Political Correctness is far more deadly than CoVid-19. While it does kill people, it also kills creativity and the human spirit. Case in point: Milpitas High School teacher, David Carter. While trying to creatively inspire his students to embrace the possibilities that technology offers them, he was struck down by the forces of political correctness. He was taken out of the classroom based on the opinions of the easily and habitually offended and may lose his job. But that may not be the worst that happened.Â
I suspect that Mr. Carter’s spirit has been crushed and his creativity has been greatly diminished. There may never be another morning where he gets up with a feeling of zippity-doo-dah and heads off to his classroom with a new approach that might inspire some student to go on to achieve. He may never be that wonderful teacher that some of us remember who turned our lives in the right direction because he may never teach again.Â
Not only that, there may be other teachers who have remarkable talent at teaching who will never try a creative approach to teaching because they have viewed what Mr. Carter has experienced at the hands of the politically correct crowd. Â
 What was Mr. Carter’s crime? Innocence. He did not realize that dressing up and acting like somebody whom you admire is a bad thing. Perhaps he was naïve. Nonetheless, he meant no harm and really did no harm. I doubt that anyone who complained really had such a fragile psyche that they needed psychological counseling.
When I was growing up, Jackie Robinson was an heroic baseball player much admired throughout the USA and particularly in my family because he was a classmate and friend of my uncle at Muir Tech (Now Muir High School) in Pasadena. At Halloween one year, my oldest brother dressed up as Jackie, complete with blackface. If Jackie Robinson had been at one of the houses he trick-or-treated at, do you think that he would have been offended? I don’t think so. He probably would have been delighted at having a young fan paying such a tribute to him and put an extra Snickers in his bag. But… that was before political correctness started systematically killing the human spirit.Â
Mr. Carter: I hope that your spirit is not broken and that you go on to teach using all of your talent and creativity. Keep admiring the people you admire and bringing their spirit to your classroom. Political correctness has been around for a few decades now. It is getting old and will hopefully soon die.Â
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Ed Riffle
Ed Riffle lived and raised his family in Milpitas for 35 years. Now retired, he continues to be a guest speaker at high school government classes throughout Santa Clara County.
Featured photo of David Carter playing piano in his classroom, circa 2008.Â
Now that I am a private citizen I can say that Mr. CARTER did some creative stuff and should not be fired for doing what he did. It was without malice and clearly forethought. But his intent was to use it to teach, and teach he did. Now it must be said that I have never been black so since we are In the court of public opinion what do people of color think. And why is this on the board this should be up to the principal of the high school who should have seen this man on that morning.
David is a fabulous teacher, human person and creative spirit! This should be a learning experience, not an end to his work life!!!
All of us make mistakes and learn from them. That is what we try to teach our children! I hope David will persevere. The School Board should not undo all the great influence and learning David has enabled!
Hello. I’m an MHS student. From students who were there, assistant superintendent of HR, Jonathon Brunson, was there and did not do anything about it that fateful day. However, after the political correct crowd jumped in, he was right there to cover his tracks along with the superintendent the next day. Next, they go on an apology tour to include NAACP. The black girl who reported the incident, now deemed a heroine, is habitually tardy to her classes and apparently didn’t like Carter. I’m putting black not to be racist but because her being black is relevant.
In short, it looks like the superintendents (especially the HR guy) is covering their own behinds, applauds a truant student, and scapegoats a dedicated teacher to make an example out of him so they don’t lose their jobs. The message to us kids is TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FIRST, DON’T CRITICALLY THINK, AND IF YOU’RE BLACK – YOU CAN INTERRUPT AND STILL BE A HERO.
Btw, thank you to the foods people and those people who stood out in the cold to give us the Chromebooks through the drive by. The line was off the hook and we felt cared for. Milpitas beat, you should do stories on that rather than covering things like blackface.