Saturday, January 17, 2004

AN UNMENTIONABLE OFFENCE

From "Opinion Journal":

"An elementary school principal who used a racial slur while lecturing students about name-calling has agreed to be reassigned," the Associated Press reports from Philadelphia. Mary Sheldon of the Overbrook Educational Center, "who is white, used a derogatory word for blacks during a November 5 meeting with students":

The incident became public when three parents complained at a School Reform Commission meeting last month. "She contended all along that she used it after children were using it, to say, simply, that this is not an appropriate word, this is a horrible word," district spokeswoman Cecilia Cummings said Tuesday.

We guess the discussion was supposed to go something like this:

Sheldon: Children, you mustn't use racial slurs. Student: What's a racial slur? Sheldon: I can't tell you."

At least Australia is not so insane. The High Court of Australia has recently ruled that the word "nigger" is not offensive in Australia -- and we DO have all sorts of blacks here in Australia. I hope it is OK to mention the rulings of Australia's highest judicial body on the net. Probably not.

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