Liberty's Blog

Language Cops Drop Charges.

A Clear Creek ISD teacher who happens to be the former mayor of LeagueCity was charged with disorderly conduct for telling an unruly student to "sit your ass down." Charges have been dropped. The Daily News Tells about it:

LEAGUE CITY, TX — Clear Creek Independent School District won’t pursue a disorderly conduct charge lodged against former Mayor Leonard Cruse after an Oct. 23 incident at Clear Creek High School, where Cruse was working as a substitute teacher.

A letter dated Thursday from Superintendent of Schools Sandra Mossman to Assistant Criminal District Attorney Ted Mora said the district did not “wish to pursue the charge.”

Calling the situation a personnel matter, district officials declined why they decided to drop the misdemeanor charges.

Cruse was accused of using profanity against a student to whom he said: “Sit your ass down.”

“We have no reason to believe he was provoked by any student,” district spokeswoman Elaina Polson said at the time.

Cruse, 66, a former attorney who was mayor in the 1970s, said the accusation was outrageous. He claims he was not escorted from the classroom by a sheriff’s deputy, as district officials said.

“The teacher next door went to bring a deputy back to assist me in getting control of a ‘rough’ class,” he said Friday in written statement.

Cruse has demanded apologies, but the district said none would be forthcoming.

He also claims that the district did not terminate his employment as substitute teacher, as the district claimed, but instead resigned.

Cruse noted that he continues to teach in Alvin, Friendswood, Dickinson and Texas City districts.

I lived in that district and sent my 2 boys to that same school.
They were inflexible then, It seems they still are. The first thing one might notice is that Mr. Cruse seems to have an impeccable background. He was mayor a lawyer, and in several school systems. It seems pretty outrageous to file charges against one of your own employees. Any teacher in the Clear Creek School District needs to know that not only will the district not be there for them, when the going gets tough, but they will lead the charge!! I can't imagine any employer pressing formal charges for over such pettiness.

Not much is said about the unruly class. It just seems that giving a classroom hell is more serious than a classroom running amuck.

Its also worth noting that the Galveston Daily News has no problem quoting the offending phrase.

Strange how the word 'ass' is deemed obscene. The word has 3 common meanings.

1. Buttocks or Rear end
2. Donkey
3. A Buffoon

It seems that only in the 1st context that some folks would consider the usage of the word 'ass' obscene. However a list of synonyms from the Visual Thesaurus of synonyms using the buttocks definition is listed as:

1. Backside
2. Behind
3. Bottom
4. Bum
5. Buns
6. Can
7. Butt
8. Hindquarters
9. Derriere
10. Seat
11. Rear
12. Rear End
13. Tush
    
14. Stern
15. Tail
16. Prat
    
17. Rump
18. Buttocks
19. Kiester
20. Hind End
21. Tooshie
    
22. Tail End

For some reason none of these words will get anyone charged with a crime. This is not the first time I've had discussions about the word "ass" I went on about it in a Forum discussion when someone had the term "Cover Your Ass" censored. I suggested that covering ones donkey is not only appropriate but proper, and that the word they decided to censor is used in the King James version of The Bible. I don't think that many really understood my point, and couldn't get past the idea that 'ass' must be an evil word.

Back to Clear Creek Independent School District. I wonder if those that use the words v a g i n a and p e n i s ( sorry for the breakup but I don't mean to draw in googlers on these words) will be formally charged with disorderly conduct.

posted by Liberty @ 11:26 AM