MMA fighter put on leave after insulting President Obama

[Bill Mattocks]

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...-insulting-obama/story-e6frfku0-1225987579866

AN Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter has been placed on administrative leave from his job at a Minnesota high school after he insulted US President Barack Obama's intelligence and challenged the commander in chief to a fight. Jacob Volkmann told Fox News Radio that he is under investigation by White Bear Lake High School, where he has worked as a part-time assistant wrestling coach for three years.
“They didn’t like how I was representing the school,” he said. “They said I was representing them bad because of what I said about the President and his policies.”

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...ma/story-e6frfku0-1225987579866#ixzz1B1iT6Dnl
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[CoryKS]

But fighting in a ring is ok, right? Weird, when I saw the article I assumed it would be the MMA organization that cut him loose, since their income depends on public opinion. I'm not sure what the school's justification would be. What, people are going to get offended and enroll their child somewhere else? Oh noes, there goes all that sweet revenue... oh wait, they're a public school.

“They didn’t like how I was representing the school,” he said. “They said I was representing them bad because of what I said about the President and his policies.”

On the other hand, the school could honestly claim that he represents them badly as an educator

 

[Empty Hands]

Schools are extremely conflict and bad image-averse. It's not exactly surprising.

Pretty dumb though to challenge the President to a fight. You are criticizing his leadership and abilities, not his fighting abilities in the Octagon. Perhaps Obama should counter-challenge to a game of basketball?

 

[Touch Of Death]

Its the public school's job to teach party line not dissent.
Sean

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Schools are extremely conflict and bad image-averse. It's not exactly surprising.

Pretty dumb though to challenge the President to a fight. You are criticizing his leadership and abilities, not his fighting abilities in the Octagon. Perhaps Obama should counter-challenge to a game of basketball?

Or if it has to be a fighting sport, WTF taekwondo (Pres. Obama apparently reached the lofty rank of 'green belt' at some point in the past and was recently awarded an honorary first dan, black belt, and an embroiderd dobok when he visited SK).

But I absolutely agree; whether or not one can win a bout against the president in a martial sport is irrespective of the merit of his policy.

Daniel

 

[Bruno@MT]

Its the public schools job to teach party line not dissent.
Sean

Regardless of what you think about public education, teachers represent their school.
Doing something incredibly stupid like challenge the president to a fight makes a bad impression. Disagreeing with his policies is just fine. Challenging him to a fight is not, insuling him isn't either.

 

[punisher73]

Its the public school's job to teach party line not dissent.
Sean

Uhh...

Not sure, schools pretty much teach what they choose to no matter who the president is. Do you think that they all changed when Bush was in office and the press was all over him and approval ratings were very low?

The coach wasn't fired, he is on leave pending investigation. What would you do as the head of that district when the Secret Service shows up to investigate comments one of your staff made to the press?

I don't believe he is on leave for disagreeing with president, I think it has more to do with calling him an "idiot" and then wanting to fight him to "knock some sense into him".

 

[CoryKS]

Schools are extremely conflict and bad image-averse. It's not exactly surprising.

True, but none of the headlines read "White Bear Lake Teacher Challenges President". Every one of them described Volkmann as an MMA fighter, which is of course the context in which the challenge was made. The school's claim of being cast in a poor light as a result of his comments is highly overblown.

 

[Steve]

couple of thoughts. First, just to be clear, I think that the school district overreacted... if we have all of the facts. I don't know what kind of employee this guy is, whether this was the first time something like this happened, whether he has a bad attitude in general or what. For all we know, this could have been the last straw in a long line of questionable judgements and inappropriate statements.

Second, if this were a private employer, most of the people on this board would (I believe) defend the right of the employer to decide how the business should be represented by its employees.

 

[Sukerkin]

Talk about an overreaction! By all parties to the non-event too - sending the Secret Service out because someone phoned and said someone had said something about the President.

Good lord! Has noone got anything better to do than get all in a lather about nothing?

Of course the chap should have had sense enough himself not to say such things when he is employed in an 'educational' capacity - teachers of any sort are, after all, supposed to keep their political opinions to themselves (at least that is the way it is over here in Blighty).

 

[Steve]

Talk about an overreaction! By all parties to the non-event too - sending the Secret Service out because someone phoned and said someone had said something about the President.

Good lord! Has noone got anything better to do than get all in a lather about nothing?

Of course the chap should have had sense enough himself not to say such things when he is employed in an 'educational' capacity - teachers of any sort are, after all, supposed to keep their political opinions to themselves (at least that is the way it is over here in Blighty).

Threats like this are no joke. I don't believe that the secret service has a sense of humor.

 

[Empty Hands]

Talk about an overreaction! By all parties to the non-event too - sending the Secret Service out because someone phoned and said someone had said something about the President.

