In one of the more disgusting stories we’ve read this week, a female high school junior from Mason, Michigan has accused a male teacher at her school of physically assaulting her because of her support of President Donald Trump. Sadie Earegood, 16, says that media teacher Paul Kato confronted her when he noticed she was wearing a “Women For Trump” pin on her jacket. Incensed that she would have the audacity to openly support the President of the United States, Kato “aggressively” took the pin from her, she said.
From FrontPage Mag:
The teacher, who has been identified as media technology teacher Paul Kato, first confronted Sadie, saying he didn’t like her pin. “That’s fine, you don’t have to like it, we can have our opinions,” she responded. But the teacher was not willing to let the matter go.
“He grabbed it and I pulled, I tried to push his hand away and he grabbed my shoulder,” she described in an interview with a local news channel “(He) just kind of put his hand there, and then he started pulling more and more and I just started backing up.”
The teacher then “took both hands and unlatched the pin from my jacket and put it upside down on his shirt and said it belongs upside down,” Sadie explained. The incident occurred during school hours on December 5.
In remarks at the time, Earegood told local Fox47 that she was completely taken aback.
“I was just really shocked that a teacher would do that,” she said. “I just want him to know that it’s not okay to do that. I want this to be learning experience for other teachers. And I’m not going to stop wearing my political stuff.”
Her mother, Capi Earegood, was incensed.
“I made a criminal assault and larceny report against the teacher,” she said. “He had no right to put his hands on my child over a pin or anything else.”
Last month, Mason Superintendent Ronald Drzewicki said that the school district would “take appropriate action” once they “have a complete understanding of the situation.”
Well, a month later, they’ve apparently come to such an understanding, and they’ve taken only limited action.
“Following an investigation by the Mason Police Department, the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office declined to press criminal charges in the matter. Mason Public Schools officials have completed their internal investigation and have disciplined the teacher appropriately,” the district said in a statement.
“While not criminal, the teacher’s actions were inappropriate and misrepresented the mission of the district,” added Drzewicki. “MPS staff are role models. Our core values include respect, responsibility and compassion. We expect all MPS staff to model these values in interactions at school, especially with students.”
Sorry, but exactly HOW is putting your hands on a student – completely unprovoked – not a criminal act? Would the school district and the prosecutor’s office have been as quick to dismiss this case if a white teacher had grabbed a “Black Lives Matter” pin off a black student’s jacket? Hey, it’s our old friend, the self-answering question…
