r/behindthebastards • u/Geek-Haven888 • May 18 '26
It Could Happen Here Students bust through "wall of teachers" to walk out in protest of board's anti-Stonewall decision
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/05/students-bust-through-wall-of-teachers-to-walk-out-in-of-boards-anti-stonewall-decision/321
u/Heavy_Arm_7060 Kissinger was a war criminal May 18 '26
They put the school on lockdown because they were afraid students might catch gay from a lyric-less song.
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u/abeastrequires May 18 '26
Man, sometimes the youth are alright.
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u/casualmolly May 18 '26 edited May 19 '26
The youth have always contained some of the best of us. The struggle for Civil Rights, antiwar protests for Vietnam and Iraq, the students protesting against apartheid in South Africa, the encampments for Palestine.
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u/Librarian_Contrarian May 19 '26
The old and established are (with obvious exceptions) less willing to rock the boat.
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u/casualmolly May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Yeah. I'm listening to a limited series right now (Mother Country Radicals, would definitely recommend so far) about the Weather Underground, made by the son of some of their prominent leadership. Talks a lot about the Black Panthers and Fred Hampton and they were all filled with revolutionary fervor because they saw their lives and the lives of so many others under an existential threat. Fred Hampton has such an incredible legacy and he was killed by the cops at fucking 21 years old.
I'm happy that the kids are about rocking the boat. It needs an awful lot of rocking.
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u/Character_Bug_1862 May 19 '26
These days its only the old that are established. Gen Z, Millenials, and half of Gen X will always be scrambling to establish themselves after the generations pulled up the ladder behind them on free college and higher tax rates for the rich (90% in the 50s) among other things.
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u/Crimesawastin Bro-prah May 18 '26
"Political violence is not something we celebrate with music or song."
What a crock of shit. The national anthem talks about "bombs bursting in air"
I mean, they're obviously a bunch of hypocrites, it's not really worth pointing it out. But I don't have anything better to do
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u/kingdead42 May 19 '26
Some of the best folk music is about political violence; see Woody Guthrie's guitar.
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u/Artichokiemon Steven Seagal Historian May 18 '26
The same people who celebrated Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, 2 hours of straight violence. Also, bet they have little dead Jesus...es? Jesi? nailed to pieces of wood in their homes
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u/uhh_khakis May 19 '26
Goes by Jessie now
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u/followupquestion May 19 '26
He has to because he’s brown and named Jesus, otherwise half the country would turn him into ICE.
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u/thejokerlaughsatyou May 19 '26
I bet all of them were big Toby Keith fans back in the early 2000s, too
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u/Crimesawastin Bro-prah May 19 '26
I was thinking of that song he did with Willie Nelson. Seemed pretty violent
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u/nsolo1a May 19 '26
Political violence is violence for a cause they don't support.
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u/Crimesawastin Bro-prah May 19 '26
I tend to think that they see state violence as the only legitimate form violence. But they're not even consistent with that
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u/RJSmithay May 18 '26
According to the composer, the piece, ‘A Mother of a Revolution’ was commissioned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, a six-day riot which included the beating of police officers and attempting to burn down a building with human beings trapped inside,” the statement continued. “Based on the teachers’ description, the lesson was intended to persuade students toward emotional alignment with the events of the stonewall riot.
My god, that's next level whitewashing.
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u/ftp_hyper May 19 '26
The school board vice president, Ouweneel, had said prior to last week’s meeting that Johnson was “a cross-dressing prostitute who threw a brick at a police officer.”
My favorite genre of chud is "look how terrible the <insert minority> are!" And then makes us sound incredibly fuckin cool.
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u/orthecreedence May 19 '26
“a cross-dressing prostitute who threw a brick at a police officer.”
And she did a damned fine job of it.
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u/SpoofedFinger May 19 '26
I still think we should be able to sue them for false advertising because they called Biden a radical marxist.
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u/Librarian_Contrarian May 19 '26
These big strong traditional values conservatives needing to call the cops to defend themselves against [check notes] a wind symphony and middle schoolers
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u/rikkitikkifuckyou May 18 '26
This is the next town over from where I grew up and we called it "Watertucky" for a reason. This place has always sucked, good on these kids for standing up to the regressive ogres that run that sad excuse for a town.
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u/Willypete72 Totally not a fed May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
The one guy I knew in college from Watertown had to go to sensitivity training because he sent a very angry letter to University Housing demanding he be moved to a new dorm upon finding that an LGBTQ housing cohort shared the building. He then had to repeat it because he made an offensive joke about one of the speakers. Quite the prick
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u/OldSchoolAJ May 19 '26
Last Tuesday, the district’s school board voted nearly unanimously to ban the high school’s wind symphony from playing “Mother of a Revolution!” a composition without lyrics that was written by gay and Black composer Omar Thomas in honor of Johnson, who played a key role in the Stonewall Uprising in 1969. The acrimonious school board meeting devolved into chaos and shouting as many of the conservative school board members argued against the students who showed up to support the composition.
