So here we have an obvious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. And this was back in 2017, so there weren't many treatments available for it yet. Of course there were remedies such as socialism, changing genders, and-uh... EDITING TRUMP T-SHIRTS OUT OF YEARBOOKS?!?!?
WHAAAAAAT???
Yup. If you're gonna be a teacher you should know that you're supposed to hate Trump—hate him enough to make sure his name never makes it into the yearbook!
But Susan Parsons, a teacher within the Wall Township School District in New Jersey, didn't hate Trump. No, she voted for him in 2016 like a very, very bad teacher.
But it was her time devoted to the yearbook that year that would eventually get her in trouble. And she's since filed a lawsuit against the district for what happened.
Parsons was a yearbook adviser at the school district when she said a secretary acting on behalf of the high school's principal approached her in 2017 and told her to remove "Trump Make America Great Again" from a student's shirt...Parsons said she complied and made the student's shirt look solid navy blue.
"That has to go," Parsons said she was told.
I'd love to see what the second edit looked like, as, yes, she was forced to edit Trump's name from TWO SEPERATE YEARBOOK PHOTOS IN 2017! On top of that, a Trump quote was also removed from a photo of a class president.
What's the beef, yo?!?
But the story gets worse…
The lawsuit alleged that the school district scapegoated Parsons and created a hostile work environment that led to death threats, according to the AP. She...became a recluse after receiving hate mail and phone calls over the incident.
"My life has not been the same, and I don't think it ever will," she said in 2019.
So just how did the school set up Ms. Parsons "to take the blame"? Well, once the story made the news and the public cried foul, THE SCHOOL SUSPENDED HER! She was, in fact, the teacher who made the edit, you know. Not only that, but the school district dropped a public statement which made it seem like they disagreed with "her" censorship.
"There is nothing in our student dress code that would prevent a student from expressing his or her political views and support for a candidate for political office via appropriate clothing. Rather, I applaud students for becoming involved in politics and for participation in our democratic society. The high school administration was not aware of and does not condone any censorship of political views on the part of our students."
UNBELIEVABLE!
So we need a Snopes fact check here, because that one is false. Ms. Parsons regularly questioned the censoring of yearbooks throughout the years, arguing that the "yearbook should reflect reality." And we already know that an aide to THE PRINCIPAL told her to make the Trump edits in the first place.
But just why hadn't we heard her story in the first place?
Oh, that's right…
THE SCHOOL PAID HER A $25,000 SETTLEMENT AS PART OF A SEPARATE LAWSUIT IN 2019 WHICH ALLEGEDLY BARRED HER FROM TELLING HER SIDE OF THE STORY TO THE MEDIA!
NOT COOL, BRO! NOT COOL!
But now her story is out, and it's been FOUR YEARS SINCE THE INCIDENT!
And here's the good news: THE WALL TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT HAS JUST PAID HER A $325,000 SETTLEMENT!!
Raise your hand if you think it should've been more!
Here is the original story from 2017:
