To the Editor:

I am a proud Veteran; I believe speaking for all American Veterans of all services who have been following the disgraceful events of an English teacher at Chapin High School who stomped on the American flag in a misplaced effort to show his class his First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech.

Speaking for the many Veterans who served unquestioningly, many who have died serving their country to preserve an English Teacher in Chapin, the right to Free Speech, the English teacher’s action is unacceptable.

It is my understanding the teacher has been suspended or placed on paid leave and currently is seeking to be re-hired or re-instated as a teacher.

A teacher with this convoluted attitude toward the Constitution has no business teaching impressionable children.

The English teacher should be required to publicly apologize to his students, the community and the hundreds of thousands of American Veterans who served proudly.

Further, as another American commented, “He must attend a military funeral, learn how to fold the American flag that draped the coffin and present it to one of the dead soldiers surviving relatives.”

As a retired journalist and business editor (Steubenville Ohio Herald-Star), I am reminded of two comments germane to this issue:

1. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the opinion in Schenk v. United States, wrote, “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater and causing a panic.”

2. Justice Potter Stewart, during a panel discussion on the First Amendment, noted, “Just because you have a right to do something, doesn’t mean it’s right to do it.”

Matz Malone

Vice Commander, AMVETS Post 275, Steubenville, Ohio

Wellsburg, W.Va.