High school sophomore Connor Mullen was realistic enough to know that he’d face taunting from fellow students when he decided to wear a Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” ball-cap to school.
He didn’t expect it from teachers and other adults at the South Portland, Maine high school — but that’s precisely what happened, according to the Portland Press Herald, to include a teacher who told Mullen, “Thank God you can’t vote.”
That’s when the student took his concerns to school administrators, who told him if he wants to avoid problems, perhaps he should not wear the hat, the Press Herald reported.
“I like the slogan, I like Donald Trump and I like hats,” the 16-year-old student told the newspaper.
“I knew kids would pick on me about it, that’s just kids being kids, but when the adults started doing it I thought that’s problematic,” he added. “This is a school that preaches equality.”
The taunting intensified after local NBC affiliate WCSH-TV reported on the story over the weekend.
Mullen wore the Trump hat to school on Monday and said it was knocked off his head at least once, and one student told him “I’m glad you’re being bullied.”
“People wear the Bernie [Sanders] pins all the time, and I’ve never heard anything about them,” he told WCSH-TV. “But I wear this hat, and now it’s, ‘Keep the hat at home.'”
Superintendent of Schools Ken Kunin told the Press Herald that school administrators “did follow up” with the teacher mentioned above, as well as with an education technician who mocked Mullen as an uninformed voter.
He also said disciplinary action was taken against a student who threw the hat in a trash can.
“We said, of course, ‘That’s not OK. You don’t do that,’ ” Kunin said. “We defend our students’ First Amendment rights.”
Kunin also told the newspaper that South Portland High School Principal Ryan Caron informed faculty that the school should be open to and respectful of students’ ideas and speech.
Even if they support Donald Trump.
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
Tom@bizpacreview.com
The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
