You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger. And, as yet another taxpayer-funded English teacher has now learned, it’s generally good advice to avoid stomping on the American flag in public schools.
The teacher this time is Jordan Parmenter. Until the other day, he had been an employee of the school district in Martinsville, Ill., a tiny rural town (pop. 1,167).
On Thursday, the Martinsville school board voted 6-0 to sack Parmenter, reports the Journal Gazette & Times-Courier, a local newspaper.
The dismissal became effective immediately.
The school board had previously placed Parmenter on administrative leave after he stomped on a U.S. flag in class during a May 15 incident at the Martinsville Junior-Senior High School.
Students say he was using the American flag as a pointer. When a student suggested that this use of Old Glory could be viewed as disrespectful, Parmenter got really mad, students said. He dropped the flag on the floor and intentionally stepped right on it. (RELATED: Illinois Teacher On Leave For STOMPING ON AMERICAN FLAG In Front Of Class)
Another student who spoke as if he was in the classroom added some detail.
“We can’t figure out why he actually went to the simulations of actually doing it,” Martinsville High senior Jonathan Smith told Tristatehomepage.com contemporaneously “He talked about it being the right to do whatever he wants. That’s why it was there so he could do whatever he wants, but we have no idea why he would actually take it down and basically start all this.”
In a subsequent letter of apology for his actions, Parmenter explained that he had been teaching a lesson on free speech that day. He admitted his decision to drop a symbol of American freedom and tread on it to demonstrate freedom was imprudent.
When the flag stomping happened, word spread quickly throughout the school and the town. The teacher’s free-speech performance art didn’t go over well.
A group of community members organized a demonstration in front of the school building. They urged respect for the U.S. flag and said they were furious at Parmenter’s actions.
“It’s just disgraceful,” local Navy veteran Clifford Clouser told regional Fox affiliate WTHI-TV.
Clouser stood along with the school property line with other demonstrators. They proudly and carefully held U.S. flags.
Parmenter was present at the meeting last Thursday at which the board members voted and announced their unanimous decision. He answered board members’ questions prior to the vote.
The terminated teacher refused to speak at length about the result. He told the Gazette he wanted to speak with his union representative.
Parmenter is at least the second taxpayer-funded teacher in America in the last three years to decide it would be a good idea to step all over a U.S. flag in front of a bunch of red-blooded kids in one of the small, conservative towns dotting our national fruited plain.
In 2013, South Carolina honors English teacher Scott Compton lost his job because he threw an American flag on the floor and stomped on it in front of his students — in three different class periods. His goal, apparently, was to teach students that the flag is merely a symbol. (RELATED: South Carolina Teacher On Leave For Stomping On American Flag In Front Of Class)
Compton lost his job but received a whopping $85,000 settlement in addition to months of free money in the form of paid leave.
It’s not clear if Parmenter received his salary during the weeks while he was on leave.
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