News Jun 3, 2010 at 4:00 am

A Few Thoughts About My Daughter Getting Ejected from Her Class at Thurgood Marshall Elementary Last Week

The product that got my daughter kicked out of class.

Comments

1
really? i think you are the only one turning it into a race thing.
you are teaching your daughter intolerance by making a huge deal out of this.
so what a chinese girl was carrying a blonde doll? it seems YOU are the only one that is making a racial issue of this.
maybe your the one with issues here. racism is racism no matter what color its coming from and you are definitly coming off as racist.

further more-
maybe the shampoo or conditioner that you use is actually making the teacher ill. some smells do that to people. im sure there is a smell that does that to you.(i know powdery smelling perfumes and popcorn for me. to some people that stuff smells great!) try changing your daughters shampoo/conditioner instead of throwing a tissy fit. you are the parent you should be more mature than this and should have handled it better.
2
really you delete my comment because it isnt the same are your veiws? wow.

racism is racism no matter the color.
3
Defending your daughter for a descpicable act from an authority figure is not racist.

Further more, you are assuming that the hair product was the actual cause of this ignorant teacher's prblems.

The school needs to address this issue and curtail it immediately!

the teacher- if you are reading this- karma is coming after you
4
Charles, I am 100% with you in regard to your outcry due to your daughter being expelled for her hair product. Many people (including myself) have sensitivity to perfumes or strong odors, but none of those hair care products fall into this category. My children have brown skin and curly hair too and I teach them not to accept this kind of crap from anyone. When there is injustice, we must fight for justice.
5
Even if the hair product in question was making the teacher feel sick, I have a hard time believing that there was no better way of dealing with the situation. Suck it up and deal with it. Then maybe contact the parents after class and ask if some changes can be made. But really, kicking a child out
of class for something like that is just unacceptable. Childhood is a shitty time for everybody and their self-esteem... It's the job of professional educators to ease the growth/development process, not to help instill insecurities that will haunt kiddos into adulthood. There be wrong doing afoot says I!
6
Even if the teacher does have a sensitivity to perfumed products - which I do - one child in a classroom of children is NOT enough to produce that kind of reaction. And what does this teacher do outside the school? On the bus? In a movie theater? At a shopping mall? My son is a different racial mix than your daughter, but has a glorious head of curly, curly hair for which we use leave-in conditioner so he doesn't look like a blown-out dandelion. And if this is ever a problem at school, I plan to respond in the same manner as you and your wife. Kudos to you - your daughter will walk away from this head held high, knowing she is loved and her parents have her back.
8
How ethical is it that Charles is reporting on an incident that involves him and his daughter? Especially now that a lawyer is involved?
10
You know, there are some key facts here we haven't been told. Was this the first time Mudede's daughter wore this product to school? If so, it seems entirely possible that if the teacher has chemical sensitivities she could have had a negative physical reaction to it. Mudede does not have a track record as being particularly empathetic to others (see his Slog posts on the child who killed himself after being bullied relentlessly in school), so I could see him dismissing the claim of being chemically sensitive out of hand.

This whole thing, as reported by Mudede, is outrageous and appalling. I'd really like to know the rest of the story, though, before rushing to judgment.
11
If something causes a problem remove something and see if the problem is gone. Your case; explain to your child that some people have sensitivities to smells that others do not. Make light of it, and change hair products. How f'n hard is that? If she gets kicked out again because her clothes are too bright, maybe lawyer up. Until then... chill out and quit sending your kid the wrong message.
12
The fact that a teacher would single out any child in that manner, regardless of race, in front of other students is troublesome to me. She is teacher, does she not realize kids notice these things, and turn it into more ammo in their verbal gun slinging (which being kids, they don't truly understand the cruelty and full affects of). Not to mention the embarrassment the poor girl must have felt initially, when asked to leave.
That said, I am very curious to know if this is the first time his daughter had worn the product to school. If it was the first time it's possible the smell did bother the teacher (although I'm not convinced an organic olive oil based product could have a very offensive smell, it's usually the more chemical perfumes and colognes that are the culprits). If that's the case she's still guilty of being very insensitive. She couldn't open a few windows, grin and bare it, then send a polite note discretely home w/the girl at the end of the day?
However, if this is something she wore everyday, that changes things. I know from personal experience the only time smells like perfumes etc. bother me (I dislike them all, but truly bother me, in ways the teacher described) is when I am HUNG THE FUCK OVER.....just a thought
13
The fact that a teacher would single out any child in that manner, regardless of race, in front of other students is troublesome to me. She is teacher, does she not realize kids notice these things, and turn it into more ammo in their verbal gun slinging (which being kids, they don't truly understand the cruelty and full affects of). Not to mention the embarrassment the poor girl must have felt initially, when asked to leave.
That said, I am very curious to know if this is the first time his daughter had worn the product to school. If it was the first time it's possible the smell did bother the teacher (although I'm not convinced an organic olive oil based product could have a very offensive smell, it's usually the more chemical perfumes and colognes that are the culprits). If that's the case she's still guilty of being very insensitive. She couldn't open a few windows, grin and bare it, then send a polite note discretely home w/the girl at the end of the day?
However, if this is something she wore everyday, that changes things. I know from personal experience the only time smells like perfumes etc. bother me (I dislike them all, but truly bother me, in ways the teacher described) is when I am HUNG THE FUCK OVER.....just a thought
14
The "teacher" (and I use that title loosely) sounds like an over-dramatic wench who has no business teaching the Future Adults of America. If she had such a marked problem, she should have excused herself from the classroom and gone to the nurse, and perhaps requested to be replaced with a substitute for the remainder of the day. If she found out that she still had issues, she should have called the parents to discuss a solution. Why should the kid have to deal with this crap as if she did something wrong? If the "teacher" truly had the issue she claims, she went about this in the wrong way. How about setting a good example on how to resolve issues? That kind of thing translates from the classroom to business settings. This "teacher" just taught a classroom of kids to be overdramatic wenches with no coping skills. Awesome.
15
I feel terrible for this 8 year old girl and disgusted by her teacher's poor judgement. There is no way that a person with genuine fragrance sensitivity could be an elementary school teacher, there are way too many variables with kids. If a child were to smell bad it could mean they are being neglected at home and the teacher needs to treat it like a possible child abuse situation.
16
Yeah, I kinda feel like the writer is the only one making a racial issue out of it.

Is the teacher a moron? Absolutely. Even if the scent of the hair product in question made her feel ill, that's no reason to make a child feel singled out.

It doesn't sound like cut-and-dry racism, though. Not even a little.

Can't people be total ass-hats in this town without also being *racist* ass-hats?
17
Um, I'm just going to throw some ideas into the mix, as a person who has taught in elementary, middle and high schools, and is myself extremely sensitive to smells.

1. Elementary students will pee, puke, and sometimes even poop on you. There will be kids who fart a lot. There will be kids who smell inexplicably like vinegar all the time.

2. For the average young adolescent, there is a solid fifteen months between the time one is supposed to begin wearing some form of deodorant and the time one actually begins wearing said deodorant -- or at least, wearing enough. It's like a stinky, stinky right of passage.

