A MATTER OF FREE SPEECH

Can a Houston school teacher refer to Muslims as “Goat-Fuckers” on a cable access TV show? We’ll know at contract renewal time

Third-grade teacher Angela Box made some really disparaging remarks about Muslims on a conservative cable access TV show she regularly participates in. There have been calls for the Houston Independent School District to fire her. Quanell X, a local rabble-rouser and self-anointed community leader, has accused Box of being a racist.

While we may or may not agree with her comments, she made them off campus while off-work. As long as she does not express any untoward remarks to her third-graders she should be free to express her off-work views, controversial as they may be. It’s a matter of exercising her rights of free speech. But I’ll bet her contract will not be renewed, that is if she isn’t pulled out of her classroom before contract renewable time.

Here is Hair Balls’ take on the matter:

HISD TEACHER WHO CALLED MUSLIMS “GOAT-FUCKERS” CHALLENGES QUANELL X OVER RACISM ACCUSATIONS
By Angelica Leicht

Houston Press Hair Balls
November 20, 2014

The controversial HISD teacher who made disparaging comments about Muslims on a local conservative cable access TV show is now challenging community activist Quanell X for accusing her of being a racist.

Angela Box, a third-grade teacher at HISD's Ray K. Daily Elementary School on the West side of Houston, was accused by Quanell X late last week of using the "N word" while referring to President Obama in a press conference in front of the school.

It was a charge Box vehemently denied, and it turns out she was telling the truth. Quanell addressed the war over the "N word" accusation Wednesday, saying that it turns out his "publicist made a mistake." Box is now demanding an apology from the community leader.

"This is a lie," she said. "I demand that Quanell X apologize to me."

But Quanell is refusing to apologize, offering Box $1,000 to debate him face-to-face instead. The host of Tommy's Garage, the cable access show that sometimes hosts Box, countered that challenge with $1,000 of his own during Wednesday's taping.

The cast also offered up offered clips from the show to counter the recent anti-Muslim accusations against Box. On one of the clips, Tommy, the host of the conservative show, points to a female Muslim pilot who flashes on a TV screen.

He then proclaims, "She led the first strikes on ISIS." Box responds, saying "Could we please, pretty please trade her in for Obama? And we'll throw in Joe Biden too!"

On the surface, it appears to be positive exchange. What you don't see, however, are the comments that follow.

In the moments following Box's comment, Tommy and another panelist exchange some very enlightened chatter about how the female soldier manages to lead those strikes "without a burka," which they say is impressive.

There's also some chatter about "boobs on the ground" before Tommy says, "I'd take her right now!"

That's when Box replies, saying "Even with that thing on her head!"

That thing is a hijab, guys. Not a thing, but a hijab, which is a religious garment worn by a Muslim woman beyond the age of puberty in the presence of adult males outside of their immediate family. The panel then follows that up with some crass talk about a cockpit, and then they move on.

Was Quanell X wrong about his "N word" accusations? It would sure seems so. But what Box and her supporters have still not addressed is the blatant xenophobia on display, of which there is videotaped proof. And Box still makes no bones about dropping divisive terms like "goat-fucking Muslims" or "bacon-haters" on the show.

HISD says that a number of parents pulled their children from Box's classroom following the accusations. The Houston office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has also called for the district to launch an independent investigation into whether a teacher's blatantly anti-Muslim views have bled over into the classroom.

Meanwhile, Box doesn't seem to be faring too poorly on the publicity circuit. She found her way on to Michael Berry's show earlier this week, and has been quite active on Twitter since word of the accusations spread.
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And three days earlier, here is how Hair Balls excoriated Angela Box:

HISD TEACHER ANGELA BOX SAYS SHE’S SICK OF “BACON-HATERS” AND “GOAT-FUCKING MUSLIMS” ON TV SHOW
By Angelica Leicht

Houston Press Hair Balls
November 17, 2014

Should you be an elementary school teacher who wants to make racist comments, just go the full Monty and do so in someone's garage while seated next to a guy in a Metallica shirt.

