Days after board members laughed at the exchange, the Washington County Board of Education called the comments “shocking,” saying “no explanation can justify that.”
Didnt hear them laughing at it and the one older lady going “ohhh you” as if he does this all the time to children?
Cause they are accpeting of it. It comes from being bigger than the allegations.
Doing this to another board member is also gross. But it signifies a kind of structural disrespect that undermines the office as well as the individual. It’s symptomatic of a general institutional disgust for student involvement in school affairs.
Like Bush Jr doing the creepy shoulder rub on Angela Merkel or - in a more extreme example - UN staffers who were “approached, accosted and raped” by fellow officials and dignitaries. It isn’t merely a personal transgression. It undermines the entire function of the representative body.
People also laugh when they are uncomfortable and don’t know what else to do. Obviously we’d rather see objections than nervous tittering, but I wouldn’t always take laughter as active complicity / celebration.
I was being over the top with the complicity mostly out if anger at the situation. I understand that people respond poorly in stressful situations but we need to start getting better at it.
Yeah I agree with all of that. Part of what was in my mind is that I would perceive a man laughing as very different than a woman laughing. I assume that all women live under potential sexual threat from men at all times, and laughing at an advance is a way to defuse it without getting confrontational. “Haha surely you jest” is actually a deflection, even if it isn’t a head on confrontation. I’m a man and I don’t fear direct confrontations, but I understand women don’t have the same privilege as I do in this regard.
Didnt hear them laughing at it and the one older lady going “ohhh you” as if he does this all the time to children?
Cause they are accpeting of it. It comes from being bigger than the allegations.
It wasn’t just “a child”, it was a fellow board member. Guy has zero respect for the office, the students, or women generally speaking.
Yeah, I am just using the word cause the article doesnt bother with it.
I honestly don’t get how that makes it worse. Like, doing this to a board member is worse??? I don’t get this stance at all.
Doing this to some random student is gross.
Doing this to another board member is also gross. But it signifies a kind of structural disrespect that undermines the office as well as the individual. It’s symptomatic of a general institutional disgust for student involvement in school affairs.
Like Bush Jr doing the creepy shoulder rub on Angela Merkel or - in a more extreme example - UN staffers who were “approached, accosted and raped” by fellow officials and dignitaries. It isn’t merely a personal transgression. It undermines the entire function of the representative body.
I think they meant the “oh you” comment was from a board member. The article says he said it to a student.
The student was a member of the board. That’s why they were up there next to the creep.
Students are not members of the school board. It’s an elected position that adults hold.
Read the article.
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People also laugh when they are uncomfortable and don’t know what else to do. Obviously we’d rather see objections than nervous tittering, but I wouldn’t always take laughter as active complicity / celebration.
I was being over the top with the complicity mostly out if anger at the situation. I understand that people respond poorly in stressful situations but we need to start getting better at it.
This was a time I think it mattered to speak up.
Yeah I agree with all of that. Part of what was in my mind is that I would perceive a man laughing as very different than a woman laughing. I assume that all women live under potential sexual threat from men at all times, and laughing at an advance is a way to defuse it without getting confrontational. “Haha surely you jest” is actually a deflection, even if it isn’t a head on confrontation. I’m a man and I don’t fear direct confrontations, but I understand women don’t have the same privilege as I do in this regard.