Teacher turns Twitter spat with Piers Morgan into a lesson on gender and language

A teacher uses her row with the celebrity – and the subsequent stream of ‘misogynistic abuse’ that followed from other Twitter users – as content for an A-level English lesson
22nd November 2016, 5:10pm

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Teacher turns Twitter spat with Piers Morgan into a lesson on gender and language

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A secondary school teacher became a target of sexist abuse after using Twitter to criticise Piers Morgan for “joking and stifling giggles” about gender pay inequality when co-hosting ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

The television presenter replied to Caroline Spalding, an English and media teacher at Tupton Hall School in Chesterfield, telling her to “go back to bed” and stop boring people with “humourless PC nonsense”.

Well go back to bed then & stop boring everyone with your humourless PC nonsense. https://t.co/SDtpkwiThA

- Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 22, 2016

Other Twitter users then subjected the teacher to a stream of highly abusive sexist comments after the spat with the celebrity, but Ms Spalding has said she is using the tweets as material for teaching. Many of the messages were too offensive to be reproduced in this article.

@MrsSpalding @piersmorgan @GMB it’s people like you taking offence at nothing that makes inequality. Get the breakfast on!

- Chris (@Someboy_Chris) November 22, 2016

 

@stevewoozy @MrsSpalding @piersmorgan @GMB This is why we can’t pay them more, emotional liability.

- Joey Incognito (@JoeyA_Incognito) November 22, 2016

 

‘It’s fodder for my lessons’

This morning, Ms Spalding spoke about the incident in an A-level English class on language and gender - and other teachers have said they plan to do the same.

 “I get more fodder for curriculum lessons,” she told TES. “The students were horrified that it had escalated so quickly.”

The head of English has spent her breaks and lunchtimes blocking Twitter users. “It just proves the point that we don’t have an equal society. Some of this misogynistic abuse was what I expected,” she said.

 

Thank you for the many messages of support. Please be reassured, I’m fine and just collating responses for A Level Language and Media.

- Caroline Spalding (@MrsSpalding) November 22, 2016

 

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