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North Carolina Principal Resigns For Suspending Student Who Called Teacher ‘Cute’

December 7, 2011 10:03 AM
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File photo of children at elementary school. (credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

File photo of children at elementary school. (credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

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GASTONIA, N.C. (CBS Charlotte/AP) — The principal of a Gaston County school where a 9-year-old boy was suspended for sexual harassment submitted his resignation Tuesday, saying he wasn’t given a chance to apologize.

Jerry Bostic told The Gaston Gazette he could understand being written up for the suspension and having someone follow up during the school year, but he added that he was disappointed because this is how his 44 years in education ended.

“To me it’s a really sad final note to a career that I have found very satisfying and enjoy working with kids,” Bostic said. “I really don’t believe I was treated fairly.”

School officials offered an apology to Emanyea Lockett and his mother, Chiquita Lockett, after the boy was accused of calling a teacher “cute.” A statement from the system said it was determined that the fourth grader at Brookside Elementary School didn’t engage in sexual harassment. The school system said the suspension won’t count against the student, and there will be additional instructional assistance provided to the student for the classroom time missed.

“This is something that everyone needed to see, just to see what’s happening within our school systems,” Lockett told WSOC-TV.

Gaston County Schools Superintendent Reeves McGlohon would only say that Bostic submitted his resignation. McGlohon had no further comment.

“He (McGlohon) told me he had made the decision he was going to terminate me or drop me into an assistant principal position,” Bostic said. “I admit I made some errors in what I did, but to fire me or to demote me with 44 years in it, it just doesn’t make sense. To me he was a very heartless man, and he did it because of politics.”

IN OTHER NEWS….

(TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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  • Right Wing-nut

    “To me he was a very heartless man, and he did it because of politics.”

    That’s a perfect description of a man who would suspend a student because he commented to another that a teacher was “cute”.

    • Postman

      My thoughts exactly!

      • Dr. Max

        “The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality” ~ H. L. Mencken

        http://911essentials.com

    • dow daytrader

      mucho grande dittos !!!

      • PatrioticUSGlory

        Political correctness started this. Thank liberal Democrats for penalizing kids for innocuous comments.

    • Atilla the Hun

      Poor baby! My heart almost aches for his pain. With a fat public retirement pension provided by overly burdensome school taxes, he got off much too easy for all the grief that he inflicted on this innocent child. At the very least, he should have been reported to Child Protective Services for all the needless abuse that he heaped on this child and his fammily.

      • jeff6times7

        Overburdened indeed. I live in a well-to-do school district that is regularly attacked by my state’s robin hood law. And just yesterday I was sent a letter from the superintendant asking us to donate because the kids don’t have enough.

        By God’s grace, we teach our kids at home and so we no longer have to feel obligated to the school district. I can breath!

      • Alex

        Yea – what principal did was wrong….

        BUT…

        The kid was suspended – not expelled. I hardly think his “grief” will stay with him throughout his life. Plus, it was stripped from record books. I don’t know a single post-elementary school institution that would look at one suspension and care.

        Child Protective services? Give me a break.

    • Ron Brueske

      Aye, he could have card less about how HIS heartless action of suspension for no reason would have on that poor little boy. Him and educators, both male and female, like him are the ones playing politics.

    • Dax

      True. What a selfish punk this guy is. There’s a story like this almost everday.

    • Chris Mc

      Because of “politics?” Are you kidding? Political correctness is politics! Socialist
      politics. A sadbedrock of the education system that’s been creeping up on us for 3-4 decades. . So, the principal got exactly what he deserved. He and every other commie in the school system should be fired and drummed out of town. I can only wonder how much damage this politically correct socialist did to kids during his 44 years. Let children be children. God knows they will have to deal with leftist politics soon enough in life. Good riddance!!!!

      • WRTolkas

        Dear Chris Mc,

        Amen. You saved me from writing the exact beliefs.

      • Kerri Hudson

        And yet another Amen….

      • Michael

        Well Said Chris Mc

      • Justin Case

        Amen brother. However, this one good and rightful dismissal will have ZERO impact on our country or the people as the rest of the commie leadership is still intact.

      • george

        Amen!

      • Dad

        AMEN!!!!

    • Travis Busbar

      Right on. And don’t think the kids won’t cower the next time that substitute teacher shows up. She took what should have been a childish compliment and turned it into something dark. Shame on her. She needs to quit her sub role.

      • john

        Hear, hear fire the teacher too!!

      • LawlessBob

        Teachers in my area pick who subs for them. If the teachers have any sense they won’t be calling her ever again.

