Mostly because of 'people' - and I use that term very loosely - like this jerk. And I absolutely cannot believe he gets to keep his job.

www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article

Teacher suspended for Obama comments

TaMaryn Waters • Tallahassee Democrat staff writer • October 2, 2008

The comments made by Greg Howard, a Marianna teacher suspended for writing inappropriate comments about presidential candidate Barack Obama, have been released. Larry Moore, deputy superintendent for the Jackson County School District, said school officials determined Howard wrote an acronym with an explanation on a dry-erase board in his seventh-grade social-studies class at Marianna Middle School. It said, "C.H.A.N.G.E. - Come Help A (N-word) Get Elected."

Howard, who has been working with the school district for 17 years, has been suspended without pay for 10 days. Although he won't be teaching at the middle school, Moore said Howard will be a teacher at the district's Adult Education Program.

"We feel like the punishment is sufficient," Moore said. "We did not feel he had to be fired."

Moore said Howard did not have any other disciplinary action prior to this incident.

Some parents are outraged by the comments Howard wrote in his class.

"To me, it's hurtful," said Audrey Wad, a Marianna resident with nieces and nephews at the school. "The idea that he would impose his political opinion on the children is wrong to me. That's where he crossed the line."