Days after board members laughed at the exchange, the Washington County Board of Education called the comments “shocking,” saying “no explanation can justify that.”
And yes, punishment usually is scapegoating. “The offense” is some narrow, visible, and clearly defined thing that makes someone the convenient target to pin all the blame on, regardless of who was responsible for everything leading up to it.
That wouldn’t be scapegoating? He did actually commit the offense. It’s punishment.
Scapegoating does not require the scapegoat to be innocent of the thing they are rendered a scapegoat of. When a bunch of kids smash decorative plates and they all say afterward that only one of them did it, that one kid is a scapegoat even if that kid did smash some plates, or even the most plates.
And yes, punishment usually is scapegoating. “The offense” is some narrow, visible, and clearly defined thing that makes someone the convenient target to pin all the blame on, regardless of who was responsible for everything leading up to it.