    • LaVonte d’Ashawn Jackson IV

      Most public school teachers would do us all a favor by resigning.

      • diginit

        Give me a break. The problem isn’t the teacher. IT”S THE PARENT!! The schools are this way because for the lack of parent involvement. For every failed kid there is failed parenting. Two-thrides of a kids education come from home. Stop expecting the schools to raise you kids, that’s your resposibility. I wish parents would have to pay a monitary penilty for their kid failing. Unfourantly socitity will have to pay for you bad parenting. Or better yet go get your teaching credentials and go tech, Maybe then you will see what the teachers are up against.

      • TxSon

        @diginit .. Spell much? Your horrible rat is so full of grammatical errors as to be laughable. STFU you idiot.

      • Billshee

        I am a former public school teacher but I never drank the kool aid. My children went to private schools like many OTHER public school teachers’ children. I agree with diginit that parents are the problem but teachers are the second problem and they only exacerbate the problems parents have and vice versa. The most important influences on a child’s life should be working together. One step is to realize that a compliment is not a reason for suspension…..just like one young boy hitting another in the groin is NOT sexual at all. COME ON PEOPLE!!!!!!!

      • Bob

        TxSon,

        You spelled “rant” wrong>

      • pete

        Parents share a portion of the blame but it’s the ACLU, atheists, and other special interests who have used the courts to impose their socilalism in the schools. Until these parenst start vgetting rid of the politicians who appoint these judges and kick out those judges who are elected by popular vote, nothing is going to get done.

    • Robb

      This is just one more in a long list of political correct niwittery being imposed by administrators across our country.

    • joe

      Bt…Why did the teacher report it to the principle? Should’nt she be resigning as well?

    • Eli

      Back when I was in grade school, we had this very cute teacher. The girls would give her hugs, the guys kiss and hug her. She was great, and you know what? She was the greatest teacher I’ve ever known.

      What surprises me is how freaking insane people have become today. Hell 20 years ago having your teacher over for dinner with your family was still commonish. Now that wouldn’t happen if your house was on fire, and they had the key to the sprinkler system.

    • caligula

      Good riddance, idiot. Who cares about your 44 years? I hope you don’t get your pension for being a jackwad.

      • Nelson

        Amen, brother. Being a principal means having JUDGMENT and WISDOM. This guy had neither, being totally enthralled with the utterly misguided and witless value system commonly espoused by radical extremists.

    • porthuronpunk

      Aren’t these zero tolerance policies a b1tch? When applied to students, it “policy” however when applied to an adult, it’s political.
      Why do I think this “poor” principal is going to end up as a consultant for the school district.

    • koczani

      Couldn’t agree more. The principal should feel the effects of zero tolerance that they place on the students; however, perhaps firing was a bit drastic. If the principal learned a lesson, perhaps he would have better judgement in the future.

      • Public Schools Suck!

        After 44 years in the school system? He probably needs help finding his way home at night. He probably drives to the Raliegh DOE out of habit.

    • kbworkman

      I don’t know if heartless fits. Brainless? A martinet?
      I see more and more where stupid rules are enforced inappropriately.
      I thought our educators were supposed to be… Never mind. “Educators” like this one give the rest a bad name.

    • david

      you know, I couldn’t have said it better than that! Live by the sword…

    • James Madison

      What a fitting end to such a politically correct maroon.

    • Del

      I agree! But not only did the principle suspend the student, he tried to portray him as a sexual predator. It’s scary that after 44 years working with kids he sees 9 year olds as potential sexual predators. I am guessing he has had many unwise incidents like this and he was expecting to keep his job just like he always was allowed after these types of judgments.

    • PasoMan

      Let me join the Postman in saying those were my thoughts, exactly!

  • Billn

    I wonder haw many years this Principal has been using bad judgement.

    • Wallace

      That’s what was going through my mind as I read the story.

    • pynaetlb

      44 years.

    • Dr Glen Whitten

      He said it himself 44 years Dr Glen Whitten

      • Vicky Bevis

        Well, that would make him 66-at least. time to retire & let some younger, far less paid admiistrator take over.

    • Jim in Houston

      Excellent question.

  • HM Phobe

    It’s not fair – just because I don’t’ know how to be a principal, they won’t let me be a principal.
    Loser.

  • my$.02

    They said ” A MAN, YAY!” when the child was born, and named him Emanyea. his mom,Chiquita, is no ordinary, Chick-ita, either!

