Georgia Teacher Put on Leave for Allowing Kids to Dress Up as Aging Democrats

Sure, people are going to be outraged. But why should folks be upset when a teacher re-enacts American history and allows students to impersonate West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd?

A north Georgia history teacher faces punishment after administrators say she let four students wear Ku Klux Klan-like robes for a historical reenactment.

Lumpkin County Schools superintendent Dewey Moye told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that teacher Catherine Ariemma made a poor decision.

Administrators say four students in Ariemma's advanced placement history class donned Klan-like outfits while filming historical reenactments. Moye says students saw them Thursday and parents of a black student complained.

Moye says Ariemma is on leave with pay.

Ariemma stands by her decision.

“This project was about racism in U.S. history,” Ariemma said. “Not just racism against African Americans, but racism as a whole.”

She said including the Ku Klux Klan was an essential piece.

“You cannot discuss racism without discussing the Klan,” she said. “To do so would be to condone their actions.”

She admitted that she may have made a mistake by letting the students film the Klan reenactment on campus.

“I feel terrible that I have students who feel threatened because of something from my class,” Ariemma told the AJC. “In hindsight, I wouldn’t have had them film that part at school.”

Ariemma is an award-winning teaching. Last year, the Georgia Senate passed a resolution lauding her “dedication to her students and her profession” after she was honored as Lumpkin County High School’s 2009 STAR Teacher. The Student Teacher Achievement Recognition program is sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators and recognizes teaching excellence.

Kids should certainly be taught about the history of the Klan and its roots within the Democratic Party. What's wrong with that?

Update: Video added via Just a Grunt.

Isn't That Special: Missouri Neo-Nazis 'Adopt-a-Highway'

Call it the highway to hell.

I hate those Missouri Nazis.

A neo-Nazi group has joined the state's "Adopt-A-Highway" volunteer litter pickup program, taking advantage of a free speech court fight won four years ago by the Ku Klux Klan.

The Springfield unit of the National Socialist Movement has committed to cleaning up trash along a half-mile section of Highway 160 near the Springfield city limits.

Two signs noting the group's membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program went up in October but drew attention only recently when the group picked up litter as part of a gathering in Springfield.

The state says it had no way to reject the group's application. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling arising from a similar effort by the Ku Klux Klan says membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program can't be denied because of a group's political beliefs. At the time, the state could reject applications for the program from groups that denied membership based on race or had a history of violence.

"It's a First Amendment thing, and we can't discriminate as long as they pick up the trash," said Bob Edwards, a spokesman for the transportation department's office in Springfield.

Trash picking up trash. How cute.

Just a hunch, but I suspect those signs won't be up much longer.

Leftwingers will note the use of the word socialist in the name of the Nazi group. Just a reminder.