BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY MAY 11, 2026) — When you place a magnifying glass over a postage stamp, you can make the stick-em as big as a cigarette pack. Put the stamp under an electron microscope, and you’d think you were looking at a picture of deep space from the Webb telescope.

Wanna do the same thing with a word, that is, make it disproportionately connotative? Then all you have to do is give it the “x-word” treatment. You can’t say the word. Rather, you evoke the word, which is worse. That’s when we end up with “the ‘n’ word,” “the ‘f’ word” and other “‘x’word” constructions, which, rather than cleanse the word actually gives it a superpower it otherwise wouldn’t have. With that come victims who melt if they hear the word.

We should always remember and teach that in and of themselves, words have no power to hurt except that which the reader or listener (hearer) allows.

Such a word construction lies at the heart of the latest teapot tempest afflicting the Bitchfield public school system.

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Brett Random, executive director of the local Head Start, claims her daughter heard a Herberg teacher, Rebecca Nitsche, “use extremely offensive language,” specifically “nigger” and “faggot.” No question that both are disgusting words.

Random is black, as is her daughter. Nitsche is white.

Random on Facebook said the situation was “rooted in racism.”

Random said she wants to provide an example to her daughter “to use her voice, to stand firm in what’s right, and to never shrink herself to make others comfortable. … real change does not come from silence or comfort. It comes from honesty, accountability, and a willingness to have difficult conversations … When educators model inappropriate or harmful behavior, it does more than create discomfort, it sets the standard.”

THE PLANET takes Random at her word. As our readers have long known, we have “a willingness to have difficult conversations.”

So let’s have it.

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THE PLANET read the vague press accounts of the matter and heard from  a number of current and retired educators and office holders.

Here’s what we think occurred.

In the classroom a student used inappropriate language–“nigger” and “faggot.” The reprehensible words have one saving grace: they immediately identity the person who uses them as a bigoted jerk. Nitsche then used a land-line phone in the classroom to call school administration for assistance. The administrator asked the teacher her what the student said, and Nitsche responded. In other words, it appears that Nitsche was simply answering the administrator’s question and repeated the offending words.

Questions:

• Who took Nitsche’s call and what did they advise? Was it:
  • Michael Taber, principal
  • Brian Dougherty, assistant principal
  • Martha Clark, assistant principal
  • Ryan Hood, Interim Dean of Student
• Why has that person not issued a public statement?
• Will there be litigation or other action taken?
• What happened to the student who used the offending language? Were his parents notified? Was he disciplined?

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One veteran educator told THE PLANET Nitsche probably should have gone  into the hall to make the call: “The phone cord would reach. It’s common sense not to speak about discipline issues in front of other students.”  We agree, but what exactly was happening in the room? Our guess is that Nitsche remained in the room to help calm the situation.

The irony is how often young people themselves use the “n,” the “f,” and other “x” words. It’s also no secret that blacks regularly refer to each other as “nigga.” The word is everywhere in pop kulcher and social media and young people of all races have made it part of their routine lexicon.

Bottom line here is that while we laud a parent sticking up for her child and speaking out on matters of concern, we wonder how much identity politics factored into the reporting of this incident.

The incident, while unfortunate, has been overblown. Compared to the enormous challenges facing our deteriorating public schools, this one rates far down the list.

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“When headlines fan hysterics, the wise keep things in proper perspective” — Sir Donald Turpentine, Knight of the Bath.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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