This story disturbs me deeply. It seems to strike at the heart of the citizenship rights of teachers. Do teachers not have free speech rights outside of the classroom. Are the political, social, and philosophical views of teachers really an appropriate mater for public inquiry? Do certain view make someone unfit for the classroom?

Inside the walls of Brookland-Cayce High School, you expect students to be treated equally. But a viewer tip led News19 online where a teacher's comments left us asking questions.

"These sorts of things are going to upset people, but the truth can be very upsetting," said Brookland-Cayce High School teacher Winston McCuen.

That truth, at least according to McCuen, is that black people are inferior to whites.

"Intellectually, yes they are," said McCuen. "This has been confirmed over and over, and this is a generalization. Again, there are some blacks who are more intelligent than individual whites. But as a rule, that is true. I-Q tests prove it over, and over and over."

Now I can’t help but conclude that this man’s beliefs and statements outside of class are racist. But they do not appear to have influenced his treatment of his students – at least not if the story is any indication. After all, the one student quoted talks about some comments related to John C. Calhoun, the nemesis of Andrew Jackson. Seems like this was off topic in a Latin class, but hardly a problem. Calhoun was known for lacing classical quotes into his speeches, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that this is the way in which the course and the discussion segued.

But to get back on point, how much (or how little) protection are we going to allow educators under the Bill of Rights? And will that protection be selective – because I doubt we would ever see such an investigation of the views of a high school teacher who was a Communist. After all, that would be McCarthyism.

But isnÂ’t an investigation like this also McCarthyistic in its very nature?

UPDATE: My esteemed friend, fellow teacher, and fellow Watcher's Council member EdWonk offers a very different point of view -- not that I agree with him.

McCuen claims that his views do not affect his teaching.

I have to call B.S. on that one.

The type of nonsense that McCuen is spewing uttering is prima faci evidence that he is indeed prejudiced in his belief that a student's race is a component of his or her ability to acheive mastery of academic concepts.

Winston McCuen damns himself with his own words.

McCuen has been placed on administrative leave for the remainder of this school year and will not be teaching in the same district next year, although he hopes to obtain another teaching position after resolving certain undefined "credentialing" issues.

Maybe those men males who run amok in white sheets and hoods may consider hiring him for the nearly-impossible task of teaching them how to read and write.

The problem is that the mere existence of a prejudice is not evidence that said prejudice is expressed in the classroom or that it impacts ones ability to do one's job in a professional manner. it may indicate that you are a reprehensible human being -- but do we want ideological litmus tests imposed on teachers?

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Remember that pro-life display that was demolished in Washington state? Well, students at Western Washington University want to make sure nothing like that ever happens again on their campus.

No, they are not out to strengthen the campus policy on freedom of speech or the responsibility of all students to respect the rights of others to express thoughts and ideas they reject.

No, they want to ban pro-life speech as a form of “hate speech” on campus, making those who oppose abortion subject to penalties imposed by the campus kangaroo court judicial system.

In response to the anti-abortion display Tuesday and Wednesday in Red Square, Western senior Cara Pierson started a petition to ban hate speech from campus.

She said the photos of aborted fetuses, lynchings and Holocaust victims bullied and offended women who had abortions or considered having abortions.
Pierson said she felt the displayÂ’s message constituted hate speech.

“Hate speech is a verbal, written or visual harassment of a particular group intended to degrade or dehumanize members of that group,” Pierson said.

She started the petition Wednesday and spent five hours in Red Square collecting approximately 300 signatures from students, professors and staff members.

Pierson said she researched other colleges that have policies protecting campuses from hate speech before bringing her petition to Red Square.

In other words, one side of the debate on a major social and political issue in our society would be suppressed at Western Washington University, while the opposing side will be subsidized as part of the academic program (Women’s Studies). It seems appropriate, therefore, that the assault on free speech was conducted in the middle of “Red Square” – after all, the policy demanded by Pierson and her supporters is nothing short of Stalinism.

Fortunately, the school is not interested in imposing such viewpoint censorship

.Dean of Students Ted Pratt said WesternÂ’s policy must respect citizensÂ’ right to free speech the First Amendment protects.

“We have our policies here that talk about freedom of expression and those are in line with the First Amendment,” Pratt said.

WesternÂ’s policy is that it deals with protests or displays on campus on a case-by-case basis, Pratt said. No policy specifically addresses hate speech, he said.

The administration reviewed the anti-abortion display before allowing it on campus, he said.

It determined the display didnÂ’t advocate violence or hate against any groups, such as women who have had abortions and saw no reason to stop Western For Life from bringing the display to campus, Pratt said.

