Kingston teacher’s obscene Facebook comments warrant ridicule but not termination

The free speech police are calling for Kim Smith’s job in the North Kitsap School District. Why? For making a tone-deaf comment on her Facebook page. But the answer isn’t termination, it’s ridicule.

According to the Kitsap Sun, Smith, a history teacher at Kingston High School posted what some might call incredibly offensive and mean-spirited comments concerning the death of Reginald “Jake” Gutierrez, the Tacoma police officer who was killed in the line of duty. People are calling on her to be fired.

Photos: Procession for fallen Tacoma Police Officer Gutierrez

According to the Sun, she wrote the following on the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, specifically talking about the long line of law enforcement vehicles before the memorial:

I hate this stupid display of the police. If we’re going to do this for cops, we should do it for those they murder. It’s obscene.

So she believes it is obscene that we are showing support for a fallen officer? Now people, understandably, got upset. One commenter wrote: “This was the wrong time and place … to post such disrespect for those who might save your life someday … as a teacher? Shame on you,” Another: “How do you sleep at night? This is a heartbreaking comment. How would you feel if someone said something like this after Sandy Hook?”

Some people are calling for her dismissal. Patty Page, the school district superintendent, did not specifically name the teacher, but spoke out against this comment, writing:

On behalf of the North Kitsap School District, please be advised that the district strongly disagrees with and condemns the personal comments posted by a district teacher regarding the tragic death of Tacoma Police Officer Jake Gutierrez. The district has not authorized, approved or encouraged the teacher’s comments.

There’s a phrase in Page’s response that is incredibly important in a situation like this: Personal comments. That’s what these were. Just like when we talk about Milo Yiannopoulos – a Conservative who the Left thinks is disgusting and obscene – Smith made these comments privately – e.g. as a private citizen not in the classroom, not on behalf of the school district. She should not be punished or fired for this.

But there are consequences when you make statements like this. Now people who have kids at Kingston High School know the type of teacher who is standing at the front of that classroom every day.

As for Smith’s comments, the opinion is so wildly offensive, it is hard to properly explain.

I’ll start with this: It is not a stupid display to support someone who runs toward danger when others run away. It’s not a stupid display to show support for people who get up every single morning and literally put a target on their back in the form of that uniform. There are not many professions that are targeted the way that police are targeted by bad guys. And yet they still do it. They do it not for a lot of pay or amazing benefits – they get neither. They do it because, for whatever reason, they are called to serve their community. In that respect, it’s pretty similar to teachers.

The implication of the Kingston’s uneducated comment is that cops are murderers. That we should be doing this for all the people “they murder.”

I hope Smith is not teaching your kids to think critically because she is obviously not capable of that. She apparently does not understand the difference between murder and a justifiable homicide. Or the difference between killing someone who is literally innocent and being murdered by a cop – which absolutely does sometimes happens – versus the majority of the times when a cop is using his or her weapon to stop a bad guy from doing a bad thing to him or her, to his or her partner, to the people that she serves.

So, should Smith be fired for these statements? No. She should be ridiculed, she should be called out. Parents should be very well on alert that someone with these obscene opinions is teaching their kids. But as they will also learn throughout life, people are allowed to have really stupid beliefs. And offensive and idiotic beliefs. In the same way, they are allowed to have inspirational beliefs. Creative, inspired and smart beliefs.

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