Ugly protest

Ed Morrissey blogged

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker visited Messmer Preparatory Catholic School yesterday, while the school repaired the first vandalism that had occurred at the facility in eleven years of operation.

Teachers, who are union members, vandalized a "Choice" school. Aren't liberals supposed to be in favor of "choice", or does that only apply to choosing to kill unborn babies. And aren't teachers supposed to be in favor of children getting a good education? These children are getting a much better education than those in the public school.

While Walker read Dr. Seuss to the grade-school children inside, unions protested the visit and the school outside. Want to guess which group was more well-behaved? Actually, you don’t have to guess. The MacIver Institute shot video of the protest and the visit and then interviewed Messmer’s President, Brother Bob Smith. We see childishness, petulance, and bullying — and then we see Messmer’s students

being more adult than the "adults" outside.

(via Wisconsin Reporter):

It got ugly on the street outside the facility, which is no surprise, since Messmer is a “choice school” — an alternative to the union-gripped public school system. It’s an alternative that sends 85% of its high-school graduates to college. It’s also no surprise that “choice schools” threaten the union’s power in the state, which gave them extra added incentive to protest Walker’s visit … and to attempt to intimidate Messmer staff while doing so. The video provides a jarring disconnect between the well-behaved students on the inside and Brother Bob’s explanation of teaching positive discipline and self-control to the self-indulgent nastiness taking place on the sidewalk outside.

At the 1:05 mark, a man in a “JOBS NOW” union T-shirt bumps Brother Bob in a clear attempt to intimidate him, which amusingly has no effect. At 1:48, a protester harangues another member of the staff, telling her to get out of his neighborhood;

I wonder if the protester really lived in that neighborhood, and if he did, what he thought of the rapid rise in property values Brother Bob talked about on the video when Messmer Catholic School opened.

the protester appears again at 2:40 in the apparent conclusion to the incident, saying “You must be really proud of what you’ve accomplished.” Well … yeah. They’re actually educating students rather than interfering with someone else’s attempt to do so.