Items like this don’t inspire particular faith in the future of public education…

Last Friday was dress-down day at Charles Carroll High School in Port Richmond — a day for students to leave their uniforms at home and wear whatever they liked.

One young woman chose to wear a shirt showing her support for Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy.  Her geometry teacher didn’t like it, the girl’s father said on a radio call-in show on IQ 106.9 FM today.

The teacher allegedly told the girl to take off the shirt, saying it was like wearing a Ku Klux Klan sheet. The teacher allegedly threatened to use a marker to cross out Romney’s name and that of Rep. Paul Ryan, his running mate.  The teacher also allegedly tried to throw the student out of class.

The teacher also allegedly said that Carroll was “a Democratic school.”

Her parents were livid.  The student was afraid to go back to the class.  She thought she would be retaliated against.

Philadelphia School District spokesman Fernando Gallard confirmed that last Friday at Carroll, “a teacher made some comments to a student wearing a Romney t-shirt in their classroom. The comments were of a political nature, and also of a personal nature.  We are looking into the comments, and the conduct of the teacher.”

Once the school received a complaint, an investigation was launched the same day, Gallard said.  The investigation is ongoing.

In the meantime, the teacher was switched out of the class “to allow the student to feel comfortable to come to the class.”

Gallard said the student was within her rights.

“She was expressing her freedom of speech, and was not in violation of any school or district policy,” he said.

What does politics have to do with geometry?