Seems to me that the school has an appropriate policy in place. Perhaps Cara Pierson needs to be re-enrolled in American Government so she can learn about the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

(H/T The Torch

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Well, I got through my unit on WWII and the Holocaust this year without encountering this situation – for the first time in 10 years.

“Of course I dislike the Nazis. But who is to say they’re morally wrong?”

* * *

The statement above was spoken by a student at Hamilton College in New York. “Professor Roger Simon … said that he has never met a student who denied the Holocaust happened,” Anderson writes. “But he also reported that 10 to 20 percent of his students cannot bring themselves to say that killing millions of people is wrong.”

The first time I heard this argument, I was horrified – “Well, the Holocaust may be wrong for me here and now, but I really can’t say that it would be wrong for anyone else. It may have been OK for the Germans – and it could have been OK for me if I lived back then in Germany.”

And that was from students in a Catholic school, where they had supposedly been inculcated with Christian morality.

I have to agree with Rebecca HagelinÂ’s condemnation of moral relativism that follows.

If this isn’t an indictment of how modern society has deified “tolerance,” nothing is. What could illustrate the dangerous folly of moral relativism more perfectly than a student who can’t admit that mass murder is wrong -- not because of his feelings but because it’s a fact? A society of people who cannot condemn the Nazis is a society courting moral anarchy.

Sadly, we see the results of such relativism all around us – from pregnant twelve-year-olds to gay marriage to illegal alien rights demonstrations. Will we stand up for moral values – and is it already too late.

Posted by: Greg at 04:42 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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Remember this guy?

The Chronicle notes today a case at Reagan High School, where Principal Robert Pambello flew the Mexican flag along with the U.S. and Texas flags on the school's flagpole yesterday. Pambello was ordered to remove the Mexican flag because HISD said "it is not appropriate to permit use of school district flagpoles for the purpose of flying flags representing other countries."

Well, it seems that he has quit his job at Reagan High School -- but over a completely different issue.

The Reagan High School principal who was disciplined in March for flying a Mexican flag on campus has resigned amid allegations that he sexually harassed a teacher.

Citing personal reasons, Principal Robert Pambello left his post at the 1,700-student campus April 22. He's using accumulated leave until his resignation takes effect July 18.

"I am leaving the district for personal reasons and to pursue other opportunities," Pambello said in a letter to Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra. "I appreciate the support and coaching you have personally provided me with during my time as an employee with HISD."

Pambello could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

According to Houston Independent School District spokesman Terry Abbott, an investigation completed April 19 by the district's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity office confirmed an allegation of sexual harassment.

"He was accused by a teacher of transmitting an offensive image by e-mail," Abbott said.

Sounds like it was a needed change -- this man clearly has serious questions surrounding his judgement.

Posted by: Greg at 03:23 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Looks like some educators do not realize that the First Amendment does apply to students.

A civil rights group has filed a federal lawsuit against the Sampson County school board claiming a ninth-grader was wrongfully suspended last week for disregarding a warning not to express his Christian faith.

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund said students at Midway High School were allowed to participate in the April 26 Day of Silence, an event promoted by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.

The group said student Benjamin Arthurs was refused permission to wear a Day of Truth shirt on the following day and distribute cards presenting a Christian viewpoint on homosexual behavior during non-instructional time. He was suspended Monday after ignoring the warning.

"School officials shouldn't be treating religious students any differently than they treat other students," David Cortman, an attorney with the group, said in a statement. "This is unconstitutional treatment, plain and simple."

According to the lawsuit, Sampson County Board of Education Superintendent Stewart Hobbs said religious T-shirts would not be allowed and that no religious literature could be distributed. He said Arthurs would be "pushing his religion on others" and "religion is not allowed in school," according to the plaintiffs.

A phone message left for Hobbs was not immediately returned Thursday.

Now let's get this matter straight, once and for all. The alleged principle of "separation of church and state" (which appears no where in any edition of the Constitution I've ever encountered) prohibits THE GOVERNMENT from endorsing religion, not private individuals. It also forbids the suppression of religion by the government. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits the endorsement of a religious point of view by private individuals, not even when they are on public property. That this superintendent is so unfamiliar with that fundamental principle of individual liberty is a sign that he is not fit to continue to be employed in his current post.

I suspect that the school district will be paying tuition for Benjamin Arthurs sometime through the end of his graduate school career, because there is no way that this action, coupled with the statements of the superintendent, will be allowed to stand -- expecially since this is not the Ninth Circuit, where they make it up as they go along.

