November 23, 2006 5:40 AM

Another DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener

Girl Dismissed From Lifting Class Sues: Tennessee Girl Dismissed From H.S. Weightlifting Class Over Rape Fears Sues

DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener #480: Bob McCracken

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Nov 18, 2006 (AP)— An Anderson County teenager has filed a lawsuit over her temporary dismissal from a weightlifting class by a principal who feared male students might try to rape her. Anderson County High School has asked a federal magistrate to dismiss the $1 million sex discrimination suit by student Ambrea Phillips and her father….”There’s no dispute she was removed,” school attorney Arthur F. Knight said at a hearing Thursday. He contended Phillips was reinstated within days and suffered “no academic detriment whatsoever.”

What better way to demonstrate to young girls that they’re second-class citizens? What better way to show them that the sooner they realize that women are licentious, sexual temptresses best kept barefoot and pregnant so as to stay out of danger? What better way to demonstrate that it’s a man’s world?

I can understand what Bob McCracken was thinking and what he was trying to accomplish. In his own sick, twisted, paternalistic way, McCracken no doubt thought that he was looking out for Ambrea Phillips’ best interests. Yes, if you assume that all men are pigs, unable to control their own lustful urges, and that women are responsible for feeding the flames of that lust, then McCracken did the right thing.

Here’s my question, though: IF McCracken was so all-fired worried about Ms. Phillips’ safety, then why did he not require that the class have adequate supervision and a safer location? Why make Ambrea Phillips the scapegoat by booting her out of the class? It’s certainly not her fault that she was the only girl in the class, so why was she penalized for that?

Why? Because Bob McCracken’s a DUMB@$$, that’s why. As if you had to ask….

Phillips was an honor student and a track team member when she signed up for the class, where she eventually earned an A. She has since graduated and is in college.

McCracken said in a deposition that he was afraid Phillips might be sexually assaulted in the class.

“Having a female with 35 or so male students in an isolated area from the school, it sets a very liable situation in my opinion,” McCracken said in the deposition.

Three days after kicking Phillips out of the class, McCracken changed his mind and reinstated her.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley asked Knight if the principal was wrong in removing Phillips from the class.

“She is up there with a bunch of football players, a 24- to 25-year-old coach, the only girl there is a safety issue there. It was a hard call for the principal to make,” Knight answered.

Actually, it shouldn’t have been a hard call for McCracken to make at all. If he thought that ANY of the students in the class might have been in a situation in which their safety and well-being was compromised, McCracken should have altered the situation, NOT kick Phillips’ out of the class. All he did was send a very clear message that the education of the boys in the class was FAR more important than that of the one girl.

I don’t know that McCracken should lose his job over his gross ignorance and insensitivity, but I do believe that a simple “I’m sorry” is wholly inadequate, especially since this is apparently not the first example of McCracken’s misogynistic and insensitive decision-making process.

Ambrea Phillips deserved better. It’s just too bad that her principal is such a confirmed DUMB@$$.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 23, 2006 5:40 AM.

Yeah, that pretty well sums it up.... was the previous entry in this blog.

Yeah, I know...it's all the fault of the evil Brown People is the next entry in this blog.

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