3. Freshmen boys love cologne. They think it's the greatest thing ever; thus, they bathe in it. From Axe body spray to designer fragrances, 15 year old boys are really really good at using too much. Perhaps it is overcompensation for the aforementioned period of hygienic neglect in middle school. Who can say, really. And the girls? Not much better.

My point is this: maybe it's not in the manual, and maybe no one mentions this during education certification, but as soon as you spend any time around kids, you find out that a component of teaching is ignoring any and all funky smells emanating from students, as long as said funky smells are not an impediment to the students themselves.

Of course, I can't imagine that a seasoned educator, who has no doubt experienced truly offensive odors in her classroom, would be undone by something as innocuous as an olive oil hair treatment. But, even if we give this teacher the benefit of the doubt, and take her at her word that she was genuinely bothered by the smell of this hair product, her actions make very little sense to me. You just don't tell an eight year old girl to leave class because the smell of her hair bothers you -- even if you are incredibly sensitive! even if you have morning sickness! -- you just don't do that. You suck it up, or you excuse /yourself/. You don't make the kid leave and go sit in someone else's class. Like, come on.

Okay, so that's just crummy teaching practice, you say, where's the racial component? Here's the thing: if you have the luxury of placing yourself in the "default" category on any number of fronts -- race, gender, etc (that such a "default" exists in the consciousness of our society is a huge part of the problem), you also tend to have the luxury of not considering how your own race, gender, etc plays into your perceptions and actions. In other words, most white people never think they're doing something because they're white; if you're white, it's easy to forget that you have any racial identity at all. And thus, it's easy to neglect and ignore the fact that other folks, for whom race is a positively defined element of their identity in the context of this society, are constantly having to go around resetting switches from "default."

This teacher, most likely, did not think to herself, "Huh -- hair (texture, style, treatment) is an incredibly racially charged subject. I know what I'll do! I'll single out my only black student by making an issue of her hair! That'll be awesome!" I mean, it's possible her motivations were that /overtly/ racist; again, let's give her the benefit of the doubt and imagine they were not. There's still a big problem.

It's unlikely this teacher was thinking about the significance and connotations of hair -- and that's because for her, as a member of the "default" racial group, hair doesn't have significance and connotation. She has the luxury of having "default" hair; she has the luxury of never feeling singled out or racially defined by her hair. Does this mean she's off the hook, because she didn't know or because it didn't occur to her? Can the racial connotations of a white teacher singling out a student of color by making an issue of her hair be dismissed? Absolutely not. White people plead ignorance all the time for things like this: "I wasn't being racist when I said/did that -- I just didn't know any better. I didn't know that was offensive." Well, I think that's pretty weak (I'm white; I kind of think it's my own damn responsibility to be as conscious of the role race plays in our society as everyone else, who is being fucked over by it, is). Race is an issue in this story the way it is more and more frequently in America -- not because of an overt act of aggression, but because of a passive act of inconsideration.

Which, to my mind, is just as egregious. The posture of "default" -- of having the privilege to not have to consider your privilege, may not be a posture anyone is actively choosing to take. That doesn't make it acceptable. Folks who enjoy privilege are not exempt from examining it. Folks who don't have to consciously experience racism aren't entitled to plead ignorance that such a thing exists.
18
What grade does this teacher teach? How long has she been at Thurgood Marshall? Any chance this is not the first time she has done something like this? I ask because of an issue involving my mixed ethnicity nephew a couple years ago and another involving an African American neighbor shortly after.
19
What grade does this teacher teach? How long has she been at Thurgood Marshall? Any chance this is not the first time she has done something like this? I ask because of an issue involving my mixed ethnicity nephew a couple years ago and another involving an African American neighbor shortly after.
20
We should ignore the point of this story and instead focus on racial difference between Mudede and his wife. I think it’s only fair. They found the Asian girls mother by the way.
21
i am a 'brown' person who has worn that very same product and i gotta tell u - it makes me a bit nauseated if i use too much...i had to switch to a vit e oil that had less of a smell. it's a very personal thing because i had my mom smell it and she said it was fine.
my point is smells and the effect of said smells are very individualised. that being said - the teacher did behave very unprofessionally and could have handled the situation in a very different way. i need more info to determine whether this was indeed racially motivated, but there does seem to be a whiff of racism as evidenced by the fact that the teacher chose such an extreme response when there were so many other options available to her..
22
I wanted to address readers' beliefs that the author was being one sided, uncaring, or jumping to conclusions - pulling out the r-card that scares all white people- for believing the issue of his daughter being removed from class had racial overtones. I think in the NW, we have reached a comfortable status quo that allows white people to come extremely comfortable and complacent with the belief that "racism" is an action that only entails overt name calling or discrimination, and even worse, that it exists only in rare form in our modern world. I have found that -while at least outwardly kind and polite- white people in the northwest are all together dismissive and ignorant to the subtler forms of racism, or like he says in the article, racial sensitivity. I whole heartedly believe that the teacher did NOT consciously think "lets send this mixed girl outta the classroom into the lower class with her people where she belongs" However, it is ENTIRELY appropriate for someone to challenge her on the underlying reasons and problems with what she did, and she owes it to her classroom community to be honest and reflective situation. So the product was making her sick, did she handle it the same way she would have if a white student had brought in a product with a strong scent as well? If so, then fine, she also probably deserves the space to be able to honestly and with proper reflection say that this removal from class did not have racial undertones. However, this conversation needs to happen. A lot more. Why are there more non-white students in the lower performing classrooms. Why is the ISS classroom rarely a vanilla mix? In a mixed school, why are white childrens grades statistically higher? Teachers, administration, and parents need to start pushing for answers. It will be an uncomfortable and difficult conversation and practice but fuck, at least its honest.
23
For reasons too obvious to state, Charles has no business writing about this here. Even for the Stranger, a new low.
24
Really, twice in the article you have to mention your daughter is the only black girl in the class. What would you do if you had to write about something that couldn't claim was race based you useless hack?
25
Sounds to me that Medude is making this a racist thing. I don't like strong perfumes either. This seems out of place in the Stranger, don't you think? Simmer down, Charles, it's not always about race, even though you seem to always make it that seem that way.
26
In the 2nd paragraph you state that "My daughter... was made to sit in a classroom that had more black students in it... in the lower class with the other black students" but then in the 4th paragraph you say, "my daughter is the only black student in that teacher's class." Well, which is it?
27
Perhaps the teacher did not handle the situation well, but the daughter in the classroom was doing well and had friends. Charles yanked his daughter out of the classroom and is suing the District and teacher. What's this going to mean for his daughter's education and her friendships. Doesn't seem like he cares about his daughter or the class -- just the chip on his shoulder.

Charles is playing the race card unfairly and is making his daughter and a well meaning teacher pay unfairly. Surely, there is a better way to deal with this. The teacher in question is quirky and frail. Perhaps Charles has some prejudices of his own.

Also, the teacher had passed out in the hallway the day before and rushed to the hospital. There was serious concern that she had anaphalactic shock and may have died. Probably wasn't the hair solution, but, in this sort of situation, why not just have your daughter switch conditioners? Why sue?

Thurgood Marshall doesn't have many students of African American descent, but neither does the Stranger staff.

