Teacher Made To Remove "Respect Public Education" Button Before Meeting Governor Andrew Cuomo

The NY Post reports that a teacher wearing a "Respect Public Education" button was told he must remove the offending item before meeting Governor Cuomo at his New Years' Eve Executive Mansion Open House event:

East Greenbush English teacher Sean Crall said he was shocked last week when he was asked to remove the button — which says, “Respect Public Education, It Works” — from his lapel before he and his family could meet Cuomo during an open house at the mansion. The button also said “NYSUT,” for New York State United Teachers.

“I was stunned that the concept of respecting public education would be offensive to the governor,” said Crall, a union leader in his upstate school district. “I was with my family. I didn’t want to create a scene, so I complied.”

The powerful union, at odds with Cuomo over teacher evaluations, was protesting outside the mansion before the open house. Crall said he attended the demonstration before attending the open house, but that he wears the button all the time.

Crall said he was planning to keep the ordeal to himself until Cuomo started calling the mansion “the people’s house.”

A Cuomo spokesman declined to comment.

Governor Cuomo has a very delicate sensibility and he must never be confronted with anything that might smack of criticism or opposition.

How dare this teacher wear a button that says "Respect Public Education, It Works" when Cuomo knows in his heart it is a monopoly that must be broken?

If the Executive Mansion were truly "the people's house" and Governor Cuomo truly a servant of the people, Sean Crall could have worn his button without incident.

But Governor Cuomo sees himself as king and the Executive Mansion is his palace, and so there must be no criticism of or opposition to Cuomo within earshot or eyeshot of the king.

Andrew Cuomo's New York - do what the governor wants or else.