TRI In The News

Whitehead: NC Teacher Overstepped Bounds

From One News Now

Original article available here

A legal expert suggests a North Carolina teacher who declared a student could be arrested for criticizing President Barack Obama apparently needs a reminder about the free-speech rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

In the YouTube video, which contains a few profanities, an outraged Tanya Dixon-Neely, the social studies teacher, is heard yelling at a student during a debate comparing alleged bullying incidents involving President Obama and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney (see earlier story). John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute says she overstepped her bounds.

"She seems to be a fan of the current president," he notes, "but the key here was there was a debate going on, and children have a right to express themselves. They're also protected by the Constitution, which guarantees us the right to free speech. So, if this teacher regularly does this kind of thing, I would think that this teacher would be unfit to be in the classroom."

At one point, the teacher states that a person can be arrested for criticizing the president. Whitehead says that is wrong.

"You would have to be directly close to the president or have the means to harm the president. This student obviously wouldn't," he offers. "And what I've seen of the incident, the student wasn't threatening the president anyway. What the student was doing was just merely raising a question."

Dixon-Neely has been suspended with pay from North Rowan High School in Spencer because of her remarks. In a related OneNewsNow poll, six of ten respondents feel Dixon-Neely should be fired. Approximately 20 percent feel should be sent to "tolerance training."