After all, that's exactly what Angela Box, a third grade teacher from Houston Independent School District's Daily Elementary School, does when she appears on the weekly public access TV show "Tommy's Garage."

Box, a regular on the show, recently came under fire after community leader Quanell X called for her to be fired from her job teaching third-graders at Ray Daily Elementary School, attributing a quote that uses the "N word" to the teacher. Box denies the accusations, calling the charges "inflammatory" and "offensive," and so far, Quanell has provided no evidence to the contrary.

But even if Quanell never hands over evidence of Box dropping the n-word, there's still plenty of material to work with from "Tommy's Garage," where Box openly spouts off on politically charged topics, making racist comments and spewing anti-Muslim rhetoric like it's going out of style. She also uses terms like "goat-fucking Muslims" and "boy-fucking Muslims," which seems awesome for an elementary teacher, right?

Oh, and she also says stuff like this:

"Let the bacon-haters shoot up their own targets," says Box on one video as the panel discusses terrorism. "Then it's a big win for all of us."

Yeah, bacon-haters. That term comes up a lot.

"I am so sick of the bacon-haters coming here and demanding that we bend to their culture -- no," she says in another video.

Later, on the same video, and somehow without using the "bacon-haters" term, Box tells Muslim leaders to "fuck off," and does so while jiggling her tits at the camera for good measure.

From week to week, that's how this garage thing goes. Box acts like a complete Islamophobe train wreck, which would be hilarious if it weren't so appalling. But that violent, anti-Muslim rhetoric is just the tip of the iceberg.

Box doesn't just dislike Muslims; she also dislikes Democrats, Black people and the "Uncle Tom syndrome," and "abortion Barbie" Wendy Davis. And she really, really dislikes Wendy Davis. Maybe even more than Muslims.

When asked about the best part of the midterm elections, Box says it was seeing "abortion Barbie's lower lip tremble," and, referring to Davis' election loss earlier this month, says the gubernatorial candidate was "late-term aborted."

Yeah, because that's pretty much how this show goes.

"We have to remember, the Democrats own the ghettos. The Democrats own food stamps. The Democrats own Section 8. The Democrats own welfare," says Box.

But it's not just Box's overt xenophobia that's disconcerting. Her willingness to validate the hot mess of intolerant rhetoric from the other panel members is really unnerving, too.

When the host of the show says on one episode that poor people are poor because they're stupid, Box laughs hysterically, nodding in the process. When he calls people tolerant of the Islamic religion "communist bitches," she yells yes in agreement.

Such opinions would be troubling in any situation, but Daily Elementary, where Box is employed, is a minority-majority school.

Daily not only has a student population made up of about 29 percent African American students and 38 percent Hispanic students, but over half of students are economically disadvantaged.

HISD officials say they are aware of the concerns, and will be monitoring the situation.

"Our focus at Daily Elementary School continues to be making sure students feel safe and maintaining an instructional environment in which they can learn," HISD said in a statement. "We respect the First Amendment and the rights of employees and community members, and will continue to monitor the situation."

The response by HISD is in stark contrast to the response by Duncanville ISD officials in a somewhat similar situation earlier this month, when school officials fired a teacher who posted racially charged tweets about the killing of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

The Duncanville ISD school board voted to fire high school teacher Vinita Hegwood after she tweeted the statement, "Who the fuck made you dumb ass crackers think I give a squat fuck about your opinions re: #Ferguson? Kill yourselves."

Hegwood was suspended without pay and later resigned. She also sent out a written statement apologizing for the profanity-laced tweet. It was still mandatory for the school board to vote on whether to terminate Hegwood's contract, despite the fact that she'd already opted to resign, and the board ultimately fired her.

So Hegwood, who is black, was ultimately fired by the Duncanville school board for her Ferguson tweet, even after resigning and apologizing.

But Box, who is white, is somehow cleared by HISD on First Amendment grounds and is free to educate the next generation of minority students, while foaming at the mouth over the bacon-haters and goat-fuckers.

Totally seems fair.