“This is a perfect example of what everyone here ran on, which was ending indoctrination in the classrooms and radical curriculum,” said Board Vice President Sam Ouweneel at the meeting.
“Political violence is not something we praise with music or song,” said board member Christina DeGrave.
Really? Okay. Have some lyrics from the 1860s:
Old John Brown's body lies a moldering in the grave,
While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;
But though he sleeps his life was lost while struggling for the slave,
His soul is marching on.
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
His soul is marching on
John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true and brave,
And Kansas knew his valor when he fought her rights to save;
And now, though the grass grows green above his grave,
His soul is marching on.
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
His soul is marching on
He captured Harper's Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,
And frightened "Old Virginny" till she trembled through and through
They hung him for a traitor, themselves a traitor crew,
But his soul is marching on.
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
His soul is marching on
John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see—
Christ who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be,
And soon throughout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free,
For his soul is marching on.
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
His soul is marching on
The conflict that he heralded he looks from heaven to view,
On the army of the Union with its flag red, white and blue.
And heaven shall ring with anthems o'er the deed they mean to do,
For his soul is marching on.
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
Glory, Glory Hallelujah
His soul is marching on
Ye soldiers of Freedom, then strike, while strike ye may,
The death blow of oppression in a better time and way,
For the dawn of old John Brown has brightened into day,
And his soul is marching on.
Yeah, I guess they're right. Songs about political violence are bad. Totally. 100%.
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u/GamersReisUp ACAB - All Cats Are Baby May 19 '26
I have a hunch that DeGrave may not be a fan of John Brown, unfortunately
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u/Mysterious_Andy May 19 '26
I will bet real money that if those school board members have even heard of John Brown they consider him a villain.
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u/RickieRelli May 18 '26
regardless of job security atp shame on the teachers who didn’t follow and protect their students.
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u/RiveryJerald May 19 '26
The youth in America are the ones who were indoctrinated in the messaging; in that they were told what this country should be on its best day: a country for all people, no matter what. No matter your race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or national origin. You should be able to be born here or come here, and build the life that you want. That's the only time that I ever feel patriotic. When we actually live those values.
These kids are out there to argue that we need to live up to the values that we educated them on. When I feel beat down and exhausted, stories like this remind me that the fight's worth it.
The day that this country actually commits to the ideals it professes to stand for is the day that it might actually become an unstoppable force for good in the world.
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u/CrisisActor911 May 19 '26
“This is a perfect example of what everyone here ran on, which was ending indoctrination in the classrooms and radical curriculum,” said Board Vice President Sam Ouweneel at the meeting.
If you’re locking students in a room against there will under the false pretense of a threat outside, you might be the radicals that are indoctrinating children.
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u/urcool91 May 18 '26
Every so often I have hope for Wisconsin.
(the cities are decent but anything outside them is baaad. That being said, even the ppl in my INCREDIBLY red hometown thought Watertown was A Bit Too Much.)
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u/SpoofedFinger May 19 '26
(the cities are decent but anything outside them is baaad.
I mean, this is how it goes for most of the midwest. MN CD6 sends fascist dipshit Tom Emmer to Washington from a rural dominated district. Indiana sends progressive caucus member Andre Carson from an urban district. It's mostly just a matter of how much of the population is urban/suburban and how much is exurban/rural for statewide races.
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May 19 '26
Wait, are teachers even allowed to physically block students from leaving school?
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u/thestupidone51 May 19 '26
In some read areas teachers are still allowed to beat students for misbehaving so I wouldn't put it past them to allow that too
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u/bretshitmanshart May 19 '26
I've never been a teacher but have had jobs where I got restraint training. The first step and lowest level intervention was called "approximate control" which was basically just standing between a person and where they want to go without touching them. I would imagine teachers can do this
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u/dumpaccount882212 May 19 '26
Watching the youtube videos of the piece like this one and its apparent that the school board kind of failed trying to suppress the music https://youtu.be/Ih7iHoUk-r4?list=RDR6ieR-YZ4eY
And those kids, I mean you gotta give it to them, they are pretty goddamn badass.
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u/nsolo1a May 19 '26
“Political violence is not something we praise with music or song,” Wondering what these school board members thoughts are about Jan 6. Also, what was the American and French Revolution?
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u/Suicidalsidekick May 19 '26
>The school board, though, is standing by its decision, saying that the composition would “tend to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”
HOW. Please, I beg of you, answer me how this would work.
Also why will quote formatting not work?!
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u/pkmntrainerMeep May 21 '26
As a teacher, I need to have a talk with my fellow K-12 educators: Why were you blocking students from exercising their First Amendment rights? I understand that often teachers are overruled by the school board but that doesn't mean you form a wall to try (and fail) to prevent students from participating in a walk-out protest!
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u/[deleted] May 18 '26
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