A teacher in Alabama apparently takes his geometry lessons a little too seriously. A high school math teacher was teaching his students about angles and used the assassination of President Barack Obama as his teaching example.

The Secret Service was alerted, and the teacher was questioned by federal agents. He was not taken into custody or charged with a crime.

"We did not find a credible threat," said Roy Sex­ton, special agent in charge of Birmingham's Secret Service office. As far as the Secret Service is concerned, we looked in to it. We talked to the gentleman, and we have closed our investigation."

The teacher was explaining the use of angles by describing where you would stand if you wanted to aim and shoot Obama.

"He was talking about angles and said, 'If you're in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president,'" said Joseph Brown, a senior in the geometry class.

The school superintendent, Phil Hammonds, said that the teacher will not be fired or suspended for the incident.

"We are going to have a long conversation with him about what's appropriate," Hammonds said. "It was extremely poor judgment on his part, and a poor choice of words."

One of the parents at the school doesn't think the teacher should be disciplined too harshly either.

"We all make mistakes, and we should be able to learn from our mistakes," said the parent. "What he said was just wrong and inappropri­ate. Everyone's got their own opinions, but we have to be aware of our sur­roundings. At this point, it just needs to be handled in a way that it won't be re­peated."

Given that the assassination of President Obama is nothing to joke about, this issue is incredibly sensitive. This president receives more death threats than other president in recent history, so the idea of someone attempting to harm him is a very real possibility. While joking about the assassination of any president would normally be quite serious, speaking on the issue relative to Barack Obama takes on a whole different level of intensity. The teacher should be disciplined, but not suspended or fired.

Also, forgive me for saying this, but are you REALLY surprised that this would happen in Alabama?




Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book, "Black American Money." To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.