28
This is SUCH a bad idea to publish this article post-attorney. The racism gets thrown in the ring pretty quickly by Mudede, who seems to forget from time to time that his wife is white. Perhaps the poor little Chinese girl was adopted, or had an Anglo mom or dad. Maybe Mudede shouldn't refer to the majority-black class as "lower". Maybe inflammatory statements published in a newspaper won't affect the schools response. Maybe humans should get over themselves. But I doubt it.
29
I just now realized this took place at, of all places, Thurgood Marshall Elementary!!

The irony, it burns!
30
It's really not appropriate for Charles to use his media pulpit/employer as a tool in this private dispute. If the Stranger has to report on this it needs to assign a reporter who is not a member of the Mudede family.

This sounds like the kind of thing that could be resolved with a level-headed conversation but will most likely end up in court because hey, this is America.
31
Our child was in that class. The teacher has some kind of allergy condition that was aggravated by construction work at her home, making her hyper-sensitive to certain smells, including fragrances such as found in some perfumes, hair products, etc. -- is what parents were told at the time. A special request was emailed to all the parents asking them to help out by not sending their child in to school the next day with any fragrance. Evidently all the parents got the message and complied except this one. Our child said when this girl came to school with the fragrance in her hair and it caused severe problems for the teacher, and the child was asked to sit in a neighboring classroom for at least part of the schoolday. (This is sometimes done at this school when there are disciplinary issues). I was shocked when my child reported that the next day the girl AGAIN came to school with the fragrance. This time she was put into a different class for the whole day, is my understanding. I did a simple search for the hair product used. Here are the ingredients:

Ingredients
Aqua (Water) , Cocos Nucifera Oil (Coconut) , Sorbitol , Petrolatum , Cyclopentasiloxane , Carthamus Tinctorius Seed Oil (Safflower) , Ricinus Communis Seed Oil (Castor) , Cetyl Esters , Cetearyl Alcohol , Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate , Stearic Acid , Olea Europaea Fruit Oil (Olive) , PPG-3 Benzyl Ether Myristate , Dimethicone , Glyceryl Glycol , Triethanolamine , Carbomer , Disodium EDTA , BHT , FRAGRANCE , Benzyl Alcohol , Benzyl Salicylate , Geraniol , Hexyl Cinnamal , Lilial , D-Limonene , Linalool , Lyral Methyl Ionone , CI 42090 (Blue #1) , CI 19140 (Yellow #5).

I strongly oppose racial discrimination, and I know it is alive today. But not always.
Sometimes a person can make a fool of themselves claiming discrimination when there is none. Here is the irony: since the '70's blacks and Latinos have been falling behind on test scores, more crime, etc. The District is trying to "close the gap" and encourage such students to enter into the highly gifted APP program. Is this girls parents doing anyone a service by effectively removing her from such a wonderful and empowering program? In psychology some people want to play the martyr or victim in life; it is a comfortable role. But overusing this role actually holds them and their cause back. Some blacks have begun to realize this. Bill Cosby received a lot of flack when he started asking black men to stop playing the victim and step up and be role models. Oprah had a program on this. The Seattle School District's Superintendant Goodloe-Johnson (sp) (who is also black) even says black people can hold themselves back by doing this. Sorry Charles, sometimes the proverbial cigar is just a cigar. Is it necessary that you know my race to judge this comment? Isn't that discriminatory? I wish you the best. Your daughter deserves it.
32
Sure is nice to be able to buy ink by the barrel.

Regardless, I think you are right here, Charles.

May the 'Teacher' find herself in a 'Groundhog Day' version of the 'Twilight Zone'. Mind them Chopper Blades, Teach!

33
And then, up pops machew...

Kinda weakens the argument...

Gotta a Comment, Charles?

I'm thinkin you Owe Us one here, Mr. Ink By The Barrel...

Or do I owe Teach an Apology? (Jeez -- They haven't started filming, have they?!! Hope I ain't Too Late!)
34
mr. mudede,
as a fellow third-world person living legally in the united states with all its beautiful laws and flaws,
i have to say i would love to see you sue those fuckers.
what they have done to you and your family has no name- they have no shame.

in a just society i believe a jury would find it to be criminally racist.

this teacher is not fit for duty. of all the reasons to send a child home-

this was not one of them

let us all protest!

this country really is getting more racist by the day-
35
way to jump to huge racist conclusions Mudede! machew's comment brings up not only a different perspective, but hell, a more believable one....i mean come on, seriously? i absolutely do not see racism in this situation at all. an article like this really cheapens the Stranger's credibility....
36
@35, i wish i could say more.
37
@33, trust me, my daughter does not put that frangrance in her hair everyday. and, more importantly, information about the product was sent to the school with no response.
38
My child is also in this classroom and from my understanding, machew summarized the situation well. Given the teacher's chemical sensitivity and the construction at her home, I believe the teacher's reaction was due entirely to the specific set of circumstances. That being said, it's very disappointing that this was not handled more thoughtfully and considerately by everyone.

One thing I do not understand, Charles, is why, if the teacher cannot handle the smell, was your daughter sent to the ALO classroom and not to the other APP classroom? (This is what you imply in the second paragraph.) And why is that not a solution for the rest of the year?
39
Water - Aqua, Coconut Oil - Cocos Nucifera, Sorbitol, Trimonium Methosulfate, Cetearyl Alcohol , Petrolatum, Cyclomethicone, Peanut Oil - Arachi Hypogaea , Castor Oil - Ricinus Communis, Cetyl Esters, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Olive Oil - Olea Europaea, Stearic Acid, Triethanolamine, DMDM Hydantoin, Propylene Glycol, Methyl Paraben, Propyl Paraben, Carbomer , Cetearyl Alcohol , Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate, PEG-25 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Fragrance - Parfum , Benzyl Alcohol , Benzyl Salicylate , Geraniol, Hexylcinnamicaldehyde, Lillial, D'Limonene, Linalool, Lyral, Alpha Isomethyl Ionone, BHT , Blue No. 1 - CI 42090, Yellow No. 5 - CI 19140

You put that on your daughter's head? Don't you realize how much is absorbed into the body from the scalp>

Parabens cause cancer ( and have been removed from many beauty products).

Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate- is an irritant and causes organ damage in animal studies.

Petroleum- is what BP sells- that shouldn't be used either.

Triethanolamine- causes cancer ( creates nitrosamines)

Propylene Glycol- you know what antifreeze is don't you?

Hexylcinnamicaldehyde- is a class B allergen.

Arachi Hypogaea- Peanut oil.

Geraniol- is often used as insect repellent- as the scent apparently deters bugs.

Lillial- used for scent.

D'Limonene- used for scent

Lyral- used for scent- or as we in the beauty industry call it- "Hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde, the most allergic fragrance chemical currently used".

Alpha Isomethyl Ionone- so strong an allergen the IFA ( International Fragrance Association) banned its use.

Regardless of the way the school district managed this issue- and I hope it has been resolved- ORGANIC printed on a label does not mean NON-TOXIC.
Do your daughter a favor and get some olive oil that has been approved to put into your body.

