Black Fayetteville N.C. Teacher Who Stomped on U.S. Flag Blames Students For His Predicament
Fayetteville, N.C. – Todd Starnes of the ‘Truth Revolt’ interviewed the Fayetteville, N.C. Massey Hill school teacher, Lee Francis, who stomped a United States flag in front of a class room full of the sons and daughters of soldiers and servicemen from Ft. Bragg and asked if he regrets desecrating the flag:
“Do I regret what I did? Absolutely not. Would I do it again? All I can say is I did it and I stand by it.”
The clearly unpatriotic Francis told Starnes he would like to see the student punished for taking the photo and has obtained legal counsel to see if it violates county policy or if he can claim “defamation of character” since the photo has gone viral:
“I believe that child does need to be punished in some way – absolutely. I can’t take a picture of them and in turn they cannot do the same of me.”
Apparently Francis believes that the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution protects only him. It appears that Francis is unhappy that he has not been allowed to indoctrinate innocent naive’ students into his socialist liberal muslim-esque agenda in the shadows with impunity.
It seems that Francis is also incapable of grasping the concept that not only does the 1st Amendment extend to and protect the students in this country, it also protects their ‘freedom of the press’ and their ‘freedom to petition for a governmental redress of grievances’ which clearly covers taking a picture of a teacher violating several Cumberland County School System policies and regulations and potentially violating state laws.
Called into question is the accuracy of the lesson that Francis was attempting to pass to the students. Francis has also displayed a serious lack of subject -matter knowledge with regard to the 1st Amendment.
As we’ve already discovered Francis appears unaware that the 1st Amendment applies to everybody and that the 1st Amendment provides more than just the ‘Freedom of Speech.’ It also provides for the prohibition of;
- the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion,
- impeding the free exercise of religion,
- infringing on the freedom of the press,
- interfering with the right to peaceably assemble,
- prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.
How is it possible that a ‘history’ teacher isn’t properly educated regarding such a commonly known and important topic?
And how is it possible that Francis isn’t properly educated on the reasonable expectation of privacy?
Francis simply does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy at his place of employment and with the LGBTQ transgender bathroom use issue there apparently isn’t even a reasonable expectation of privacy in bathrooms any longer either. This however is a result of the agendas of people like Francis. Francis has a legitimate reasonable expectation of privacy in his home, in areas not readily viewable in his car, in the voting booth and in fitting rooms in stores. That’s pretty much it. Francis certainly has no claim to a reasonable expectation of privacy in a public class room in a public school. And the sad thing is that Francis apparently does not know this…when he should!
Francis also appears to not have a working knowledge of what constitutes legitimate ‘Freedom of Speech’ either. There are legitimate restrictions on speech. A classic one is that no one has the right to yell ‘FIRE!’ in a crowded theater thereby potentially causing serious injury or death to others.
Another restriction is whatever Francis’ employer, the Cumberland County School System, may legitimately place on him as a condition of employment through policies and regulations.
Cumberland Co. School Policy: 1720/4015/7225 Discrimination, Harassment and Bullying Complaint Procedure – The board takes seriously all complaints of unlawful discrimination, harassment and bullying. The process provided in this policy is designed for those individuals who believe that they may have been discriminated against, bullied or harassed in violation of policy 1710/4021/7230, Prohibition Against Discrimination, Harassment and Bullying or policy 1730/4022/7231, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disabilities. Individuals who have witnessed or have reliable information that another person has been subject to unlawful discrimination, harassment or bullying also should report such violations to one of the school system officials listed in subsection C.1. of this policy. Reports may be made anonymously.
Francis, acting as a representative of the Cumberland County School System, committed the act of the intending to burn, and failing that, the actual stomping of the United States flag, a symbol worn proudly by the mothers and fathers of numerous students who serve in the military, such acts being a discriminatory, harassing and bullying act against the sons and daughters of those military members in that they were derisive and contemptuous of our nation’s flag, and by logical extension being derisive and in contempt of these students’ mothers and fathers who have served this nation in deadly combat on behalf of this nation a mere 12 miles away from Fayetteville’s good neighbor, Ft. Bragg.
