newscaster does a BAD thing in my classroom

cash78mere · #1 11-08-2002, 07:46 PM

so today the 4th grade had a concert for veterans day and the island news station came to visit it. after the concert, they came to my class to film. they filmed for like an hour and after they were done, they stayed for autographs and such. i hear the newscaster say to a boy in my class, "give this to your father" so i assumed it was an autograph. when they left, the boy came to me and was like WTF is this? it was a "Jesus saves...come join my church to be saved" pamphlet. i almost died!!!! i let the principal know and she almost had a heart attack! my class is predominantly black, but he gave it to a white boy. he is black himself. did that have something to do with it?

besides being inappropriate, what was he thinking??? you don't tell a 4th grader that he needs to be saved to go to heaven!!! especially not in a public school! what is wrong with him? and why would he give it to one student? thank god that student came to me. why did he single out this student and again, what was he thinking!!! it ruined my day.

so my question is what do i do? should the principal call the station and complain? remember that this is a public school. separation of church and state. it was totally inappropriate. the thing is, we need them to film in our school. but this was so WRONG. what should I do?

lifesaver · #2 11-08-2002, 08:08 PM

Let the principal know how upset you are about the matter and ask her to call the station. She is the CEO of your school ,and it should come through her. It lends more credability that way.

Hermione · #3 11-08-2002, 08:53 PM

Wow, and I thought the guy who stood outside my high school with a sign that said as much was bad.

I agree with Lifesaver. Have your administrator call the newscaster's boss.

I'm curious, did this man single out the one student or was he handing the pamphlets out to more? If he was singling out that student, I wonder what his motivation was.

Kevin · #4 11-08-2002, 09:02 PM

That was VERY unprofessional. He really should have known better. Typically stations go after religious upstanding types but this one is a bit over the edge it would seem.

Hootie · #5 11-08-2002, 11:46 PM

I'd be pissed! And as parents I'd also be pissed. He had no right to just pass judgement and assume this little boy and his family needed to be saved. How does he know what the boy's family religious views are? And furthermore, since when did he get paid to give out pamplets?

What he did is considered soliciting and I'm pretty sure no public school allows it. Go to the school board about it. Or better yet, the rival television station

cash78mere · #6 11-09-2002, 12:03 AM

you guys are exactly on point!

i've already "passed the buck" onto the principal. it is now up to her to decide what to do.

he didn't hand it out to anyone except this boy, and he is very well put together and certainly doesn't need saving!

it was very unprofessional of him, but unfortunately he is very well known around here. and there is no other station around that's not a NYC station and they certainly won't come to my pretty little school!

even though it is out of my hands now, do you think we should do something about it, or just let it slide? going to the school board could cause a lot of problems that we may not want to handle.

Kevin · #7 11-09-2002, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hootie
I'd be pissed! And as parents I'd also be pissed. He had no right to just pass judgement and assume this little boy and his family needed to be saved. How does he know what the boy's family religious views are? And furthermore, since when did he get paid to give out pamplets?

What he did is considered soliciting and I'm pretty sure no public school allows it. Go to the school board about it. Or better yet, the rival television station

Going to his supervisor is one thing. I'd say going straight to the news media is another. For one it would be viewed as unprofessional -- it would be difficult to get another person to agree to come speak and I have my doubts that it would get reported by the other station because of respect for their colleagues.

Hootie · #8 11-09-2002, 12:40 PM

Actually there was a situation here a long time ago where they turned to the other news station. It can happen

Peaches-n-Cream · #9 11-09-2002, 04:18 PM

That was a very bad thin to do in a school to a little child. I think that the parents should be notified. It's best to be honest with parent when weird things like this happen. Otherwise the child might tell the parents and they might get angry. This guy was so inappropriate.

Rudey · #10 11-09-2002, 04:26 PM

That guy was stupid.

-Rudey
--Everyone knows garlic around your neck works just as well and doesn't require the massive time committment of church.