher played an audiotape of Berg screaming, and then the teacher allegedly showed two still pictures of video -- of images of Berg immediately before and after the decaptitation.


for full article see http://www.nbcsandiego.com/education...26/detail.html

If the teacher warned the students beforehand and allowed those who chose to to leave the room, I see nothing wrong with this situation. However, if this isn't the case then the teachers got what they deserved.

I completely disagree. In an age when students go through metal detectors to attend class, no such violent films should be shown without parental consent.

Are the students allowd to watch the nightly news?

Did you see the actual beheading or hear the screams on the nightly news?

Not on the shows I saw. Major news divisions do still have broadcast standards departments.

I don't think it was shown on the nightly news in America, at all. And rightly so. I was referring to madmax's comment.

I agree with you 100%.

If we are talking about parental consent, I think the parents of students that are in highschool need to start looking out for things other than videos in the classroom.

Sex and teenage pregnancy, drug use and alcohol abuse and other problems like depression that many highschool aged people encounter.

I remember watching many videos in my history classes that were very graphic and the teacher would always warn us about what was coming and if people didn't want to stay and watch, they were allowed to leave. If we can show a woman giving birth in health classes, I don't see a problem with show the Nick Berg video. Oh, but showing birth is education....yet, so is the Nick Berg video, it shows us that the world is a sick, sick place.

In any event, unite the Fundies!

You have seen worse and so has everyone else. Last month the same networks were showing videos of the decapitated and charred civilian contractors whose bodies were hanging from a bridge. I have seen old videos of Viet Nam where a little girl had her skin melting off. Ever seen any pics from the Holocaust? JFK's head blowing up after he was shot?


[QUOTE]Originally posted by DeltAlum
Not on the shows I saw. Major news divisions do still have broadcast standards departments. [/QUOTE


Broadcast standards or political spin doctors?
If this was about broadcast standards then why is the video edited on the networks website? How come I can't even view the video online?

On the nightly news? In the classrooms? No, I have not seen worse.



Honestly, I have not seen any of those things. Maybe I missed that night. However, as often as I watch the news, both the regular nightly broadcasts on ABC/NBC and the news channels, such as MSNBC, Fox News, or CNN, if it was so commonplace, I think I would have seen it by now.

Because it's horrendous and disgusting. Because American news channels aren't going to put the beheading of someone on their news or their websites. Do you think the parents of Berg need to see their child's head cut off in the media? That's not the work of spin doctors, that's broadcasting standards and decency in general.

Damasa and mad max have a good point. I hadn't considered the video in context. I definitely saw holocaust footga ein high school that was very gruesome.

I guess people are going nuts because its so current.

Yeah unite the Fundies that will be the first to flash up graphic pics of aborted fetuses within 100 yards of an elementary school (this actually happened here recently). :rolleyes:
I, too, saw Holocaust footage and the "Miracle of Life" video and all the other so-called graphic material. Granted, I was in high school and mature enough to somewhat understand the ramifications of what I was seeing. If this were shown to younger students, I'd definitely have a problem with it. Any comments from the students themselves? It may have been disturbing, but real life is pretty disturbing sometimes. We can't live in a bubble forever. :(

Interesting...
 

Read:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/3300057/detail.html

I didn't see any Holocaust footage in high school, but that's probably because we were only offered one year of history and we barely got to WWI. :rolleyes:

I don't *think* that I'm naive or sheltered, but I can't recall anything offhand I've seen that would be as horrific as a screaming American having his head sawed off.

My friend, who, as a surgeon, must have a pretty strong stomach, saw the tape and he said it is absolutely horrible. I don't want to have to worry about my children going off to school and watching something like that.

I have to agree with Madmax.... alot of horrible stuff has always been shown in the media (tv and print); but it all depends on what exactly each person is repulsed by... personally dead bodies and blood don't phase me (anymore), but the method of death or circumstances can turn my stomach. The Berg footage ranks up there, but unfortunately doesn't occupy the top slot with me.