I would also suggest that while this instance is unfortunate- it is little in comparison to the way the school district has handled rapes of challenged students at Rainier Beach and Roosevelt. ( amongst others)

Education reporting is a joke in this community- news is transmitted by blogs to staff and parents like

40
ack- my edit didn't take-
Please add.

Education reporting in daily papers is a joke in this community- accurate news is transmitted by blogs to staff and parents like saveseattleschools.blogspot.com. The community needs an education reporter- & your voice would be welcomed ( As a Stranger columnist- you would be mainstream!)

For instance just the fact that your daughter is the only non-white student in her class is against the reasoning that was used to split APP. What efforts are being used to address this issue? Are we going to have a district of schools that aren't only split by race geographically, but even inside the buildings?
41
Yeah, but, #37 ('@'33? Is that short for 'Posting at #33 ?), were you not aware of Teach's fragrance sensitiivity? Or merely immune to her request?

So your beautiful daughter may not wear it 'daily' -- why wear it at all (assuming there may be a fragrance-free alternative)?

I do agree, Teach's actions were most objectionable. I have no problem with her offensive reaction being actionable as well; is there not some culpability on both sides? Is there a way to get to 'I'm okay, you're okay"?

Or do we have a 'Mexican Standoff' here?

(Thank God for the Lawyers, eh?)

Thank you for your response(s).
42
@38, im very happy to learn that all the other students washed their clothes with just cold water, and used no (or perfectly scentless) products (soap and all) whatsoever to clean themselves. only my daughter, the only black student in the class, had the fucking nerve to use a product that caused the teacher to fear for her life! my daughter smelled and all other students in the class were found by this teacher (using her nose on each student) to have used nothing but cold water for all of their cleaning purposes. they did not smell at all! this is what you and @31 are telling me? 28 other kids did not have "the least fragrance" on them.

really, this is what you are saying! really, no other student is using lip gloss or some other thing like that!

so if i had used just cold water on my daughter and her things, like the other white students evidently did, none of this would have happened. im simply amazed!

by the way, this is a product she has been using all year.
43
Mr. Mudede, could you please answer some straight-forward questions that are raised by the information that was provided by a reader?

Did the teacher advise the students' families - including yours - of a recent and temporary sensitivity to fragrances? Yes or no.

Can you explain why, when asked courteously and respectfully - along with every other family with a student in the class - not to apply fragrances to your child did you neglect or reject that request? Were you unaware of it? Did you regard your child's right to fragrance greater than the teacher's right to her well-being?

Can you explain why, after your child spent part of one school day in a neighboring class due to the hair treatment, your child came to school the next day with the treatment on her hair? Were you unaware of the events of the previous day?

Since having your daughter spend the day in the other class is clearly unacceptable to you, what solution would you propose?

If the harm you claim is that your child was deprived of a seat in the class, then how is your solution - to keep her home from school - a positive?

On what grounds do you base your doubt that the fragrance caused the teacher distress? Why should you question that? Do you question the discomfort people felt in the South Shore school building? How do you decide which health complaints to question and which to accept without question?

The question is not, as you have tried to position it, whether the other children in the class were scent-free. It doesn't matter if none of the other children had any fragrance or not. What matters is that they didn't have a fragrance in concentrations that sickened the teacher. Perhaps some of them did create problems for her. Perhaps their families showed the courtesy to prevent their children from returning to the classroom with a fragrance product that made the teacher unwell. The real question is, why, after the scent on your child was a known problem, you chose to create a confrontation instead of just forgoing the hair treatment.

Likewise, your reference to your daughter's use of the product all year has no bearing. As was explained, the sensitivity was recent. Were you not aware of that or are you simply ignoring the fact as inconvenient?

Why get all confrontational over a hair treatment? Why presume ill intent? Why presume racism - has the teacher been racist all year?
44
I don't see anything that says the sensitivity was recent. If it's the teacher I think it is, it's a very longstanding condition. I have a 2007 email from her about it.
45
@43, you speak as if there is no cultural component in the matter of smells. it appears to me that you believe there to be one, universal standard to smells that all must comply with--no matter what background or cultural history. what is so striking in all of this, and this struck me at the very beginning of this mess, is the support for this teacher's sensitive to smells is matched by a complete indifference to cultural sensitivity.
46
"by the way, this is a product she has been using all year."
I assume your daughter has also been black all year. Its now June, most schools are going to break for summer soon, so I would imagine your daughter has been in this class for 8 months now. There are two sides to this coin.
47
Mr. Mudede, I don't deny a cultural component to smells. Nowhere in my comment do I make any such suggestion. Nor do I suggest that there to be any one universal standard for smells, nor do I suggest that everyone comply to any such standard. Please do me the kindness of not putting words into my mouth.

You seem to have a lot of trouble addressing yourself to the actual questions of fact rather than your conjecture about the motivations of others.

I believe there is a physiological component to sickness; how about you?

I believe there is a cultural component to the extent to which we believe that we should moderate our comestic choices to accomodate the health needs of those with whom we share space. What does your culture tell you about that? Does it tell you to insist upon the right of individuals to persist in easily modified behavior - however innocent - that harms others?

When you're done building and knocking down straw men, will you please address yourself to the questions:

Did you receive the teacher's request to reduce fragrances in the classroom?

Were you aware that there was a problem with the effect that your daughter's hair treatment had on the teacher on one day? Were you aware that she spent part of that day in another classroom?

Did you, with the knowledge that chemicals in your daughter hair had a negative impact on her teacher the previous day, send her to school the following day with the hair treatment?

Do you believe that your daughter's right to use the hair treatment of her choice outweighs her teacher's right to a healthful workplace? Is there some deeper reason that your family could not make this accomodation for the teacher's well-being? Is there a principle at stake here regarding free choice in hair treatments?

Given that the chemicals in the hair treatment cause illness in the teacher, what solution do you propose? The choices appear to be to assign the teacher to another class - which would be disruptive to everyone in the class - assign your daughter to another class - which would be disruptive for your daughter - or simply stop using the hair treatment. Which of these choices do you prefer?

Or do you persist in doubting whether the chemicals in the hair treatment are the source of the teacher's distress? If so, what is the basis for that doubt?
48
For my part, I think you are spot on about cultural sensitivity. I have no problem with that at all. I'm just providing more information about the teacher's long-term issue to show that she didn't just pull it out of a hat.

But yeah, I agree with the teacher's handling of the situation being not only misguided in general (based on the testimony I've heard), but insensitive to the racial context.
49
@47, again, this product was used all year. all year. all year. ok. no letter from a doctor to me about this matter at all. no nurse, no doctor, no principle. my wife recieved a letter not even from the teacher, but a parent in the class about how the teacher is sensitive to smells in general. now, remember, the product has been used all year--no fainting, no nausea, no letters from a doctor, nurse, or principle during the whole year. please get this into your head: all year! suddenly, suddenly my daughter is killing the teacher with something she has used All Year Long.
50
I understand your point, Mr. Mudede. I am not saying the teacher was in the right or that her explanation makes entire sense. All I meant was that there is evidence she did not make up this condition specifically for this situation.