Francis, acting as a representative of the Cumberland County School System, clearly violated the Cumberland County School Policy against the encouragement or coercion of students to engage in radical, uncivil, and unpatriotic actions in support of socialist liberalism and the so-called social justice issues. Burning or stomping an America’s flag is in no way justifiable as an ‘impartial’ act and thus does not rate as impartial study and discussion. It is clearly a foul and insipid attempt to radicalize our sons and daughters in violation of this Cumberland County School Policy.
Cumberland Co. School Policy: 7720 Employee Political Activities – The employee’s right of citizenship, involving registering, discussing political issues, voting, campaigning for candidates or issues, running for or serving in public office, and participating on a committee or board that seeks to serve the welfare of the community, will not be infringed upon due to employment by the school system. However;
These political activities must NOT:
- take place during school time;
- involve school monies or materials; or
- make use of an official school position to encourage or to coerce students or other employees of the system to support in any way a political party, candidate or issue.
This policy should not be construed as prohibiting (1) the impartial study and discussion of political or other controversial issues in the classroom setting; (2) the distribution at the high schools of nonpartisan literature promoting voter registration; or (3) distribution of nonpartisan literature providing information about bond elections.
Francis has released several statements and even a video that was nothing more than a collection of blah, blah, blah, me, me, blah, me, blah, me, me, me…ad nausem. It is curious that a teacher would have such a lack of sensitivity with regard to the students placed in his care.
Being a ‘teacher’ gives Francis no special exclusion from the expectations of integrity and civility by our society and by the policies of the Cumberland County School System, one of which states;
Cumberland Co. School Policy: In relevant part: 4310 Integrity and Civility – A. PROHIBITED BEHAVIOR – In addition to any standards or rules established by the schools, the following behaviors are specifically prohibited as in violation of the honor code and standards of integrity and civility: – cursing or using vulgar, abusive or demeaning language, signs, symbols or gestures towards another person; and – playing abusive or dangerous tricks or otherwise subjecting a student or employee to personal indignity.
There can be do doubt that Francis ‘used vulgar abusive demeaning gestures towards students and subjected students to personal indignity’ as evidenced by at least two students walking out of the classroom over Francis’ unpatriotic acts which were a flagrant mental attack on these students’ sense of patriotic unity, an integral component of their civic pride, which itself is very important to the students feelings of self-worth and the familial values the students place on their parents. In essence this was a vile and sordid attack on these students’ family core which certainly qualifies.
In the pursuit of ‘due diligence’ by the Cumberland County School System it would not be unreasonable to make appropriate psychiatrists or psychologists available to all the students of Massey Hill School for their very health and well being with regard to this very troubling and vile incident of attack on their parents and their familial ideology.
Cumberland Co. School Policy: 7300 Staff Responsibilities – All school employees shall: be familiar with, support, comply with and, when appropriate, enforce board policies, administrative procedures, school rules and applicable laws; attend to the care, safety and welfare of students, including the need to provide appropriate supervision of students; demonstrate integrity, respect and commitment to the truth through attitudes, behavior and communications with others; support and encourage good school-community relations in all interactions with students, parents and members of the community.
Clearly Francis, acting as an agent of the Cumberland County School System in the position of ‘teacher’, did not attend to the care, safety and welfare of students as evidenced by his overt act of requesting a cigarette lighter with which to set on fire, in a classroom full of children, a flammable object without taking the necessary measures to insure the safety of those students. There is no indication of Francis having placed a fire extinguisher nearby or having put in place a suitable container for a flammable object set on fire to burn in. Also not present were proper filtration devices to protect the students from the inhalation of harmful smoke and chemicals released by the burning of the United States flag. Clearly this man is a danger to himself and others in his socialist liberal activist pursuit of the indoctrination of the students and degradation of America and the students’ military connected parents.
