FCC Standards, Sen. Klein? Seriously?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Is Sen. Lori Klein insane? No, seriously. This is both fair and not offensive to ask.

Klein wants to use FCC standards for teachers in classrooms because she believes that teachers are potty-mouthed and have a bad influence on impressionable young children.

FCC standards?

Does Klein not watch television? Has she not seen prime time sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother, Two Broke Girls and Two and a Half Men? Or the FOX Sunday night lineup of cartoon shows targeted to attract children like The Simpsons and Family Guy? And don't even get me started about the comedy shows on Comedy Central like South Park and Futurama. And the so-called reality TV shows, puh-lease.

Does Klein not listen to the music children are listening to on the radio, or worse, watch the music videos that accompany the music? One of the top listened to songs of this past year was Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You." Really, that's the title.

In what alternate universe does Sen. Lori Klein liven in?

The FCC standards allow things on the air that shock even me when I see it on the air. We are waaay past George Carlin's original "seven dirty words" you can't say on television. I don't know how many times i have asked out loud "they can't say that on TV, can they?"

And yet there are parents who allow their children to watch these programs as perfectly acceptable fare. There are other parents who cannot control what their children watch either through their friends or the Internet. And there are parents who simply don't care what their children do.

I hate to break it to you Sen. Klein, but the foul-mouthed little demons that you would like to portray as innocent little angels are far more likely to be disruptive in a classroom with vulgar and abusive language toward their teacher than the other way around. I know teachers who have been kicked, punched, spat upon and cursed out by your imaginary innocent little angels. And when the parent is called in to discuss their little demon abusing their teacher, the parent is defensive and equally verbally abusive toward the teacher.

Sen. Klein is oblivious to what it is like to be on the front lines of classroom teaching today. If anyone needs protection it is the teacher.

And as a card carrying member of the Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists Tea Party, what  is up with this embrace of federal "guvmint" regulations for speech in classrooms in Arizona? Doesn't this go against everything a card carrying teabagger believes in, including "local control" of neighborhood schools?

The Arizona Daily Star today had an editorial opinion critical of Sen. Klein's bill. Do pupils' ears need protection from vile teachers? "[T]he incongruity of what lawmakers perceive to be dangerous remains. Actual weapons are acceptable in an educational setting, but mere words – ideas, ugly as they might be – are the true peril to young minds." (Sen. Klein last year took out a loaded handgun and pointed it at the chest of a reporter).

The Star lays out some serious problems with this bill, but it missed a glaring one.

Adam peck notes at Think Progress, Arizona bill would likely prohibit teachers and professors from teaching any book with 'profanity':

The bill is so ineptly drafted that it could intrude deeply into teacher’s private lives. SB 1467 doesn’t just ban public speech or conduct, but all speech and conduct. That means public school teachers in Arizona will be forbidden from engaging in any FCC-regulated activities no matter where they are." (emphasis added)

This ineptly drafted bill is an unconstitutional violation of privacy and free speech in teacher's private lives.

For all their talk about "less guvmint" and "smaller guvmint," these Tea-Publicans are all about "Big Brother" authoritarianism on a grand scale.