The commenter at 22 suggests that if the teacher would have done the same thing with a white child, then she didn't do anything racist. I don't think that's a good test. Taking away the context of "white person telling black person she smells" and "white person telling black person she used the wrong hair product", it's a totally different interaction.
51
Yes, Mr. Mudede, something changed. As another parent of a child in the class has stated,

"The teacher has some kind of allergy condition that was aggravated by construction work at her home, making her hyper-sensitive to certain smells, including fragrances such as found in some perfumes, hair products, etc. -- is what parents were told at the time."

So although your daughter used the product all year, all year, all year, the teacher's sensitivity was new, new, new. Please get this into your head: new.

Second, your family DID receive a letter - thank you for acknowledging that - about the teacher's sensitivity, yet you chose to place a higher value on your daughter's choice of cosmetics. Even after you were aware that the teacher had a negative reaction to the hair treatment you sent your daughter to school with the hair treatment again. From another member of the school community: "Also, the teacher had passed out in the hallway the day before and rushed to the hospital." But your daughter's right to use that specific hair treatment is a greater value. That's pretty callous, isn't it? Are you showing the same sensitivity that you demand in others?

Third, where do you get off demanding a letter to you from a doctor or a nurse? Why can't you offer the teacher the simple courtesy of not sending your daughter into her classroom with chemicals that cause her to vomit and faint? Is that so much to ask without some force of law behind it? No one owes you a letter from a doctor. You have not right to a letter from a doctor. And what would you know if you had a letter from a doctor that you don't know now?

Are we to understand that if there were a letter from a doctor then you would not regard the teacher as a racist or even culturally insensitive?

As machew wrote:
"A special request was emailed to all the parents asking them to help out by not sending their child in to school the next day with any fragrance. Evidently all the parents got the message and complied except this one. Our child said when this girl came to school with the fragrance in her hair and it caused severe problems for the teacher, and the child was asked to sit in a neighboring classroom for at least part of the schoolday... I was shocked when my child reported that the next day the girl AGAIN came to school with the fragrance."

What's the higher value in your culture - your choice of cosmetics or another person's health?
52
I'm a little disappointed in Mr. Mudede. When APP was in the throes of the split in the Fall of '08, I had hoped that he might use his platform to discuss the pros and cons of the split - coming from his unique perspective. Whether pro or con, I would have been interested in what he had to say; it would have either refuted the assertions of a vocal minority who favored the split or supported those who wished to keep the cohort intact for reasons not motivated by racism/classism.

How unfortunate that his only public discussion of the program that his child participates in has to do with this hair product allergy and perceived racism. It just smacks of one more jab at the "racist" APP program.

We don't know if the teacher/student/parents had a history of negative interactions prior to this, if the teacher had asked the student to stop wearing the product prior to the incident (some accounts suggest this), or if there was an APP classroom she could have been moved to instead of a Gen. Ed. class (some have said there is another APP class at the same grade), if the teacher has called attention to her allergies/chemical sensitivities or asked other students to stop using a product or leave the classroom. I'm all for rooting out racism where it exists, but I'm not ready to crucify this teacher without more info.

It sounds like the whole thing could have been better handled by all parties involved.
53
"So although your daughter used the product all year, all year, all year, the teacher's sensitivity was new, new, new. Please get this into your head: new."

Did the letter say that the sensitivity is new, or that the construction was recent? Did recent construction make a long-term problem worse? I don't think we know.
54
Mr. Mudede says that the teacher's senisitivity was new - not that it makes any difference at all if the reaction were old, or new, or old but newly worse. That's an issue for Mr. Mudede, but it doesn't matter to the larger question. The larger question is whether, once his family is made aware of the problem - that the teacher is made physically ill by the chemicals in a cosmetic his daughter wears - whether he should insist on his daughter's right to wear the cosmetic or whether he and his family should offer a little courtesy and forego the cosmetic.

It doesn't matter if the sensitivity were old or new. It doesn't matter is the child wore the product all year. Once a problem is identified why can't he and his family simply accomodate the teacher's allergy? Why does he have to lawyer up? Why would he rather remove his daughter from the classroom than remove the spray from her hair?

Mr. Mudede has not addressed the real issues of this situation as he invents more distractions.

Did his family get a letter advising them of the teacher's sensitivity? Yes they did.

Were they aware that their daughter's hair treatment caused the teacher physical distress? He hasn't answered, but it appears that they did.

Did they choose to continue to use the product after they knew that it caused the teacher physical distress? He hasn't answered, but it appears that they did.

So what solution does Mr. Mudede and his family want? Remove the teacher from the class, remove the student from the class, or remove the hair treatment from the class? He hasn't answered, but it appears that he wants his daughter removed from the class because that is the action he took.

If he and his family have behaved with any sort of consideration or courtesy, they would have just stopped using the hair treatment and this would not have become an issue. Mr. Mudede and his family appear to be seeking a needless confrontation.
55
@ 51, please, i refer you to the cultural component i discussed earlier. it answers a point you seem to miss deliberately.

you have no idea the kind of climate of humiliation this situation created for my daughter, who was the subject of a witchhunt.

so fuck you and others who think this is really about chemicals and not culture.
56
Well, we have another person saying the hair product causes mild nausia. Also, my understanding is that the other teacher offered to take the student and that it wasn't as abrupt as implied.
I'm all for making plain the invisible racism of the "default population," but I think sometimes the race card might be a little too convenient, too.
My hunch is the teacher was probably being overly dramatic and the author repaid in like kind. If he wanted to simply address the idea of invisible racism, fine, but unless the author has other examples of racism by the teacher to infer from, I think I've just read one big straw-man...and considering he just essentially made the assertion they have a racist for a teacher, I think it's a little dickish.
I sincerely hope her teacher isn't a closet racist who suddenly found an excuse to exercise her bigotry, and I'm sure being sent from the room for the way you smell (assuming the reason was made explicit to the children, of course) is an embarrassing situation. I think it's clear from this response alone that it was not the best option, but not knowing all the facts (as we clearly do not), I think the real issue has to do with how to address students who, hypothetically of course, unexpectedly introduce potential allergens to a classroom.
57
Moreover, I really don't understand a value system that puts one person's right to choose a specific cosmetic above another person's health.

Your rights are not a bludgeon for you to use to beat others.
58
Ah, fuck me. Nice. You've done an excellent job of making your perspective clear, Mr. Mudede.

Good luck in Court.

By the way, this is the first that you have written about a witchhunt or humiliation. You keep finding new issues when your old issues are proven feeble.

So now the problem isn't that the teacher's reaction was new or that you doubt the legitimacy of the teacher's allergic reaction but that your daughter was humiliated by having to sit in a classroom predominantly populated by brown-skinned children. That's humiliating for her, is it?

Apparently there was also a witchhunt. Please tell us more about that as it is now the main issue but we're only just now reading about it.

Again, once you knew that the hair treatment triggered an allergic reaction in the teacher but you continued to use it because... of a cultural imperative?
59
interesting that the commentary to an article on kiro's website http://www.kirotv.com/news/23743530/deta…
which deals with this issue-
brings a lot more calls for the teacher to be fired
60
i really should shut up about this but what you see as a retreat to other arguments is in fact an enlargement of what i understand about this situation. i can, actually, enlarge the picture even more, and it only gets worse.
61
If you know more, then tell us, fer cryin' out loud! If you don't or can't, then shut up about it already. Otherwise it's just you asserting that you are right because you have facts that you won't tell us.