This is not a pregnancy. A pregnancy is a part of nature, a beheading is an atrocity.

Secondly, this is a political act. That teacher showed that video to say "That's why we shouldn't be at war." That is to push an agenda. On top of that, it is also intellectually stupid. Someone should show some videos of Iraqis dying from inhaling chemical gas in that case. Obviously, this wasn't about education since that wasn't shown.

-Rudey
--Come on, sometimes all it takes is common sense and no fancy books or big words.

My goodness! With what you can see on the street or on the news or in movies I hardly think this will harm any high school student. What an uptight parent! Get over it!

Please let me know what you've seen on the street, the news, or in movies that compares.

-Rudey

co-sign.

A note on what one sees in the movies....IT'S FAKE. You can't compare a violent movie to the footage of a person truly getting their head cut off.

I have never seen anyone really getting beheaded on the streets or movies or news.

I think that these teachers were out of line to show that videotape in a classroom without parental consent. My friend's daughter takes a forensics class. The parents had to consent to allow their children to see videos of graphic autopsies. This is an elective class so if students or parents were uncomfortable, they could select another class. I think that parents of the students in this class should have been given the same choice.

Maybe some of you grew up in way too sheltered areas, but I've seen people get stabbed in the streets, and I watched the attempted rape of one of my friends on a UW campus. You see terrible things everywhere.

That being said, if the students had the option to leave, I see nothing wrong with this.

A) You've only lived in Milwaukee for a little while. Stop acting like Mindy McThug.

B) This wasn't an act of exposing them to gruesome acts for the sake of learning about gruesome acts. People are making this an issue of "I've seen bad things". Well good for anyone who has seen bad things.

-Rudey

So if you've never seen someone get stabbed in the streets, you're "way too sheltered"? That's absurd. I'll be sure to raise my kids in an unsafe environment so they're not too sheltered. :rolleyes:

So then it's ok to show a video of a pregnancy in our schools without parental consent because it's a pregnancy? So something has to rank up there as an atrocity in order to not be viewed in schools?

I usually agree with you Rudey, but education is education like I said in my original post. Watching a video about pregnancy in health class is education and to me, so is watching the Nick Berg video, it's education to how sick this world is and how atrocities like this exist.

I'd only have a problem with it if children were being "forced" to watch it, but if they are warned and allowed to leave beforehand then I don't see anything wrong with it.

And my pregnancy in health class video was just an example. We were given no fair warning of what it would be and we weren't allowed to leave class. I was underage and I saw a vagina and I didn't need parental consent....

Now that was just a specific example but I've also seen other things in school like videos on the Holocaust and other videos from WWI and WWII that honestly made my stomach turn more than the Nick Berg video.

It's only bad when it's something we don't want people to see and I'm sorry but that's straight bullshit.

A) I had to sign a permission slip for sex-ed. I never saw any videos but I giggled at pictures only after that was signed. You may want to ask your parents just to be sure if you had to have permission as well. If my children were watching vaginas, I'd at least like some say in it.

B) This isn't an act of education to show how sick the world is. This was an act to say war is wrong and this is something that we deserved because we went to war. There were no videos and pictures of mutilated Iraqis who died at Saddam's hands. There were no classes on that. In fact it was shown even in an art class. Was this a topic of art?

C) Were this a college class dedicated to torture with advance notice to students with approval from all necessary people, it might be a different case.

-Rudey

Rudey, Thanks for removing that picture.

You are entitled to your opinion as well as I am to mine.

I do know for sure however that I did not have my parents sign any sort of permission slip for my health class.

Maybe it wasn't "education" for the most part but I still feel it could be acceptable to be shown in a classroom. Because the world is a sick place and some people just don't realize that.

Maybe it was a political agenda and maybe it wasn't. Considering the fact that I wasn't there, I don't know what happened. I'm not sure if the teachers said anything along the lines of "this is why war is bad, this is why we shouldn't have gone to Iraq in the first place or this is what we deserve." Then again, just about every class I've encountered in the last few years has had some sort of political agenda (minus torture videos).

