More: #

I previously posted about city bylaws that can get victims of domestic violence kicked out of rental accomodation. I thought that was bad enough, but today I read a story that made me want to spit.

The bare bones of the story are (sadly) unremarkable. Carie Charlesworth’s ex-husband showed up at the school she taught in, despite a restraining order. That prompted a lock down, he was arrested, and sent to jail.

It’s what happened next that’s outrageous. Charlesworth was fired from her job, on the grounds her abusive ex’s possible actions when he gets out of jail made having her at the school a potential risk to the students. The icing on the cake is that her four children, students at the school, were also excluded.

When I read the article itself, I was willing to chalk it up as a bad decison by the school that would be roundly condemned. What really irritated me was reading some of the comments. People were talking about a ‘violence tango’ (because it takes two to tango, of course) or ‘making your personal problems work problems’. There seems to be a persistant belief that people who are victims of domestic violence share responsibility, and are somehow inflicting ‘their’ problems on others.

PS: I originally read this story at the Huffington Post, but I’m linking to the original source because I know the HP has something of a mixed reputation.

nbcsandiego.com