I know something you don't nyah-nyah-nyah.
62
I have worked in many school districts and we are specifically told not to wear perfume. A work environment isn't a place to smell "romantic" and the one time I broke that rule, the teacher in the class room started sneezing loudly and announced the smell was coming from me. I learned my lesson. I am assuming the hair product was scented. The question is, should the students follow the same rules as us teachers? I don't know.
63
Please don't extend yourself, Mr. Mudede. Once you've made the "fuck you" argument I don't see any need for you to explain yourself further.

It's all very clear now. Your daughter's hair treatment causes an allergic reaction in her teacher, and you're response is "fuck the teacher". Your daughter's right to put whatever she wants on her head clearly outweighs the health impacts it has on those around her. You certainly don't owe her teacher any courtesy or respect. That's perfectly clear. There's no need for you write anything more about that.

The hair product in question is a part of your culture, so the teacher's allergic reaction to the chemicals in it are a textbook example of cultural insensitivity. Anyone who thinks this is about chemicals instead of culture is being deliberately obtuse. It's abundantly clear. There are no chemicals here. There is no such thing as real sensitivity to chemicals. It's all in the teacher's head and it is a manifestation of her racism. No need for you to expand on that line of reasoning.

Unless of course a doctor sends you a letter attesting to the teacher's actual allergic reaction to the chemicals in the hair treatment. In that case there's a whole other set of evidence that the teacher is a racist. We see your perspective pefectly. You have nothing more to explain.

If you are tempted to enlarge the discussion, I would only ask if you would enlarge it to answer the one thing that I'm not getting:

After you knew that the hair treatment was causing the teacher physical distress, why did you insist on continuing to use it?

Was it because you thought she was faking so you didn't care about her distress?

Was it because you thought the physical reaction to the chemicals in the hair product were actually a manifestation of her distaste for your daughter's culture and therefore she deserved to be punished with it?

Was it because the hair treatment is an expression of cultural pride and therefore continuing to use it is a matter of principle regardless of the negative impacts on others?

Was it because the teacher didn't ask you nicely enough not to use the hair treatment and you chose to punish the teacher for her lack of courtesy?

Why did you send your daughter to school with the hair treatment after you knew that it caused her teacher to become ill?
64
The fact that there are posts defending the actions of the teacher in this scenario, to me, represents the subtle and invisible nature of racism and discrimination. At least, to those who do not have to deal with these realities on a daily basis. In this way, these posters provide support for the author's point that members of non-White groups in society have to deal with the realities of racism as "a real and hard fact" that is "immediate...and there all of the time."
65
This is so sad and unnecessary. Mr. Mudede has a very large chip on his shoulder, likely from exposure to real racial and cultural discrimination. That, however, does not excuse him from the fabrications he has created around this incident. The class is not all white, the teacher has serious health issues, the hair was not the issue the product in it was, students were notified not to wear perfumes, cosmetics or hair treatments, etc., etc. His comic McCarthyism "I have more information and it is worse", his derisive and vulgar dismissal of doubters, his hiring a lawyer and then unetically use of the pages of the Starnger to make his non-existent case are so unfair; to his daughter, her classmates, the teacher and the school.

Whatever Mudede's personal demons are they seem to have transformed him into a bully! So sad.
66
There's definitely racism out there, and the teacher could have handled this much, much better. But we don't really know her true motivation, and based on her long history of being super-sensitive to fragrances and her plea for help as her condition was recently pushed to the edge with construction work at her home (see #31 above), I'm guessing that her brash removal of the girl from class was not driven by race, ethnicity or culture -- though ultimately it's hard to exclude this entirely -- but rather because of the fragrance. (Our son, who is in the class, is 'half-brown' by the way).

So clumsy handling by the teacher. But let's look again at Mr. Mudede. By sending his daughter back that second day with the same problematic hair product, maybe he got just what he was after: a big hot-button story. After all, he has an ongoing piece on the Stranger, doesn't he? This is not about race at all: it's about the age-old competing interests of parent and child. We need to accel in life ourselves, but hopefully not to the disadvantage of our offspring. I hope this girl will be back in APP next year. In general Mr. Mudede is probably a good person, and sheds well-needed light on issues of racism that are present everyday, though he seems to have missed the mark on this one.
67
Charles Mudede - new race hustler. But not as good and rich as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. No, FUCK YOU.
68
Coming from the other side of this, I work in schools. I am chemically sensitive. There are rooms in my building that will make me ill to go into, I leave with migraines if I am there for more than a very few minutes. I have a health plan on file with the district related to scent and other migraine/nausea triggers. However, I do tell students on day one that perfumes and other scents can make me ill. I have posters around my room about it. These concerns can be very real for some people, even if they aren't a problem for other people, or other people can't readily detect the issue (the room that makes me sick has at best a 'faint odor' to other people, I can't get more than 10 feet from the doorway without my eyes watering and being able to smell it).
However, the way the teacher excluded this student was improper. I do have students with odor issues of all kinds, and I deal with them directly. Granted, my students are older, but it can still be done with respect. If it's a short term odor issue (someone got sprayed with AXE in the hall) I position myself away from them and open windows. If it's longer term or something I know the student to have done voluntarily, I gently take them aside and explain the product is problematic for me, and let them know I can't be near them if they continue to use it (they will sit far from where I generally place myself in the room). From there it can usually be problem solved as far as finding a suitable replacement products, or proper application that won't make me ill.
But none of this comes as a surprise to the students, as they see the posters daily, and it was made very, very clear at the beginning of the year. I have never had to exclude a student from class for scent issues, nor have I met resistance to my request.
I agree that the teacher was not responding appropriately to the situation, but I do not agree that it was an intrinsically racist move. The lack of movement on the part of the school after the incident is also not acceptable. However, the request for a medical statement is a bit overkill as well. It takes time and money, even with insurance, to obtain a statement, and if this reaction came as a shock to the teacher, the isolated nature of the incident makes it that much more difficult to obtain one, even if the reaction were genuine. If the teacher is truly racist, it should have manifested itself prior to this, or if the product in question were to change, something else should come up. To call this isolated incident racist is either not the whole story, or deeply ignorant of the reality of chemical sensitivity.
69
Was she permanently set in a lower class?
70
here is one for all the WASPS that just don't get it:

you would not last even 5 minutes outside your tiny bubble.

and by that, i mean the world

oh yeah and

FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING TWITS
that one especially goes to the guy who got became so offended when he heard FUCK YOU

(yeah- i gots a potty mouth)

what if it was your kid?
why i bet you'd cry bloody murder!!!

here's another:

would it not be prudent for a person who has such allergies to avoid jobs
that seal them up in a building with hundreds of other people?
i mean come on

really- thank god i only live here 6 months out of the year.

seattle is so full of shit.

and racist.

just ask some of our local journalists they even think trains are whites only affairs!

we even have teachers who call students niggers!
71
only live here 6 months out of the year.

