He does not like them here or there, he does not like them anywhere. But alas, this one isn’t about green eggs and ham.
If you couldn’t tell, the “he” that I’m talking about is none other than Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin. And if you’ve spent any time at all in the Bluegrass State, you’ll know all about his distaste for teacher protests.
In the wake of last spring’s protests over pension reform efforts, Bevin suggested that teachers were running around the Capitol lawn barefoot, smoking, and trashing up the place. But oddly enough, that wasn’t his strangest comment about the protests. Bevin incited outrage of universal proportions last year when he argued outright that students were abused as a result of the walkouts.
“I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them,” he said. “I guarantee you somewhere today, a child was physically harmed or ingested poison because they were home alone because a single parent didn’t have enough money to take care of them.”
You can’t make that up.
But with a gubernatorial challenge looming ahead in the fall, it appears as though the Governor isn’t backing off from his fiery rhetoric about teacher protests and “sickouts.” He’s only doubling down.
Bevin’s new video entitled “Sick of ‘Sickouts?'” appeared Monday evening, offering some harsh words about Kentucky teachers’ mass efforts to close school districts by calling in sick.
“There’s no reason to be walking out on students, leaving students in the lurch, hurting them and their parents and the many businesses in Kentucky that are affected by this,” Bevin says. “Don’t let all the noise of the power-hungry, money-hungry people at the KEA and others distract you from the fact that putting the children first is the greatest responsibility we have, each and every one of us.”
You can view the video below. Not the most controversial one, perhaps, but the list just keeps on growing.
Photo by Gage Skidmore, CC-Licensed.