She told the class that it was a criminal offense to criticize Obama.

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The video appears to have been taken with a camera phone pointing to the
ceiling and does not show the teacher or any of the students.


After criticizing Mitt Romney, a North Carolina high school teacher
yelled at a student for asking a question about Barack Obama, telling
him that he could be arrested for criticizing Barack Obama.
Sarah Campbell wrote at the Salisbury Post
Saturday that the heated exchange began "with a classroom conversation
about a recent news story detailing Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney allegedly bullying a classmate in prep school. It turns into a heated, sometimes confrontational debate."
“Didn’t Obama bully someone though,” one student asked, referring to
an incident in Obama's memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” in which Obama
admitted pushing a girl when other students called him her boyfriend.
“Stop, no, because there is no comparison,” the teacher said.



According to the teacher, Romney is “running for president," and
therefore does not deserve the same respect as Obama, who "is the
president.”
“Listen, let me tell you something, you will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom,” she said.


She went on to tell the student that he "will not" say what he wants
about Obama, and asserted that it was a crime to "slander" the
President. The student responded by recalling that many spoke ill of
George W. Bush while he was President, and such arrests would violate
the Constitutional right to free speech.
The teacher asked: “Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush?”


But Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College,
told the Post he had “no idea” what the teacher was talking about when
she claimed people "were arrested for saying bad things about Bush."
“I have never heard of anyone arrested for saying derogatory things
about George W. Bush, which I am assuming she is referring to,” he said.
“Her belief that if one slanders the president is not very accurate —
if you ‘threaten’ the president, that is another story, and that is a
criminal offense.”
Bitzer went on to say the student was more correct than the teacher.


“Her point about not being able to say anything ‘disrespectful’ about
the president does fly in the face of the First Amendment, and while
she may wish to enforce that edict about ‘respecting’ the president, the
issue seems to have gotten personal on her part,” he added, saying that
her attempt to make a point seems to have been overshadowed by her
personal feelings toward Obama.
"Granted, she apparently tried to ensure that a respectful
conversation was had about the president, but she seems to have taken
things a bit too personally — and it appears the student was set on
making a confrontation in the guise of raising a question about ‘who
bullied who — both Romney and Obama'," he wrote.
Bitzer said the teacher was a “bit overboard in being rude towards
the student,” but added that the student "was also trying to pick a
fight."
The school system said it could not comment on the incident publicly,
but said the social studies teacher - who was not identified - is still
working for the district.
“The Rowan-Salisbury School System expects all students and employees
to be respectful in the school environment and for all teachers to
maintain their professionalism in the classroom. This incident should
serve as an education for all teachers to stop and reflect on their
interaction with students," the district told the Post in an email.
http://www.examiner.com/article/high-school-teacher-tells-student-he-can-be-arrested-for-criticizing-obama