Is it cherry picking time already?
72
ok seattle-
so a local journalist faces an injustice that affects him personally.
are you seriously saying that he should not write about it?
that its some kind of conflict of interest?
because he has a lawyer?

do you even realize what your point implies?

thats right:
closing down newspapers- death squads - curfews and dead reporters.

maybe they are getting paid to post.

thats right move along- nothing to see here

god bless the ol us of a where some one faces injustice- and nobody does shit.

on top they probably think they somehow 'deserved it'

73
hey emerald kity you know what? look up my i.p. address:
i live on mercer island - just think about that for a minute-
you probably work for me
74
naw- I'm retired- perhaps you will get there some day sonny.
75
I'me white. Been asked several times not to wear perfume at work, by other white people. Asked to leave my doctors office once for wearing perfume because my doctor was allergic and there were signs posted "please no fragrances". The doctor was white too. If the exact same thing happened to Muddede he would think it was a racist attack against him and his family for being "brown".

I'm married to a black, er as Muddede likes to say "brown" man. My kids are bi-racial too.

My advice: save the powerful race card for where you need to call attantion to a truly racist act. Don't waste it. Otherwise you are creating a boy who cried wolf situation and when you really need it nobody will believe you.

Q: Why do you think the teacher waited until the last few weeks of school to single your daughter out? Did she suddenly become aware of your daughter being bi-racial?
76
I'me white. Been asked several times not to wear perfume at work, by other white people. Asked to leave my doctors office once for wearing perfume because my doctor was allergic and there were signs posted "please no fragrances". The doctor was white too. If the exact same thing happened to Muddede he would think it was a racist attack against him and his family for being "brown".

I'm married to a black, er as Muddede likes to say "brown" man. My kids are bi-racial too.

My advice: save the powerful race card for where you need to call attantion to a truly racist act. Don't waste it. Otherwise you are creating a boy who cried wolf situation and when you really need it nobody will believe you.

Q: Why do you think the teacher waited until the last few weeks of school to single your daughter out? Did she suddenly become aware of your daughter being bi-racial?
77
"would it not be prudent for a person who has such allergies to avoid jobs
that seal them up in a building with hundreds of other people"

Ummmm, would it be prudent for a parent that knows a teacher has an allergy to refrain from using products filled with known allergens?

Two sides to every coin folks. Life is a two way street.

Not saying the teachers actions were right. She could have opened a window and turned on a fan. She could have called the parents into the office and had a face to face conversation with them. She could have had the principal mediate a resolution comfortable for all. She shouldn't have removed the child from the classroom.

The teacher did not make the best choice in this situation, but neither did mudede who should have respected the teachers sensitivities.

But I don't buy for one minute that it was a racist act. That's just ridiculous. This isn't Zimbabwe.
78
Testing to see why my comments are being deleted??
79
Hopefully this episode of Charles displaying his innate TNB will turn the teacher into a n-wordmaniac. Come on over to n-wordmania dot com! All races of humans welcome! No n-words allowed since they are not human! Just replace the "word" part of the n-word with "you know what" in the URL!
80
Whoops that should have been dot net
81
Why has slog totally and seemingly deliberately ignored the story of Shane McClellan, the white West Seattle teen who was beaten almost to death and burned while being held captive for hours by a black and an Pacific Islander (Samoan probably), all because he is WHITE?

Why has slog completely ignored this important story? IT IS NATIONAL NEWS YOU STONED LIBERAL DIPSHITS!
82
no, not zimbabwe don't even fucking go there you idiot-
you guys sound like apartheid era south african boers!!

you sound like slave drivers!

you dont get the whole point of this! seattle is not as liberal as you may think. what do you think your hip asian or black friend really thinks about you?
or the scene here?
ask them!

racism is very well and alive here, no matter what you say.

just look around- and don't give me any of this reverse
racism shit.

typical- the ones in power are now oppressed by the minority?
83
It's frustrating to see the lack of understanding and the extreme defensiveness that accompanies the claim that this is a cultural issue. Can you not put yourself in the position of an eight year old girl being removed from her classroom because her hair "smells?" Her hair that is very different from the hair of her peers. My nine year old daughter is bi-racial, and believe me that the majority of our race identity conversations have begun because of something to do with her hair. For her, her hair is a concrete symbol of otherness. Natural black hair needs a lot of care - it isn't simply a wash and go thing. And going with absolutely no product or oil is NOT an option. We've used the product in question, precisely because it has a mild, inoffensive smell. Far less than most conditioners. My heart hurts for Mr. Mudede's daughter, because I can so easily imagine the situation and subsequent feelings of isolation that go with it. Whatever the teacher's intentions; this was handled with a complete lack of sensitivity. To insist otherwise is to willfully embrace the same sensitivity failure.
84
just so things are nice and transparent- i have never met mr. mudede, nor does he know me. i am simply a local resident and Stranger reader, who will not shut up when the monster of friendly fascim (always racist, those damned fascists) rears its ugly head
85
look it up if you think i am mistaken

1. seattle police shoot black people in the back for stealing cigarettes

2. a seattle teacher was punished for calling a student a nigger

3. a local weekly somehow thought trains where things white people liked, but other races avoided

you really want to tell me i pulled the race card to soon ?

FUCK YOU
86
If douchebag Mudede doesn't like it here he can head back to Zimbabwe and kiss the ass of a dictator like his dear, old opportunistic parents.
87
Gotta love the feigned outrage of many commentors that Charles Mudede has a personal interest in this story. Maybe that would be a problem if he'd failed to disclose that the child was his daughter. But he was about as open as he could possibly be about that.

So, is the problem that, somehow, it just isn't fair that Charles Mudede has access to a wider audience than most of us? If that's it, I'd suggest the solution isn't for him to clam up, but to find ways to give more parents a public voice. Unless, of course, the real issue is that some folks just don't want to hear about race-related problems. In that case, silence is best.

In the end, it's impossible to know precisely what's going on in somebody's head. Maybe the teacher didn't consciously think to herself, "I'm going to find an excuse to boot this mixed kid from my class, and put her where she belongs". But evidently the teacher was almost completely unaware of how her actions would appear, and what they would feel like to the child and her family. That amounts to racial and cultural insensitivity, which is one of the things people are talking about when they use the word 'racism'.

In my opinion, there's much room for discussion about how to address this situation with some semblance of wisdom and compassion. This is no doubt turning out to be an extremely painful experience for the teacher, and nobody would want this kind of public exposure. I think there should be a productive solution somewhere between 'angry mob attack' and 'pretending there isn't a problem'.
88
#87: Wish I coulda said that.

89
Unless, of course, the real issue is that some folks just don't want to hear about race-related problems.

Unless,of course, some people don't think this is a race related problem.

I think the teacher had a (physical not racial) reaction to the childs hair care product. A product which by the way that has a long list of ingredients that are known allergens. It also has some ingredients that have been banned for use in other countries due to their high allergens.

The teacher shouldn't have removed the child from the classroom, that's for sure. But Mudede needs to man up and take some responsibility too. The teacher sent a letter home a the beginning of the year to THE ENTIRE CLASS letting them know she had sensitive allergies and requesting their kids not wear heavily scented products to class. She also sent another letter home to all families after this little girl wore the hair care product to class that made her sick. Mudede chose to ignore the teacher attepts that didn't single his child out. So he plays a big role in this situation too.

This whole thing should have been handled better by all parties.