    • BILL MCNEAL

      HE’S NOT A “MAN” ,HE’S A LITTLE “GIRLY-MAN” SHOULD NOT BE AT THAT JOB!!! THANK GOD HE’S GONE, BUT WAITE SOUNDS LIKE A LAWYER IS A COMING!!!

      • Selena

        Bill, please read more carefully. my$.02 is explaining the boy’s name is Emanya…not the principal.

    • Banana Boat

      Perhaps she was named after a banana?

    • Krazy bill

      What is all your babbling rant supposed to mean? Can you answer that, idiot?

  • jim

    “To me he was a very heartless man, and he did it because of politics.”

    No, it was because YOU ARE A MORON!

    • Chelle Mitchell

      lol no kidding! my thought exactly.

  • TGC

    typical liberal…he suspends a 4th grader for saying a teacher is “cute” and then whines that HE wasn’t treated fairly!!!!
    What an idiot.

    • Ace

      Exactly!

    • Jim

      Only an IDIOT would bring politics into this story. Get a clue. It is bad enough we have to read about this man.

      • mudtoe

        Politics is very relevant. This kind of man is who the liberals who run our schools aspire to be and look up to. He only crime was that he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and let his liberal bias hang out for the whole world to see. He got canned for getting caught being stupid about his bias, not for the bias itself.

    • mudtoe

      Anyone who thinks that a 9 year old is guilty of “sexual harassment” for calling a teacher “cute” is too stupid to have a job emptying the waste baskets in a school, let alone be the Principle. I’m glad they got rid of this idiot. Does he look and talk like Barney Fife by any chance?

      • Jim in Houston

        More like Barney Frank.

      • Allen E. Booth

        While a student calling a teacher “cute” DOES show some lack of respect for the teacher —aren’t students supposed to have at least SOME respect for teachers?— I questiion the principal’s decision to suspend the student.

      • Crusader

        Calling a teacher cute is not disrespectful, the child was expressing his thoughts to a classmate, not walking up to a teacher and calling her a cute floosie!!! The sub who reported it is more than likely a highly dysfunctional failure in life who doesn’t know the difference between a compliment and a complaint. The modern day expansion of Emmett Till’s beating and murder. For those of you who think there is something right about this even being considered harrassment at any level need to have your head and hearts checked. At this stage in human development, it is not only natural for a child to begin to recognize and celebrate differences in gender, it also the transition from being a child to being a pre-adolescent. And for those saying the Principal was a liberal, hardly!!! This is the action and behavior of a right wing angry white man who has anger and action misplaced because of his insecurity, fear, frustration and inferiority complex. The substitute should have been dismissed and prevented from being anywhere near a school ever again in life.

  • Miffed

    Good riddance

  • Jacob

    44 years on the job gave him the insight to do something this stupid to a kid?

    Yeah I would have asked for you resignation too.

  • Thomas Strong

    I believe this to be typical of the state of public education today. Its not politics it liberalism.

  • http://jcrue.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/north-carolina-principal-resigns-for-suspending-student-who-called-teacher-cute/ North Carolina Principal Resigns For Suspending Student Who Called Teacher ‘Cute’ « DPGI

    [...] Anyone stupid enough to suspend a kid or even consider it for this “transgression” shoul…: The principal of a Gaston County school where a 9-year-old boy was suspended for sexual harassment submitted his resignation Tuesday, saying he wasn’t given a chance to apologize. [...]

  • Tony Braswell

    One Idiot down many more to go

    • Cackers

      Amen!

  • susan

    I agree that I was outraged when he suspended the student. Of course we didn’t have many details surrounding the incident. In any case, I think everyone deserves a second chance, just like the student. The principal is caught, just like all schools now, between idiots who think everything is sexual harassment and the idiots who wants someone’s head beause they try to please everyone. Tempest in a teapot and a definite overreaction.

    • Texas_Twister

      No the overreaction was the adult’s action. A school principle beat me everyday for 3 years, because I acted out due to child abuse at home. I’m 60 and still mad at that man. Hang this guy, for offending this innocent child.

  • Burt

    This ‘Principal’ is a creep. He is an example of what is wrong with the educational system and i suspect he, and many others like him, should have been fired long ago.

    Whining about his career while being totally dismissive of the student he harmed with his ignorance is further indication of his malfeasance and incompetence. Good riddance.

  • jameson

    “A statement from the “SYSTEM” said it was determined that the fourth grader at Brookside Elementary School didn’t engage in sexual harassment.”

    So now systems speak?

