{"id":88558,"date":"2016-02-24T13:50:16","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T18:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=88558"},"modified":"2016-02-24T13:17:01","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T18:17:01","slug":"substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

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<\/a>, 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<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

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\u2019t breathe for a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

When she called me upset, I was terrified I panicked. My kid goes to school think it\u2019s safe and then you get a call saying a teacher is coming after you with scissors saying it\u2019s time for an abortion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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,\u00a0said<\/a> in a statement:<\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The telling thing about this story is that abortion is such a casual topic to people like\u00a0this substitute teacher, that it merits a joke. The\u00a0 teacher’s comment indicates a likely desensitization on the subject itself. Comedy Central has certainly<\/a>\u00a0done its part<\/a> to try to make<\/a> abortion “funny.” And the abortion industry, with its jokes about eyeballs falling into laps<\/a>, also has a macabre sense of what “funny” actually is.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0life in general because the teacher’s mind immediately went to abortion as a seemingly impulsive and rapid response.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":827,"featured_media":66769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,7618,7619,7621,7620],"yoast_head":"\nSubstitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When a TX student put a balloon under her shirt, pretending to be pregnant, a substitute teacher chased her with scissors, saying, "Time for an abortion."\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When a TX student put a balloon under her shirt, pretending to be pregnant, a substitute teacher chased her with scissors, saying, "Time for an abortion."\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-24T18:50:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-24T18:17:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/scissors.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"672\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"372\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Catherine Livingston, PhD\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Catherine Livingston, PhD\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Catherine Livingston, PhD\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/e546e5fbb46d771bbe66c0ab7690156c\"},\"headline\":\"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-24T18:50:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-24T18:17:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/\"},\"wordCount\":480,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"abortion\",\"Hayes Consolidated School District\",\"Hays\",\"Lehman High School\",\"TX\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/\",\"name\":\"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-24T18:50:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-24T18:17:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"When a TX student put a balloon under her shirt, pretending to be pregnant, a substitute teacher chased her with scissors, saying, \\\"Time for an abortion.\\\"\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/e546e5fbb46d771bbe66c0ab7690156c\",\"name\":\"Catherine Livingston, PhD\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/429a591954a90dff112876f5f329b226?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/429a591954a90dff112876f5f329b226?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Catherine Livingston, PhD\"},\"description\":\"Catherine Livingston holds a PhD in education from a major U.S. university, and is a researcher and writer who has been a teacher and speaker in the pro-life movement since 2008. Born as the result of rape, she was placed for adoption and is passionate about issues of life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/catherine-livingston\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke","description":"When a TX student put a balloon under her shirt, pretending to be pregnant, a substitute teacher chased her with scissors, saying, \"Time for an abortion.\"\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke","og_description":"When a TX student put a balloon under her shirt, pretending to be pregnant, a substitute teacher chased her with scissors, saying, \"Time for an abortion.\"\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2016-02-24T18:50:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-02-24T18:17:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":672,"height":372,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/scissors.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Catherine Livingston, PhD","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Catherine Livingston, PhD","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/"},"author":{"name":"Catherine Livingston, PhD","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/e546e5fbb46d771bbe66c0ab7690156c"},"headline":"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke","datePublished":"2016-02-24T18:50:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-24T18:17:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/"},"wordCount":480,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["abortion","Hayes Consolidated School District","Hays","Lehman High School","TX"],"articleSection":["Issues"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/","name":"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-02-24T18:50:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-24T18:17:01+00:00","description":"When a TX student put a balloon under her shirt, pretending to be pregnant, a substitute teacher chased her with scissors, saying, \"Time for an abortion.\"\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/substitute-teacher-fired-for-sick-abortion-joke\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Substitute teacher fired for sick abortion joke"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/e546e5fbb46d771bbe66c0ab7690156c","name":"Catherine Livingston, PhD","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/429a591954a90dff112876f5f329b226?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/429a591954a90dff112876f5f329b226?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Catherine Livingston, PhD"},"description":"Catherine Livingston holds a PhD in education from a major U.S. university, and is a researcher and writer who has been a teacher and speaker in the pro-life movement since 2008. Born as the result of rape, she was placed for adoption and is passionate about issues of life.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/catherine-livingston\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/827"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88558"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88626,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88558\/revisions\/88626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}