High School Teacher Suspended for Showing Daily Show Clips in Class
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Nov 17, 2011 4:00PM
A high school teacher in downstate Illinois has been suspended and reassigned because he showed students scenes from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Rhett Felix, sophomore social studies teacher at Eureka High School, was suspended for six days for violating school policy, after parents complained to the school board.
Being a basic cable show, Jon Stewart doesn't drop any real swear words, just some obvious beeps and "motherfudges". In fact, The Daily Show is rated TV-14 L for "coarse language." TV-14 means it may contain material "that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 years of age." For the sake of comparison, Family Guy, which airs on network TV, has a rating of TV-14 D, L, S, V -- that means intensely suggestive dialogue (D), strong coarse language (L), intense sexual situations (S), and intense violence (V). That's an adult cartoon, though, not a jokey news show with a liberal slant.
Most high school sophomores are 15-16 years old, which means their parents aren't even supposed to "take caution." However, the town's mayor claims some of its residents don't own televisions "because of religious beliefs." Eureka is a small town of about 5,300 people. It's also home to Eureka College, where President Ronald Reagan studied, and it hosts the Reagan Museum and Peace Garden.
The Tribune said the teacher showed three segments and that those "dealt with the sexual harassment allegations against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain and with the issue of health insurance discounts for exercising." The Tribune writes:
“We’re a very conservative community here in the city of Eureka,” (Eureka Mayor Scott) Punke said of the town about 30 miles northwest of Bloomington. “Certainly politics are playing a part, but my main concern is they are showing inappropriate material with language and dealing with sex to minors in a school setting.”
It appears the teacher showed segments from the Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 episodes. In the first episode, Stewart does make a crack about the pizza industry being sexually suggestive by nature, saying, "I guarantee you, I will come in 30 minutes or less," then correspondent Wyatt Cenac gives a pretty comprehensive lesson on what kills a bill, specifically outside interest groups. The Bloomington Pantagraph also reported that parents took issue with a mention in the Nov. 2 episode of "a prominent politician whose name turns up in Internet searches as an obscene term." (That'd be a Rick Santorum.)
Parent Thomas Enterline of Goodfield said he found the material "deplorable.""I didn't find any humor in what I saw," he said. "I look at what happened out at Penn State. Even though this doesn't rise to that particular level, I would ask that this board look at these allegations and respond with appropriate resolve."
Once again bringing politics into play, parents say Felix "regularly criticized conservative politicians and praised liberals." The clips the teacher showed the classroom are below. The first is a clip from the Oct. 31 episode of Stewart ragging on Cain, then Cenac's segment on a failed bill to decrease healthcare premiums for those who exercise, followed by a Nov. 2 segment, also about Herman Cain.