It is also clear that Francis did not demonstrate integrity, respect and commitment to the truth through attitudes, behavior and communications with others as evidenced by Francis’ decidedly unprofessional behavior as an employee teaching on the behalf of the Cumberland County School System. It should also be noted that Principal Pamela Adams’ professionalism is also called into serious question as one of the functions of the position of principal is to review and give approval to Francis’ curriculum of which this vile act and attack on the children’s civic pride and many of the children’s parents was clearly a part. And if Principal Pamela Adams did not approve Francis’ actions then she needs to explain why she failed to monitor his curriculum for such unprofessionalism. Adams and Francis should be rigorously and relentlessly held to justifying just how the intended burning and actual stomping of the United States flag, a symbol worn proudly by the mothers and fathers of many of these students serving in the military.
Even more strikingly vivid is Francis’ and Adams’ failure to support and encourage good school-community relations in all interactions with students, parents and members of the community [emphasis added] as dictated by the policies of the Cumberland County School System. There is simply no excuse that appropriately justifies Francis’ actions of stomping a United States flag in a classroom that contained the patriotic sons and daughters of soldiers stationed at our good neighbor, the Army base Ft. Bragg, of DOD employees and certainly of other patriotic families in this community. Fort Bragg is considered the largest military base in the world in terms of population. The base is home for around 50,000 soldiers in the 82nd Airborne Division and the Army’s Special Forces.
Cumberland Co. School Policy: 1100 Governing Principles – These governing principles are referenced frequently in the board policies and also are set out below. [In relevant part] Safe, orderly and inviting environment. A system of excellent schools creates and maintains a safe and orderly environment where staff and students are focused on and excited about learning.
When students are so incensed and angry at the insult to their parents, their country, the very core of their beliefs that they walk out of the class it’s safe to say that Francis did not adhere to the required policy and governing principle providing a safe and orderly environment where staff and students are focused on and excited about learning. Quite the inverse. Francis created a bullying, potentially unhealthy bordering on deadly [had he acquired a lighter], environment in which his students were forced to suffer the horrendous indignity of having their military and/or patriotic parents and ideology vilely insulted in one of the most psychologically abhorrent manner possible. Francis couldn’t have impacted them any more abhorrently had he cut the head off of a rabbit and letting it bleed to death in front of the children.
Negligent Retention. A type of employment-related claim in which a plaintiff asserts that an employer failed to discharge an employee who management knew, or should have known, had a propensity toward violence, sexual harassment, or dishonesty.
Superintendent Dr. Frank Till Jr. should be concerned about the issue of civil liability associated with ‘Negligent Retention’ with regard to Francis.
Francis’ very own actions certainly serves to portray him as an employee with o propensity to violence. The very act of setting anything on fire for the purpose of making a ‘statement’ is in itself a clear act of violence. It certainly can’t be cast as an act of love, or sympathy, or an act of building up. It is an act of violent destruction.
While not sexual harassment, Francis’ acts were bullying acts of harassment towards students and their families. The Cumberland County School System certainly doesn’t want to expose themselves to legal liability by retaining any employee who harasses a student for any reason.
And the dishonesty is well evidenced in his not teaching his students the truth in that he was instructing them by example that one may exercise such ‘Freedom of Speech’ in an employer/employee setting at the work place where one is most certainly under speech restrictions as a condition of employment. This dishonesty would lead all his students to disastrously unnecessary employment issues in their future.
In May of 2015 a teacher in eastern Illinois was fired for stepping on a small U.S. flag during a lesson on free speech. The Martinsville School District board voted 6-0 to fire English teacher Jordan Parmenter. Martinsville is about 80 miles southeast of Champaign near the Indiana state line. The district had placed Parmenter on leave after the May 15 incident. Parmenter has said he used the flag as a pointer during a lesson on free speech at Martinsville Junior-Senior High School. A student complained that the teacher was being disrespectful, and Parmenter said he then stepped on the flag as an example of free speech. So there is certainly precedent of the termination of such disrespectful teachers.