ABC News reports:
Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has opposed Kentucky teachers’ rallies for pension protection and public education funding since they began, but never quite the way he did on Friday afternoon, when he told a gaggle of reporters that the strike would directly cause children to be injured, poisoned and sexually assaulted.
“I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them,” he said. “I guarantee you somewhere today, a child was physically harmed or ingested poison because they were home alone because a single parent didn’t have enough money to take care of them.”
The Lexington Courier-Journal reports:
Bevin said “hundreds of thousands of children” were left alone across Kentucky as a result. “Children were harmed – some physically, some sexually, some were introduced to drugs for the first time – because they were vulnerable and left alone,” Bevin continued.
Kentucky Education Association President Stephanie Winkler, who has sparred with the governor in recent weeks, said she was “appalled” by the remark. “There is no rational comment I could make to that,” Winkler said. Jefferson County Teachers Association President Brent McKim said that using Bevin’s logic, schools should never close.
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin on the teacher rallies today. “I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them.” pic.twitter.com/Q4PpzFsTt2
— Marcus Green (@MarcusGreenWDRB) April 13, 2018
1/3 “Gov. Bevin’s comments last night saying teachers rallying in Frankfort led to children being sexually abused are morally reprehensible and must be condemned by all Kentuckians.
— KY Attorney General (@kyoag) April 14, 2018
2/3 The Office of the Attorney General fights every day to protect our children and has arrested a record number of predators and human traffickers. Our prevention training efforts have reached more than 3,000 Kentuckians.
— KY Attorney General (@kyoag) April 14, 2018
3/3 If we want to create a world without child abuse, we cannot tolerate the governor’s comments.” —Attorney General Andy Beshear, chair of the Kentucky Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Board
— KY Attorney General (@kyoag) April 14, 2018
Because teachers stood up for education, Gov. Bevin had to insult them. He and his Republican friends are what’s wrong with Frankfort. VIDEO | Gov. Bevin ‘guarantees’ children in Kentucky were ‘sexually assaulted’ as a result of Friday’s school closure https://t.co/rI73kMaD7w
— Kentucky Democrats (@KyDems) April 14, 2018
Kentucky Democratic Party Executive Director Mary Nishimuta’s @mnishim statement regarding Gov. Bevin’s offensive comments on children and teachers. pic.twitter.com/xMSzVwzPMT
— Kentucky Democrats (@KyDems) April 14, 2018
Good morning. Please don’t forget that our governor said yesterday that kids were sexually assaulted and tried drugs for the first time – he guaranteed it – because “thug” teachers staged a protest to fight for better funding. Please don’t let him forget you heard him.
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_SEC) April 14, 2018