As momentum was building for the Rally for Students and March for Respect organized by the North Carolina Association of Educators, some lawmakers talked of their disapproval of the “protest” and the fact that it was happening on a school day.

Others, like Rep. Mark Brody, made more memorable statements.

That will forever be etched into the minds of North Carolinian public school teachers as the “thugs” comment.

Please look at that Facebook posting again. It may have been written in a hurry, but it was central and developed to a particular theme: unions and blasting those who would demonstrate on a school day.

Needless to say, what Rep. Brody LEARNED on May 16th just shows what an education one can receive when he “listens” to the lesson. It also shows that May 16th might have been the most important “school day” of the entire year.

First, if there was any one slogan or term most seen in Raleigh, it was the use of the word “thug.”

Rep. Brody might have been the biggest motivating force to get teachers to sign up and go to Raleigh within the week leading to the march and rally.

Secondly, Rep. Brody learned the value of proofreading, revising, and editing before turning in his paper (or posting on social media).

Lynn Bonner’s report on May 16th for the Raleigh News & Observer (“Why did you call us thugs? Teachers seek answers…”.), showed Brody in a more contrite mood (http://amp.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article211269714.html?__twitter_impression=true).

“I’ve been schooled a lot in the last couple of hours,” Brody said.

By making the argument that he was only referring to the NCAE in his remarks seemed weak as NCAE is neither a union and a large number of teachers who attended the rally were not NCAE members. There were parents, students, community members, and other advocates who marched and rallied.

Next, Brody seems to have a fascination with not becoming Chicago. The following is compliments of Kris Nordstrom, one of the very best education policy writers in the state if not this part of the country.

Additionally, Bonner says that Bonner handed out cards with teacher pay information on it.

As teachers left his office, Brody handed them cards with the address to a Republican legislators’ website on teacher pay.

No doubt these were cards referring to http://www.ncteacherraise.com which has been widely debunked for its phony information. This blog had a post yesterday talking about it: https://caffeinatedrage.com/2018/05/18/dont-believe-the-hype-about-ncteacherraise-com-it-was-bs-back-then-and-even-more-so-now/.

But perhaps what Rep. Brody may have learned the hard way was that with the tremendous success of the demonstration and the fluid manner in which it carried out, more and more teachers went to bed that Wednesday night more encouraged and more determined to make the May 16th march and rally the start of something.

Rep. Brody had a lot to do with that.

In fact, there may be quite a number of new NCAE members.