Ah fack it, maybe the teachers should have had permission first, but they didn't. Those students viewed a horrific event that affects all of us (or should to some degree).

Wrong thread.

Again, I would never argue against the dissemination of information. I am very strongly in favor of freedom of speech. This wasn't simply a freedom of speech issue. If it was a class full of adults, if it was against a news source on the internet, etc. I would be upset that access was being limited.

-Rudey

Showing this in an art class and saying "That's why we shouldn't be at war" makes it political to me. I'd like to hear your opinion on how it isn't.

-Rudey

I didn't say it wasn't, I said maybe it was and maybe it wasn't.

But to that end I had no idea it was shown in an art class.

If it happened in the above context then yes, it was political.

We're not talking about a stabbing, or a rape, or even a drive-by shooting. We're not discussing a birth, or a sex ed class.

The only thing the video of Nick Berg is the least bit similiar to is a Holocaust film - which are usually (if not always) in black and white.

When I was in college, I saw a beheading and its aftermath (on video). I can only hope that I never see such a thing again. This is not the clean fall of a guillitine blade, this is a person - a fellow human - whose head is sawed off while he screams.

High school kids see this type of obscenity in video games, but unless they're watching some pervert's snuff films, they're not seeing this type of horror.

This is not the type of image that an immature mind needs to have. If my child was shown something of this sort without my knowledge, I would be at the next school board meeting with every other parent who had some common sense, demanding the resignation of that teacher who had such an obvious agenda!

Read the article. It's not like I make this shiznit up.

-Rudey

I never said you did biznatch!

I find it hard to believe that any of you will encounter beheadings or anything comparable during your stay here in the United States.

That being said, as long as the kids had the option to leave the room and were warned about what they were going to see, there was nothing wrong with showing it. Whoever brought up JFK is a good example- that video isn't nearly as graphic but it was something we HAD to watch to pass US History my junior year.I had no idea I was going to see a man's head explode- but that reel has been shown so many times throughout our history that I think my teacher forgot exactly what he was showing us.

However, showing it in an art class? Inappropriate. I don't want some dude who's schooled in DaVinci teaching my kid about current events. I think that's the issue here- he took it upon himself to abuse his position and teach kids a subject he was never ok'd to teach.

It wasn't just about the teacher not knowing the subject, it was also about spreading a political agenda of being against war.

-Rudey

Someone somewhere is spreading the political agenda for war.

Everyone has an agenda of some sort. It's hard to get away from.

I spent hours upon hours listening to my teachers spread political agendas. Mostly about education and how wonderful the NDP are.

Unless these kids are mindless robots. it shouldn't matter. They can think for themselves. Well I would hope at the highschool level they would be able to.

Like others have said before. It should have been an option for these kids. If the class really didn't want to see it. Then they would have walked out. But if they were forced, then that disgusting and the teacher should be punished.

A) I really couldn't care about the Canadian public school system, nor do I know anything about it. If you had any complaints at the time, you should have spoken up either to your parents, teachers, or administrators.

B) Kids are kids at the end of the day and if they are going to school to learn history, math, science, art I expect them to learn just that. They can have interactions on their own time. They can play sports. The can do debate. They can join Communist clubs. The can discuss this with their friends. Pushing a political agenda is not OK on the part of administrators and teachers however, just like it isn't with religion.

C) And at the end of the day, these teachers no longer are there and parents and others have made their voices heard. Too bad you couldn't accept that - probably since it brings back ill memories of your high school experience where supposedly they pushed a political agenda on you and you did nothing.

-Rudey

I did. And nothing was done. I walked out several classes because I was there to learn not listening to NDP propaganda.

But I could think for myself. I didn't need my parents to tell me that I didn't have to vote NDP or take this crap. I thought for myself.