I don't think they really have much discretion. I think they investigate every threat, no matter how unlikely. Granted, not everyone gets the full treatment depending on what happened, but they will at least check it out briefly. It's just what they do.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Uhh...

Not sure, schools pretty much teach what they choose to no matter who the president is. Do you think that they all changed when Bush was in office and the press was all over him and approval ratings were very low?

The coach wasn't fired, he is on leave pending investigation. What would you do as the head of that district when the Secret Service shows up to investigate comments one of your staff made to the press?

I don't believe he is on leave for disagreeing with president, I think it has more to do with calling him an "idiot" and then wanting to fight him to "knock some sense into him".

Gosh, you think? I didn't say schools changed from year to year on what they teach, I said its party line, meaning, don't cross it with calls for physical confrontation with the President.
Sean

 

[Touch Of Death]

Talk about an overreaction! By all parties to the non-event too - sending the Secret Service out because someone phoned and said someone had said something about the President.

Good lord! Has noone got anything better to do than get all in a lather about nothing?

Of course the chap should have had sense enough himself not to say such things when he is employed in an 'educational' capacity - teachers of any sort are, after all, supposed to keep their political opinions to themselves (at least that is the way it is over here in Blighty).

Call our ways crazy, but I was taught in grade school that you can go to jail for threats to the President. I am assuming the teacher was too. He screwed up. End of story.
Sean

 

[crushing]

The president should just turn down the offer to participate in the sporting event, if it were to even make it to him. If he were to accept the offer of an MMA bout, I bet he would give his part of the purse to a charity.

 

[punisher73]

Gosh, you think? I didn't say schools changed from year to year on what they teach, I said its party line, meaning, don't cross it with calls for physical confrontation with the President.
Sean

Misunderstood your meaning. I thought you meant "party line", as in the reference to the political party line. For example, you hear about politicians voting the party line etc.

 

[Carol]

Second, if this were a private employer, most of the people on this board would (I believe) defend the right of the employer to decide how the business should be represented by its employees.

The employer has the right to decide how its business should be represented. However, if an employee's actions result in the employee being unable to work due to his legal matters (in jail, being limited by the secret service), that is often a career limiting maneuver.

Keep in mind this is the secret service. They are not going to stop with just questioning the coach. When the DNC convention was in Boston for 2004, a Sikh Boston College student named Sachin Sahni went out for a stroll around campus with his classmates, and like college kids usually do, they were snapping digis as they go. Secret Service was staying on BC campus, they stopped the three, and put Mr. Sahni under an extended investigation, saying things including "I don't want you pulling an uzi out of your turban."

Here is a copy of the Boston Globe article of the event:

http://www.nriinternet.com/Section4HistoryNRI/After%20Sep11/070104/Sahni_StudentDetined.htm

To make a long story longer, I wouldn't expect a Secret Service investigation to only involve the coach. It most certainly involves other aspects of the school, and if the school administers feel that they have had to endure an undue amount of expenses and bad mojo due to the Secret Service investigation, then I'd say the coach's days are numbered.

 

[Steve]

The employer has the right to decide how its business should be represented. However, if an employee's actions result in the employee being unable to work due to his legal matters (in jail, being limited by the secret service), that is often a career limiting maneuver.

Keep in mind this is the secret service. They are not going to stop with just questioning the coach. When the DNC convention was in Boston for 2004, a Sikh Boston College student named Sachin Sahni went out for a stroll around campus with his classmates, and like college kids usually do, they were snapping digis as they go. Secret Service was staying on BC campus, they stopped the three, and put Mr. Sahni under an extended investigation, saying things including "I don't want you pulling an uzi out of your turban."

Here is a copy of the Boston Globe article of the event:

http://www.nriinternet.com/Section4HistoryNRI/After Sep11/070104/Sahni_StudentDetined.htm

To make a long story longer, I wouldn't expect a Secret Service investigation to only involve the coach. It most certainly involves other aspects of the school, and if the school administers feel that they have had to endure an undue amount of expenses and bad mojo due to the Secret Service investigation, then I'd say the coach's days are numbered.

This is pretty much what I was getting at.

 

[WC_lun]

Yeah, it was an overreaction. However, it was also a stupid thing for the guy to do in order to state his political beliefs. On top of that, if he had just stuck to his arguements of Obama's policies, this would have been a non-story.

Secret service agents don't get to decide what is or is not a worthy threat until AFTER they've investigated. I also think a prerequisite for the job is to have absolutely no sense of humor when it comes to the president's safety.

 

[crushing]

I agree with you guys that this is an overreaction. Hand picking the next opponent for an MMA sporting event shouldn't be considered a threat, even if it done as a joke or as a poor attempt to make a point. Anyway, I'm sure Mr. Volkmann didn't really expect the president to actually hear about the challenge and take him up on it.