  • Jubal

    “I really don’t believe I was treated fairly.” Sorry guy, but this is the real world,not the playground. There are consequences to you actions, and, as an adult, you don’t get do-overs, in spite of what Mr. Holder and his buds think. And, 44 years in ”education?” When did you have a chance to work a real job?

  • Chicago860

    Gotta wonder how many other decisions of this nature he’s made that have gone uncontested. Gotta go – they’re sending one of “our” crooks to jail today.

  • eddy james

    maybe he can join OWS.

  • Mike

    The principal did not care that he destroyed a little boy and his future by labeling him as a sex offender. This man needs to be taken out and horsewhipped along with the teacher who reported this. Remember there is a teacher that started the ball rolling. Why hasn’t she been punished? Libs have ruined this country and we must marginalize them and rebuild our nation.

    • RealityCheckInAmerika

      Emanyea Lockett has a father – somewhere. Where there is smoke there’s fire, and it sounds like Emanyea is on the path to raping and prison in about fifteen years or so.

      • Krazy bill

        The proper spelling is America, not Amerika. You spell as if you may be a nazi piece of s–t.

      • NoHandoutForYou

        Krazy bill voted for Barack HUSSEIN Obama, hence the name calling default when faced with a dose of reality ;-)

      • Clarity-jane Seer

        Are you for real! Pretty inocent statement from a child ! You are blowing this way out of proportion!

    • Bob

      .Hardly destroyed and his future is hardly ruined at 9 years of age.

  • Gerimya Barabbas

    Good riddance to an uneducated AND unforgiving principal who apparently has spent 44 years too many in “education.” Maybe now he’s finally learned something himself.

  • Troy

    Hey, (former) Principle Bostic, Here’s are reminder – You are not the victim here.

  • Harleyxx

    Good Riddance. The principal was obviously a Liberal Moron. It’s just too bad that the teacher who complained about it was not fired for being an idiot.
    It’s no wonder that the education system is turning out morons with their heads full of mush.

  • Tommy

    Sounds to me like this ex-principal is more worried about his “44 year” record than doing right by kids. He certainly mentions it enough in this brief snippet. I guess no one sees any problem with tenure in the school systems either

    • Steve

      No, he’s probably worried that he may have lost his pension rights.

  • 123

    I think this story is cute.

  • Harleyxx

    If the kid had called the teacher a B i t c h he would have been praised for using culturally correct language.

    • CorrectTheErrorNovember2012

      It’s obvious that there is more to this story than is being reported. CBS should have talked with the substitute teacher that got the ball rolling. I don’t doubt that the “student” Emanyea Lockett was being disruptive to the point of attempting to get a sexual conversation started with his rowdy classmates, and the teacher had enough and nipped it in the bud when she saw this beginning. Where is Emanyea Lockett’s father in this whole incident???

      • Joe Peterson in FL

        PRISON.

  • Eric D. Mertz

    The details that were made available pointed to this kid being a nuisance and a racist who had said one thing too many. Based on the story that come out either Sunday or Monday, the comments about his teacher seemed to be the final straw. If that story is correct, than the principle made the right decision in suspending a kid who was a disruption to the classroom. If that story was wrong, then the principal is an idiot.

    • Harleyxx

      You are a moron if you think labeling a kid a sexual offender is justified for calling the teacher, “cute”. I hope to God that you are not part of the education system.

    • John Moser

      He’s is an idiot, but he’s not the only one. Hint Hint.

      • John Moser

        He is

    • Vicky Bevis

      What details? Please give us something to read other than what has been published so far. I don’t see how being “cute” is racist & as far as being a “nuisance,” that comment speaks volumns.

      • Joe Simpson Jr.

        Interesting read right here about forth grader Emanyea Locketton and where he’s headed in life:
        http://www.wsoctv.com/download/2011/1205/29926822.pdf

      • Jeff Potter

        Joe, wow. That note is kind of a game changer. It doesn’t paint this kid as being the innocent victim in all this. It sounds like hte straw that broke the camels back.
        Although, this doesn’t change the fact that more and more we are hearing about insane “zero-tolerance” decisions being handed down by school administrators.
        http://www.wsoctv.com/download/2011/1205/29926822.pdf

    • The Crusader

      That ‘story’ was an idiotic attempt at a cover-up to keep this principal’s unscrupulous and ignominious decisions from being exposed and having the boomerang effect and impact on his life. Where Emanyea father is isn’t any of your business and has nothing to do with this story. How would a substitute teacher know any of that? The truth shall make you free, though you turn away from it.

      • Cut to the truth

        Emanya’s father is in PRISON – the same road he’s well on his way on with his mother’s and aunt’s support…

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