Post | 11/19/2008 3:55 pm

Mayor, Superintendent Differ on 'Assassinate Obama' Kids

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© AP

The mayor of the so-called “reddest county” in America — Rexberg, IDwrote a guest editorial in his local newspaper yesterday saying he was “saddened” by the attention his community received when second and third grader’s on a bus chanted “assassinate Obama” after this month’s election.

Mayor Shawn Larsen apologized publicly for the scandal and argued that there’s no excuse for the behavior, writing: "I am extremely sorry that this incident occurred, and I do not believe that it reflects the values which make our community a great place to live and raise a family. Parents must realize that things said in anger or even in jest can have lasting repercussions not only damaging young hearts and minds, but a city’s reputation." The incident occurred in Madison County, ID, where 85 percent of the voters cast votes for McCain, but Larsen insists that’s no explanation for the "vile" outburst.

Meanwhile, the area’s teachers have been busy instructing their students that using the words “kill” or “assassinate” in relation to the president has serious repercussions to it, and can bring about severe sanctions.

While Larsen and educators are attempting to tackle the problem, school Superintendent Geoffrey Thomas blamed the media for spreading news of the chants. "In our district there was an isolated instance of children making regrettable and unacceptable remarks in regards to harming President-elect Obama," Thomas wrote in a letter to parents Monday. "Word of this behavior leaked out to a hyperactive media and bloggers which in turn distorted way out of proportion the comments that were made, painting the entire community with the same negative brush."

Hmmm, while Thomas makes an interesting observation, for some reason we can’t we stop humming "Teach Your Children Well."