Now it's time to fix the situation Mudede. Go to the school, get a mediator, and sit down with the teacher, principal, and any other involved parites, and come to an agreeable solution for all. GET YOUR CHILD BACK IN SCHOOL. Let her finish her year and say goodbye to her friends.

You have done her more damage by making a media spectacle of her, that could possibly have been done by her sitting in another classroom until you changed hair care products.

And by the way your child HAIR isn't what made the teacher sick. It was her HAIR CARE PRODUCT. Don't lie.
90
Kill yourself today, Mudede.
91
My daughter was in that teacher's class last year. My daughter was asked at the beginning of the year not to wear lotions or personal care products with odors due to the teacher's allergies/sensitivities. All the other children in the class, as well as the parents knew of this issue as well. Children of all races wear products with odors that bother her, and she makes it clear that the products are not welcome in her classroom as they make her nauseous. As to the issue of the child being asked to go to another room, it is not a "lower" classroom, it is a same-grade classroom next door. The teachers at the school all rely on one another on a daily basis to temporarily take children from other classes for various reasons. When I volunteer in my son's Advanced Placement Program class, there are frequently children from the general education ALO class next door sitting at a table doing work or quietly reading. What does Mr. Mudede make of the predominently African American children being asked to sit in a class that is predominently white and asian? The APP and ALO teachers rely on one another for supporting all of the children in the school. For Mr. Mudede to lable the same grade ALO class next door as somehow a "lower" class shows his own insensitivities to other children and teachers who are part of the same school community. As to his use of the "f" word in responding to reader comments, is that the best journalism he can do?
92
This is The Stranger we're talking about. The f-word gets used in f-ing headlines. And frankly, if I'd spent two weeks with trolls going on at me about why my daughter smelled, I'd be on edge enough to drop an f-bomb or two myself on the next person who made me mad.

Once again, context matters.
93
(Off topic; but, maybe, straight to the heart of the matter):

#60 (Re: Self-Portrait) & (Brevitized 4 Clarity, and fun!):

"what you see is in fact an enlargement of i."

"understand i can, actually, enlarge the picture even more, and it only gets worse."

No, no, Charles; I really think you look Great!

(You may want to re-think the peering-around-the-corner-bit though. This is Seattle, and here we are, in the Twenty-First! Century.)
95
Secrete more apocrine? Isn't that like saying they bleed more artery?
96
In a situation of extreme allergies, it is up to the allergic person to plant the seeds of solution.
Why did she not talk to the child discreetly & then contact the parents immediatly in order to come up with a solution?
A caring, decent teacher would have at least done a google seach to help choose a product that would not cause a reaction, & then had a dialogue with the parents.
Instead, she chose to act like an imperial princess, used to having everyone drop & roll when she sniffles.

It shows what type of teacher she is, & not a good one.
97
None of the people who say what the teacher SHOULD have done know, with any confidence, what the teacher actually did. So they should temper their comments with that doubt in mind.

Mr. Mudede's account of the events is not reliable. He acknowledges that he got it second-hand from an 8-year-old. He does not describe any conversation with the teacher. He does not describe any conversations with the principal. He does describe demands he made - demands that went unanswered.

He intentionally mischaracterizes the situation by writing: "my daughter... was ordered out of the classroom because her teacher did not like the smell of her hair." That's a false statement and he knows it. He persists in trying to perform some sort of verbal sleight of hand to make an allergic reaction to the ingredients of a cosmetic appear to be an aesthetic - and cultural - response to his child's hair. I'm discouraged to see how many people, including more repuatable journalists, were deceived by him in this obvious way.

This situation could have been resolved very quickly and easily if Mr. Mudede didn't choose to regard his daughter's removal from the class as a monumental, life-scarring humiliation, didn't choose to see racism in an allergic reaction, and didn't choose to be unnecessarily confrontational. How hard would it have been for him to choose another hair care product for his daughter or to talk to the teacher to seek a mutually acceptable resolution?

By the way, his daughter's continued use of the product is a violation of Seattle Public Schools rules that make it every student's responsibility to "Dress appropriately for school in ways that will not cause safety or health problems, or disruptions;"

In addition to this rule the handbook says:

"Students will also be disciplined if they fail to comply with any of the written rules and regulations in any other setting having a real and substantial relationship to the operation of Seattle Public Schools, including, but not limited to, the preservation of the health and safety of students and employees and the preservation of an educational process which is conducive to learning."
98
As a kid I remember many smelly kids that maybe should have been kicked out of class, but never one who was overly fragrant.

This whole sensitive to scent thing has gotten out of hand and I had never even heard of asking someone to not wear a certain perfume or lotion etc. until I moved to the overly sensitive or scent-sitive northwest.

wokka wokka

99
I hope this little girl is not scarred for life by the actions of her insensitive teacher and parents. She is the true innocent in this situation.
100
The teacher should be on medical leave if she's that sensitive. And she shouldn't have treated the child like a piece of carpet or a lamp.

The school clearly mishandled this.
101
Mudede tends to hyperventilate over anything that doesn't fit within his world view, and leaps like a maniac into making sure That Justice Is Done, even if it's basically being a whiny bitch in the Stranger about it.

It's entirely possible that the teacher at the school is, in point of fact, allergic or intolerant of a hair product, something Mudede isn't even remotely considering. Hell, I've known people to whine about the gluten in the air at a brewpub and start making faces when bread comes out of the oven (and seriously, dude. You will not go into a celiac disease blowout just because I made some goddamn biscuits).

I can't deal with people wearing too much perfume at work; I've a reaction to it. So rather than donning the mantle of Expertly Oppressed Man, as Mudede does nearly every issue of the Stranger, maybe taking a little time out to figure out what the issue is may help.

99% of Charles Mudede's work for the Stranger seems to be "SOCIAL JUSTICE! To the SOCIAL JUSTICE MACHINE, OPPRESSED GIRL!" and 1% "And then that one time, when I was poor, and it was awesome." Reading this article, I wasn't shocked at all about the content or the way Mudede leapt into "action". It's pretty much the trick he's taught the pony to do, and as long as he draws dollars for it from the Stranger, he'll keep doing it as long as he can.
102
"As to his use of the "f" word in responding to reader comments, is that the best journalism he can do?"

...have you READ anything else he's written? I'm wondering if this is a rhetorical question, or if the general populace just reads the byline and goes "Oh, fuck, Mudede again, more self-aggrandizing wankery in print" and skips it, like I do.
103
Well Charles this article explains a lot, that you are racist along with your wife and daughter. According to you it’s always there, all I know is that I have worked and met a lot of minorities and the only people around them making an issue about their race was them. There is such a double standard it makes me sick, if I as a white person make a big deal and show pride in being white I am a racist but if a minority does it they are not and they are just showing pride in their culture. Unfortunately my experiences along with close family and friends leads me to believe the people like your self are responsible for the way people perceive you, you act like a racist so people treat you as one. You always play the race card because that’s the only way you can win a disagreement because you’re not smart enough to win a disagreement on its merits. The good thing is that you work for a rag that will put up with your racism, and not for a reputable paper that actually has a large readership. By the way, way to go in brainwashing your family and others on this site, at least you’re good at something

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