Earlier this month InsiderAdvantage wrote about the scandal involving a River Ridge High School teacher who kicked students wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ shirts out of her classroom, telling them “Just like you cannot wear a swastika to school, you cannot wear Make America Great Again like that.”
We, and many other news sources, reported that the teacher had been fired based on the letter written to parents by the school’s administration, which stated that “The purpose of this correspondence is to provide you with an update on your child’s math class. Ms. Orletsky no longer is your child’s math teacher, effective immediately.” Apparently that did not mean that Orletsky was fired at all, rather it only implied she was to quiet critics before shuffling her off to teach another class.
Seth Weathers, the campaign manager for Republican candidate for Governor Michael Williams, told IAG “The school put out a statement trying to imply she had been fired using terms like “she will no longer be in the math class teaching your children. So they move her to another class to discriminate against a new set of kids? That doesn’t cut it …”
Williams’ campaign announced last week that it would be holding a protest at the school to demand the (actual) removal of Oretsky. Said Williams in his announcement, “ANTIFA is mobilizing in the streets to suppress free speech they deem unacceptable. Now students in public schools are forced to adhere to the same demands. Lyn Orletsky, and other liberal activist teachers, I’m putting you on notice: If you suppress free speech in the classroom, you will hear from me and many citizens until you are fired or resign. The First Amendment will not be destroyed in Georgia!”
He added, “Principal Darrell Herring is supporting the suppression of free speech by refusing to publicly address and fire this out of control teacher. He has placed political correctness above his students.”
River Ridge High School responded with a warning for Williams, saying in a letter to the candidate that a protest “will not be permitted on the River Ridge High School/Mill Creek Middle School campus or any other CCSD school campus, in accordance with federal and state laws.” As for Oretsky herself, the school stated “we do not agree with the teacher’s actions, and we support our students’ Constitutional right to express political opinions. As you were told today, the Superintendent has authorized an administrative investigation, which is ongoing, and, as a result, we cannot discuss disciplinary action to ensure the Constitutional right of due process is afforded to all employees.”
The Williams campaign is undeterred. Said Williams in a statement, “Once again, the school is attempting to ignore the rights of Trump supporters to express their 1st Amendment rights. Just five-days after Cherokee County Chief Marshal Ron Hunton told the Cherokee Tribune that our protest was lawful, the school is claiming it unlawful with threat of forceful police removal. The school claims to have pre-determined that our peaceful protest, ‘will significantly disrupt teaching and learning and may endanger the safety of more than 3,200 students and staff…’ The arrogance of such statements is insulting to myself and our peaceful protestors. We will not be intimidated by your deceitful statement meant to prevent our lawful right to assemble. The protest will continue as planned. Once again, this school has failed to properly handle simple situations. Very disappointing.”
Stay tuned on Wednesday to see which side blinks first.
