Show some respect, please

The response was as swift as it was predictable. The Reflector and Register published an article earlier this week detailing how an elected school board member, Jeremy Norris, made posts online criticizing those on the political left in light of the recent No Kings protests in the area and across the country. Norris, specifically, used a picture of the cartoon character Homer Simpson to drive in his point that the protestors were, in his words, "stupid." The post quickly started getting shared around because, some argued, the depiction of Homer Simpson appeared to mimic how some people with disabilities look. Many who read (or, perhaps, didn't read) the story, made the issue a strictly political one. Norris himself, in reaction to the article, posted about what "the liberals" were saying about him. Norris, for his part, asserted when speaking to the newspapers that he didn't intend to demean disabled individuals, just the left-leaning individuals who participated in the protests. Obviously, all people have the right to express their political beliefs — Norris, the protesters, all the same. But, should an elected school board member — a nonpartisan office entrusted to oversee their taxpayer-funded school district, consisting of people with differing political affiliations — publicly demean those with opposing political viewpoints? It's a valid question to ask, but that's not really what's most important here. In our view, while we think it ill-advised and unproductive for someone in a school leadership role to make such postings, the politics of this are a relative non-issue. Local people with disabilities we spoke with said they were upset to see a local leader, in their view, malign people like them. A district employee we spoke to said the type of behavior exhibited by Norris is that they see among the children they teach. It's the kind of behavior that they try to nip in the bud, root out and educate kids on why it's wrong to make fun of people who are different than you. That's pretty telling. Simply put, adults need to set examples for their children and, in the same way, elected school leaders must set an example for the children in their district. A poor example was set here by Norris. We especially cannot abide someone in a school leadership position using the r-word — a word many understand nowadays to be highly disrespectful to people with disabilities — that he used in a Facebook comment exchange; he had written, and we are not repeating the word here: "I didn't say they were r-----ed. I said they looked stupid. Only liberals will turn it into something it's not." In whatever walk of life someone's in, we're bound to interact with those we don't agree with. That's a part of the real lives we all have to live when we're not on social media. Leaders especially must overcome pettiness if they want to do right by those they work with or serve over. We have a choice: treat each other with respect despite our differences, or don't and take potshots at those we don't agree with. If that could all be summed up in one sentence, it would be this: Don't be a jerk and please show some respect, won't you? Editorial board