It started as a typical high school joke in an afternoon class last week. A student in the Hays (Texas) Consolidated Independent School District was in science class when she saw a balloon in a cupboard, KXAN reports, and put it under her shirt, pretending to be pregnant. But the teenage joke took a dark turn when the substitute teacher reportedly reacted. The high school junior told KXAN:
The substitute came after me with a large pair of scissors and was yelling at me saying “time for an abortion,” I was shocked, I was terrified and could not say anything. I felt like I couldn’t breathe for a minute.”
The dark joke brought in an angry mom and the local sheriff’s office to investigate the incident at Lehman High School in Kyle, TX. The girl’s mom said:
When she called me upset, I was terrified I panicked. My kid goes to school think it’s safe and then you get a call saying a teacher is coming after you with scissors saying it’s time for an abortion.
The Hays County Sheriff’s Office did not file criminal charges, but the school district wasn’t standing for the incident and fired the teacher. Tim Savoy, Hays CISD Public Information Officer, said in a statement:
On Friday, February 19, 2016, an incident involving a substitute teacher occurred at Lehman High School. A student put a balloon under her shirt and said she was pregnant. The male substitute held up a pair of scissors and said that it was time for an abortion. Whether or not the gesture was intended as a joke is not relevant. The action shows a lack of judgment that is not acceptable in Hays CISD. He was terminated from employment with the district for inappropriate behavior.
All substitute teachers are required to complete classroom management and student supervision training prior to receiving any work assignments. This substitute had been employed with the district since November 2015.
The telling thing about this story is that abortion is such a casual topic to people like this substitute teacher, that it merits a joke. The teacher’s comment indicates a likely desensitization on the subject itself. Comedy Central has certainly done its part to try to make abortion “funny.” And the abortion industry, with its jokes about eyeballs falling into laps, also has a macabre sense of what “funny” actually is.
To joke about abortion in the way this teacher did, and in front of children, is worse than “inappropriate,” as the district noted. It shows a lack of value for life in general because the teacher’s mind immediately went to abortion as a seemingly impulsive and rapid response.
And despite what abortion advocates would like the public to think, abortion’s not as simple as popping a balloon under a teenage girl’s shirt – and far less funny.
