I always feel badly for teachers who do something truly idiotic in class and have their behavior broadcast across the country. It's one of my little golden rules for teachers: don't do anything that you wouldn't want to see talked about on a cable talk show. Otherwise, people will be wondering about what was possibly going through your mind if you do something like this teacher.

A 17-year-old high school student said he was humiliated when a teacher made him sit on the floor during a midterm exam in his ethnicity class _ for wearing a Denver Broncos jersey.

The teacher, John Kelly, forced Joshua Vannoy to sit on the floor and take the test Friday _ two days before the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Broncos 34-17 in the AFC championship game. Kelly also made other students throw crumpled up paper at Vannoy, whom he called a "stinking Denver fan," Vannoy told The Associated Press on Monday.

Kelly said Vannoy, a junior at Beaver Area Senior High School, just didn't get the joke.

"If he felt uncomfortable, then that's a lesson; that's what (the class) is designed to do," Kelly told The Denver Post. "It was silly fun. I can't believe he was upset."

Vannoy was wearing a No. 7 Broncos jersey on Friday, because he is a fan of John Elway, the Broncos' retired Hall of Fame quarterback.

Vannoy said he was so unnerved he left at least 20 questions blank on the 60-question test, and just wants out of Kelly's class because he's afraid the teacher won't treat him fairly now that the story reached the media.

A joke's a joke, but putting the guy on the floor for the midterm exam is over the top.

However, my real question is what the blankety-blank is an "ethnicity class?" Huh? What do you study in that class - how everyone was put upon by white men?