St. Martin de Porres School: White headmaster placed on leave after telling a Black student to kneel

[Judi Lynn]

St. Martin de Porres School: White headmaster placed on leave after telling a Black student to kneel and apologize 'the African way'
By Evan Simko-Bednarski, CNN 41 mins ago

The White headmaster of a Catholic school on Long Island has been placed on leave following reports that he had a Black student kneel in apology last month, calling it "the African way" to apologize.

The headmaster was temporarily removed from his job at St. Martin de Porres School in Hempstead, New York, after parent Trisha Paul went to the local press regarding her 11-year-old son's treatment at the school.

The incident was first reported by the New York Daily News.

. . .

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Paul said she noticed her son seemed sad after school one day late last month. When she asked him what happened, he told her he'd been sent to the headmaster's office for working on an assignment in his Literature class during designated reading time.

Paul said her son's teacher took the assignment, tore it up, and brought her son to the headmaster's office. Once there, Paul said, the headmaster told her son to kneel before the teacher in apology.

More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/st-martin-de-porres-school-white-headmaster-placed-on-leave-after-telling-a-black-student-to-kneel-and-apologize-the-african-way/ar-BB1eTo9w?li=BBnb7Kz

[The Magistrate]

1. The Teacher Needs An Attitude Adjustment Too, Ma'am

[Judi Lynn]

23. Can't imagine how anyone could fix a wreck like him. Sadistic, racist liar.

What a shame a young man was forced to be exposed to his sickness.

[2naSalit]

2. That's some messed up shit there...

He needs to not have that job. He is way too full of himself.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. Might've gotten away with it if he claimed it was 'the school way' ...

It being a Catholic school and such.

The African Way, though?

You gotta be kidding with that shit

[Judi Lynn]

22. He revealed himself as a totally dishonest fool. Unbelievable.

[Iggo]

4. Catholic School.

Yep, don't miss it one bit.

[onetexan]

18. Yup. Product of that here too- alotta brainwashing.

[dawg day]

5. This was his terrible crime working on an assignment during reading time

he'd been sent to the headmaster's office for working on an assignment in his Literature class during designated reading time.

Paul said her son's teacher took the assignment, tore it up, and brought her son to the headmaster's office. Once there, Paul said, the headmaster told her son to kneel before the teacher in apology.

I went to parochial school decades ago, and remember that insistence on arbitrary enforcement of unspoken rules. It was deliberately designed to humiliate. Sad to see some headmasters and teachers still go for that, if only for SOME students.

(I bet you the pretty blonde student named Sarah Sullivan would be praised for "multitasking" if she did the same, and no, of course there was no blonde student named Sarah Sullivan in my 5th grade class-- you surely don't think I'd hold a grudge this long?)

[Kittycow]

6. On a lighter note:

Heck, I'm still not over Sister Bernice Msrie taking away my mother's worn out lipstick case that she gave me to hold cuz I was scared to be in the first grade.

And that was over sixty years ago.

However, in the seventh grade, the parents banded together and had the nun removed from the classroom mid-year because she was so mean and unfair to the kids. I guess I was inured to it by then since I can't remember her name for the life of me.

[secondwind]

7. When my parents separated, my mom was obliged to find a job.

My younger sister and I were placed in a Catholic boarding school in New Jersey. We were there for six years. My dad was a diplomat and so he couldn’t come visit so often. The first time he came, it was not a visiting day, and in my rush to leave the classroom to see my dad, I was running with one shoelace untied.

The nun scolded me, and made me wear the shoe on my head, as I walked to see my father. It was mortifying. I was 8-9 yrs old.

Am 74 today, and still feel the sting.

[Kittycow]

9. That's terrible. :/

[Judi Lynn]

19. Sadistic! How could a child be expected to absorb that soul-crushing bullying, anyway? Damn.

Not a bit surprised you feel it, even now.

Doesn't make a bit of sense.

Can't imagine anyone would stoop to punish a child for running with an unlaced shoe. Hideous.

[Judi Lynn]

20. I'd bet you have a mental block as a way of distancing from that abberational experience!

It seems sweet, and unexpectedly thoughtful to me that your mother arrived at the idea of giving you an article of hers to keep close to remind you of her concern and caring for you when you were anxious.

I really don't think there are many people with the presence of mind to do something kind and creative like that. What a shame the woman decided to use it to target and frighten you.

I don't get what that's all about. So weird.

[Judi Lynn]

21. If only some powerful authority could move to cleanse the ancient hostile emotional game-playing

these people inflict upon the trapped, helpless. students, and work to simply do their jobs honestly.

It can only confuse, frighten, and depress young ones, and turn them out into the world battered, and shaken, far less hopeful than they were when they arrived.

Their presence in the lives of students harms them. It doesn't make them better, stronger people to try so hard to scuff up and terrorize everyone but the worst two-faced brats!

[Lilaclady]

8. Some things never change

I remember having to clean the convent or the church pews. In second grade while practicing in the church for first communion I got yanked out of line for walking too fast. My sister wore lipstick to confession one Saturday and the nun rubbed her lips dry trying to get the lipstick off. I am also 74.

[Judi Lynn]

17. That sociopathic behavior with children must hit them like a ton of bricks. Heavy handed. Horrid.

[dalton99a]

10. John Patrick Holian, headmaster:

John Patrick Holian, headmaster of St. Martin de Porres Marianist School in Uniondale, in 2008. Credit: Newsday/Bruce Gilbert

[Judi Lynn]

14. It helps to have a face to associate with his bizarre behavior around humans. Thank you.

[prodigitalson]

26. Headmaster Ritual

Mid-week on the playing fields
Sir thwacks you on the knees
Knees you in the groin
Elbows in the face
Bruises bigger than dinner plates
I want to go home
I don't want to stay

Headmaster Ritual
by The Smiths

[3Hotdogs]

11. I'll see those and raise you.....

Springfield, N.J., approx 1952. Confirmation class.

We were in the school hallway, reciting our Catechism in preparation for the bishop coming to confirm us. The fucking nun slammed a kid's head into the wall because he mispronounced a word.

The kid collapsed, out cold and we were ushered back into our classrooms. I don't know the extent of the kid's injury but there was blood on the wall when we left the classrooms that afternoon.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Jeezus. That has to be a first. She should have had to answer for that. Thanks.

[3Hotdogs]

25. I don't know what the consequences were, if any. Confirmation was the following Saturday.

After that, there were no more classes, so I never saw any of the nuns again.

Legal charges would have been covered up -- if there even were any.

Med bills would have been paid, along with an assumption that they would have been donated back to the church.... unless it was a large amount for serious damages.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

12. What a jackass

[NNadir]

13. Ah...Long Island...

...I grew up there...

Looking back...well...what can I say...what can I say?

Though it's shocking, I'm not entirely surprised.

When my wife went to Catholic school, a boy was locked in a closet with Barbie dolls for being effeminate.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Not only would that have traumatized him, but probably some of the sympathetic witnesses.

[NNadir]

24. Well, it certainly stuck with my wife. She can still talk about it nearly half a century later.

I can remember only a few things from elementary school myself, most all of them unpleasant.

[prodigitalson]

27. Unruly boys who will not grow up must be taken in hand

Unruly boys
who will not grow up
must be taken in hand
unruly girls
who will not settle down
they must be taken in hand
A crack on the head
is what you get for not asking
and a crack on the head
is what you get for asking

Barbarism Begins at Home
Song by the Smiths