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Sioux Center, IA 51250
While waiting for my father to finish radiation treatment last week it was brought to my attention that a local group on constituents had gone to social media to heckle and demean me for standing up for something I believe is wrong and is part of the crisis in education today. The state of our public schools is abysmal but I can assure you that local leaders in the schools in Hardin County and Grundy County are doing amazing things with the resources they are afforded. I’ve been to the board meetings and they put their hearts into our schools.
Sadly, my voice was determined to be the butt of childish jokes and brought to light by people attempting to make my stand against bad behavior in the classroom something I should be ashamed of.
The behavior I asserted occurred at Johnston High School in November. A young man in her A.P. U.S. History class decided to masturbate right next to her, in the classroom. The school hesitantly apologized to the young woman and the young man returned to the class the next day alongside the young woman.
I am not sorry for asserting that this young woman didn’t deserve or need to be exposed to this. For all the parents and grandparents reading this, are you fine with this type of behavior in a school next to your daughter, granddaughter, or even sons or grandsons?
Should I be accepting of this as the son whose mom is in her 47th year of teaching? Should my significant other that is in her 27th year of education have to deal with this behavior? Why should my other friends that work in education have to deal with this when they already have a full plate? Where is the uproar of the #metoo crowd that was concerned during the Kavanaugh hearings?
If Hardin County and Grundy County residents and others have decided to take my stance: that the staff and students in Iowa schools should be protected against behaviors like this make me a horrible person I’d ask that they publicly defend a young man masturbating in a public school classroom. They won’t.
Instead, they’ll go after someone that believes our schools should be a safe place for learning where girls and boys can come to build a future while allowing the faculty and staff a path to doing what they love, educating those same boys and girls. Lastly, is this outrage and publicity from my critics about standing for something I believe most people will deem wrong, or is this because I have a certain partisan letter behind my name? You decide.
BJ Hoffman
Liscomb
