RTD: David Chung won’t be there to greet his band students when the Hanover County school year begins a week from Monday.
Worried that his presence at school could cause the coronavirus to spread, potentially infecting students and their families, the band director at the former Stonewall Jackson Middle School made the decision this week to submit his resignation.
He hoped that the school would agree to let him teach virtually, as 40% of Hanover’s students will continue learning online. He said the school division denied his request.
“I will not actively participate in a school district that will harm their students and families in the name of ‘re-opening,’” he wrote on his Facebook page afterward. “This is not normal. It will not become normal.”
Chris Whitley, a spokesman for the school division, confirmed Chung’s resignation Friday. Whitley declined to comment on Chung’s decision, but noted that teacher placements for the upcoming year are based on enrollment. more here
h/t PHenry
Is mr. chung sick? Does he have the flu? Does his pussy hurt? WTF? Who cares about david chung?
“I will not actively participate in a school district that will harm their students and families in the name of ‘re-opening,’” he wrote on his Facebook page afterward. “This is not normal. It will not become normal.”
What a totally weird thing to say!
While he’s concerned about making enough money to pay his bills next month, he said he may have some opportunities to freelance as a percussion instructor…
Antifa and BLM would hire him for skills. And they provide a safe Rona-free setting.
David Chung is ascairt of Wuhan Flu?
Thas some funny shit, there!
izlamo delenda est …
I took band when I was in school many decades ago.
I don’t see how it would be possible to teach band online, maybe teach a little about a single instrument like on YouTube videos, but a band is an in person group interaction thing.
Bands also march while playing, an important part of band activities, and that would seem even more difficult.
Maybe we should just turn our kids over to video games, they seem to learn how to do all sorts of things from them and enjoy the process on top of it.
“I will not actively participate…”
…or passively participate, for that matter, that’s what “resigned” means, so you don’t need the adverb any more than the school district needs you…
…other possible motive for staying away…
…”one time, at band camp, Mr. Chung shoved a flute up my…”
(Apologies to American Pie)
“…he said he may have some opportunities to freelance as a percussion instructor…”
…Confucius say he who instruct percussion poorly beat off too much.
It’s not possible to teach band online. My son was in one of the best marching bands in the country, but Fulton County wimped out early on and went totally virtual. Our band director is still allowed to have a “band in the stands” at football games and to do a short pre-game assembly on the field (yes, the football team still gets to play), but the county is making him jump through so many hoops that my son opted out of marching band. He still has virtual band class for the indoor wind ensemble, and it is the most pitiful thing I’ve seen in a while.
If this middle school “director” has the opportunity to play live, and he doesn’t want to do it, he should just quit and join the rioters, where he’s safe fron the Covid.
It’s not possible to teach band online. My son was in one of the best marching bands in the country, but Fulton County wimped out early on and went totally virtual. Our band director is still allowed to have a “band in the stands” at football games and to do a short pre-game assembly on the field (yes, the football team still gets to play), but the county is making him jump through so many hoops that my son opted out of marching band. He still has virtual band class for the indoor wind ensemble, and it is the most pitiful thing I’ve seen in a while.
If this middle school “director” has the opportunity to play live, and he doesn’t want to do it, he should just quit and join the rioters, where he’s safe from the Covid.
And “the former Stonewall Jackson Middle School“…yeah, that’s great. Just great. We still have him down here on the mountain in Georgia, assholes.
And the guy who fills the condom machines in the shit-houses may quit, too.
And the girl who teaches remedial syncopation is backing him 100% (unless they offer her his job).
And the shrubbery crew … doesn’t seem to be anyone essential, does it?
izlamo delenda est …
He made the decision that he was non essential.
…all this said, it’s particular to THIS band director, I won’t damn the whole race of them becuase THIS guy’s a wuss.
My son had one in middle school that was pretty good, that was able to teach my son to play a trumpet, and since my son had a partially repaired cleft lip at the time, the embouchure so vital to playing brass instruments was difficult for him to do, but do it he did, and my son did get a good confidence boost, a lesson in overcoming, and another reason to not worry about the hand life dealt him out of it because he had a patient and helpful band leader at that time and in that place who ACTUALLY knew and cared about the subject he taught AND the students he taught it TO.
Band may not be a STEM thing, but it is nice to teach the kids an appreciation for how music is made and help them be better rounded as individuals. If they can keep from playing things like “The Black National Anthem” instead of the ACTUAL National Anthem and things, I would say that a musical education is just as good as, if not better than, ANY of the crap they’re serving up in ‘history’ class these days about how GREAT African kulturs are and how mean ol’ Whitey stole everything from them…
…you should probably cherish high school orchestras as the last bastion of classical European music. Given the difficulty of putting beats in an oboe, they don’t lend themselves to modern silliness, so enjoy THEM while you can, before woodwinds are declared rayciss too…
(Full disclosure: SNS was once a violinist. It’s TRUE! Second fiddle, LITERALLY. I was LAST chair of the second violins, probably because of my predilection for using the strings to launch folded pieces of paper at my bandmates instead of making music with them, and making lewd (for middle school) jokes about why they REALLY called the “F Hole” that. Still, I managed to learn to play the thing adequately, if unspectacuarly, and also read music, and I apologize for all those nights I kept my parents up making REALLY bad renditions of “You Light Up My Life” that my unrosined bow made ALMOST as screechy as the Barbra Stresand version of same was, but this too was a tribute of sorts to the teacher I aged horribly in getting me even to THAT point, so God Bless those folks who toil in musical gulags in band and orchastra rooms worldwide, those who don’t fear fake flus, at any rate…)
SNS, since music is math, it is kind of a STEM thing…
Odin 2013 AUGUST 30, 2020 AT 9:23 AM
“SNS, since music is math, it is kind of a STEM thing”
…music is indeed math to those that excel at it, but I have rhythm so White that I make Bing Crosby look like Al Jolson, so the best I can do in 4/4 time is kind of a pie-eyed πr2, so I’m with you, I just can’t BE like you…
maybe he should whip out his “ass” clarinet i saw here somewhere.
Seriously if he doesn’t want to show up, I am so glad they let this guy go. Way to go. Haven’t seen much sanity out of my old Virginia in a long time, glad I don’t live there anymore. Learn to code buddy.