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John G
Meanwhile, the area’s teachers have been busy instructing their students that using the words “kill” or “assassinate” in relation to the president has serious repercussions to it, and can bring about severe sanctions.” How about using the words at all?? WTF? 2nd & 3rd graders? Sheesh. The parents of those kids should be watched carefully…
By John G on 11/19/2008 4:07 pm
newzie snoozie
HI JOHN G., I AM THE MOM OF 6 GROWEN KIDS WHO HAVE THEIR OWN FAMILY AND IT IS AMUSING TO HEAR THEM TELL THEIR CHILDREN ABOUT HOW GRANDMA AND GRANDPA RAISED THEM TO BELIEVE THAT ONE DAY WE WOULD GET PAID BACK FOR ANY SASSYNESS WE HAD EVER CAUSED THEM. I NOW WANT TO GO TO THIS—- OUR 2 YOUNGEST KIDS WENT TO HEAD START —- ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY ATARTED COMING HOME WITH A CUSS WORD HERE AND A CUSS WORD THERE AND ——SOAP BECAME A REAL THING IN OUR KIDS MOUTHS. THEY SPREAD THE FACT TO THEIR NIECES AND NEPHEWS WHEN THEY HEARD THE SWEET HEARTS COME HOME FROM SCHOOL WITH A NAUGHTY WORD TO SHARE IN THE KITCHEN WITH THEIR 2 UNCLES. LAUGHING THE NIECES WENT OFF INTO THE HALLWAY AND 2 UNCLES WENT FLYING RIGHT AFTER THEM WITH A BAR OF WQRAPPED SOAP AND THE 2 UNCLES SHARED ABOPUT THE TASTES OF DIFFERENT SOAPS. NEXT COMES ONE OF THE UNCLES OVER TO THE BROTHERS HOUSE FOR THE BOWLING TRIP OF THE WEEK. INSIDE THE TYPICALLY QUIET IN TUNED HOME UNCLE HEARS DAMN THIGN STOPPED WORKING. LIKE A MADE FLASH OF LIGHTENING WENT HIM INTO THE FAMILY LANDING RIGHT ON HIS REAREND AND LEG, HE SCARED THAT LITTLE NEPHEW AND AGAIN HE HEARD HIMSELF TELLING THE SOAP TASTE STORY. THE NEPHEWS BROTHER CAME INTO THE FAMILY ROOM TO SIT WITH HIS UNCLE AND BROTHER AND BROTHER 1TELLS BROITHER 2 THE STORY THAT JILL AND LULIE HAD TOLD THEM ABOUT. BROTHER 12 ASKS UNCLE IS THAT STORY REAL? UNCLE SAYS YOU VERY WELL BELIEVE IT. THAT NIGHT WE GOT THE GOOD NOGHT PHONE CALL FROM OUR DAUGHTWER WHO LIVES IN OUR TOWN AND SHE TELLS US BOTH HOW THE TRUWE LIFE STORY ACTUALLY DOES WORK WITH THE NIECES AND THE NEPHEWS. I WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST THAT SOME MORE MODERN UP TO DATE SERIOUS AND LOVING PARENTS CATCH ON TO THAT STORY, IT DOES WORK FOR A COUPLE OR 3 GENERATIONS SO FAR WITH OUR FAMILY. OF COURSE WE DO LOVE THE LORD AND CHURCH SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASSES MAY HELP AS WELL.
By newzie snoozie on 11/19/2008 5:41 pm
John G
Hey NZ! You know, from my 3rd to 5th birthdays, I was the recipient of several (OK, many) soap-in-mouth interactions with my mom. After the 3rd or 4th (long time ago) I went into the bathroom while mom was at work (yep, it was a two-earner family and that was the early 50s) and taste-tested each soap. The next time I swore (I don’t even remember the word… coulda been “darn”) mom grabbed me and was dragging me into the bathroom… I started begging, “Not the Lava, mom! Please don’t use the Lava!!!”, and that’s what she used… it really didn’t taste all that bad (especially compared to some of the perfumed soaps!!!!), but I never let on until I was 35. She was really mad!!! Fortunately, she didn’t wash my mouth though!
By John G on 11/19/2008 8:18 pm
C jay
Newzie, please use lowercase when you submit. Thanks a lot.
By C jay on 11/20/2008 9:34 am
Mary NSB-Florida
Children aren’t born this way… it still must be taught…or heard… or seen. Perhaps the best way to raise children is still to try to be more like them and stay out of their way. It is our best blessing to have that opportunity.
By Mary NSB-Florida on 11/19/2008 4:25 pm
Delete This
It was chanted at Palin’s rally’s where she inspired the nuts. This is disgusting if it were about Bush the Secret Service and redneck media, ie Rush, Ann Coulter, Savage, etc would be on it 24/7 raising hell and calling for parents to be arrested and investigated.
By Delete This on 11/19/2008 4:28 pm
Susan Gabriel
Where did the kids get these ideas except from the parents. Maybe these kinds of incidents are exactly where we need our “hyperactive media” to focus their attention. This kind of behavior is not okay.
By Susan Gabriel on 11/19/2008 4:28 pm
Belinda Joy
He’s blaming the media? Okay let’s put the blame squarely where it belongs…..on the parents. The same parents who are online, watch cable news, read the newspaper op-eds and magazines and are imparting their negative beliefs about Obama off on their kids, they are to blame. And as for the embarrassment he feels for his community being shone in a less than flattering manner…..oh well. This reminds me of the people who were televised waiting in line for a Palin event in which they were interviewed and espoused a host of racist, anti-American rhetoric about Obama; and then complained about the fact they were being shunned at their jobs and berated by neighbors who disagreed with them. We are all responsible for what we say and do, the good and the bad. What is done in the dark will always be brought to light. So the parents in this community should indeed be embarrassed that their venom has affected their children and brought negative attention on their community. I’ve said it before and will say it again, I have far more respect for a person who admits they are racist or bias and owns up to those beliefs, than those that are and pretend not to be.
By Belinda Joy on 11/19/2008 4:42 pm
Sherrie Crews
Palin and the right wing media nutcases have made it cool among rednecks to behave this way.
By Sherrie Crews on 11/19/2008 4:48 pm
immoddesta godessa
Sherrie, I think you give Palin too much credit. Remember Ruby Ridge? Remember the 1984 fire fight at the bank on Whidbey Island with the FBI. Remember Waco Texas? Oklahoma City? There’s so much repressed hatred in our society. The boiling pot is melting! Limpbaugh, Salvage, hannityalways inflamatory,always bellicose and vile. People I admired and respected in my youth that “would never vote for a N****”“” This government has accepted outrageous behavior, I mean has practiced agression as the primary solution to a problem for it’s entirety. Palin definately brought out the best in her crowds, and now it’s really out there. Those children may have expressed exactly what we need to hear so we can truly see how deep and pervasive this sickness runs. I cannot get past the emotional terror that was perpatrated against us in the sixties, and I want to blame the likes of cheney, bush, hoover, and so many other purveyors of aggression and fear and hatred. The ” righteous” who continue to spew their venom and work tirelessly for the debasement of others. Palin is a powerless tool, but she puts the lipstink on the festering pig that is the the extreme right wing. Makes a recovering catholic want to cast up a prayer for the good sense that God gave us. We can only hope that these cretins are exposed in good time. Read ” The gathering Storm” by Morris Dees! He is / was the head of the Southern poverty defense fund, and wrote a terrific expose’ on the ultra right wing militias, such as” Blackwater “, very in depth about Tim Mc Veigh, and scary as hell. Authoritarian gun nuts who don’t care much for sharing power prefer to think in terms of immediate solutions regardless of the trauma. The ” green Beret” ar full of these types. well enough of that! There’s not much dialogue with these types though, and I think that is why the Dems have had such a rough go of it these past 30 years. WAIT WAIT WAIT that’s too many words!!!! Palins word though? they must make some sense to these righties. I can’t follow her myself.
By immoddesta godessa on 11/20/2008 4:30 am
DeBúrca obj
Yep, blame the media! Well, the McCain campaign did plenty of that so what do you expect from this school in this “reddest of red counties” which caters to families whose children chant, “assassinate Obama”? The fact is, I would bet on it, that if this had not leaked out into the rest of society there would have been no repercussions at all to these children or their families. If it weren’t for that big, bad media, they could have kept their dirty little secret!
By DeBúrca obj on 11/19/2008 6:30 pm
Michael Salling
Great comments here. Wish I could add something helpful. I will recall as long as I live hearing on my birthday in 1968 the news that Martin Luther King had been assassinated (the Colorado State University “Aggie” who was spreading the news had a smile on his face and used the slur “Martin Luther Koon”.) Worse, in 1963 my own uncle said that President JFK deserved to be shot for all that “civil rights bull s***.” Would there had been blogs and media in those days where a young person like me could have exposed such racism and treason.
By Michael Salling on 11/19/2008 7:20 pm
M. Starr
Having just seen ‘South Pacific’, the song ‘You’ve Got to be Taught’ (to hate and fear) applies. Shame on these people who call themselves ‘parents’!
By M. Starr on 11/19/2008 7:29 pm
Brooklyn Gal
Blame the media???? No, blame the parents.
By Brooklyn Gal on 11/19/2008 8:03 pm
Patty E
I sure do agree with everyone. No doubt it took one child to start the chant. Who taught that child to say those words? Why did no other child ‘tattle’ to the bus driver, that someone was saying something they weren;t supposed to say? Why did the Bus Driver allow the chant to continue? Did he/she not hear it? Even if the media did not report it, a parent, the adult bus driver, the adult teachers, all who supposedly know the difference between right and wrong, should have been concerned FIRST! If no one stopped it as it happened, then shame on them….and bring on the media to shame them in public!
By Patty E on 11/19/2008 8:15 pm