Posted by: Greg at 01:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Most secrets around school last a week or two. Kids are congenitally unable to keep a secret. A decade ago, when my car was egged, all I had to do was keep my mouth shut for a week before I knew the name of all four culprits – good kids who got bored on a Saturday night in the little hick town where we all lived.

And then there are the campus legends. Every school has a place – usually the gym or the auditorium -- where some kid committed suicide or died in a tragic accident – but the school hushed it out. Or there is the janitorial closet where a couple of teachers got locked during a “rendezvous” before, during, or after school. Such legends are usually false, and even when true don’t stay secret for long.

But at one high school, a secret was recently discovered that goes all the way back to the Ford Administration, 31 years ago.

For 31 years, a hideaway in the rafters of Smoky Hill High School has served as a refuge for select drama students - a secret getaway whose whereabouts were passed down every year from class to class.

Unbeknownst to teachers and administrators, students had hauled up chairs, a radio and candles to furnish the lair above the lights. The room was actually a space created by the vents and walls of the ventilation system, accessible only by perilous traverses across catwalks.

Knowledge about the room had become a sacred Smoky Hill rite until the school newspaper last month revealed the secret. The April 14 article in the Smoky Hill Express prompted administrators to shut down access.

In its wake, newspaper students learned the power of the printed word. Drama students learned that their unsupervised exploits above the rafters could have been deadly.

"It's probably a pretty good idea to keep the kids safe," said Brian Pelepchan, 45, one of two teens who created the room during the school's first year in 1975.
Pelepchan and his best friend, Gary Walker, were sophomores, avid rock climbers and drama- department "techies" who were allowed on the catwalks above the stage.

"We went up into the catwalks and saw this little opening, climbed up the structure and, lo and behold, we found this little cavelike place that we could hang out in," said Pelepchan, now an engineer with three children who attend Smoky Hill.

Pelepchan and Walker started the log book, which later filled with the names of everyone who had visited the room. Rumors about activities in the room ranged from sex to drugs to rock 'n' roll. Students changed the room's location in the rafters at various times over the years.

For better or for worse, the school newspaper found out about the secret room and published a report, and the school shut down access o the room. But much to my surprise, there was a bit of common sense exercised by administrators.

[Activities Director Kathy] Daly and [journalism teacher Carrie] Faust met with the drama department. Students who had used the room were given amnesty. The department was given the log book.

A good decision all around – let the tradition be preserved, but shut down the potentially dangerous element – and not punish anyone for participating in what had been, in a very real sense, harmless rite of passage for a group of kids who historically are outcasts in a school setting.

But you know – a little bit of me hopes the “secret room” is resurrected in some way. After all, it is a tradition!

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When I teach my high school classes, there is no question of allowing the use of laptop computers. They are strictly forbidden by school policy, along with other electronic devices like cell phones, MP3 players and video games.

But in the evenings, when I teach my college level classes, I face a different situation. My students are adults, and there are no school-wide policies on the matter. IÂ’ve debated how to deal with them. Now, some professors around the country are beginning to ban the devices in class for a variety of reasons.

As the professor lectured on the law, the student wore a poker face. But that was probably because, under the guise of taking notes on his laptop, the student actually was playing poker — online, using the school's wireless Internet connection. The scenario is not uncommon in today's college classrooms, and some instructors want it stopped. So they have done the unthinkable — banned laptops.

The move caused an uproar at the University of Memphis, where law professor June Entman nixed the computers in March because she felt they were turning her students into stenographers and inhibiting classroom debate.

Students rebelled by filing a complaint with the American Bar Association, although the organization dismissed it.

At the University of Pennsylvania, law professor Charles Mooney banned laptops from his classes two years ago for similar reasons.

Around that time, said Mooney, he was serving as an expert witness in a lawsuit. During a break in his deposition, he recalled asking the stenographer if she found the case interesting. She replied that she didn't remember anything she had taken down, Mooney said.

"I thought, 'That's what my students are doing,'" he said.

The ban led to "a lot of grumbling," Mooney said. Some students even dropped the class.

I’ve got mixed emotions here. Were I a student, I would probably want to use a laptop for notes, given my own handwriting issues – it is sometimes almost too illegible to read when I take notes, and is bad enough that I often type up overhead transparencies for classroom use rather than use the board.

But the problem comes down to exactly those things that were cited in the article – online distractions, decreased participation, and an attention to detail that squeezes out comprehension until a later date.

Examples spring to mind. I had a young lady last year who claimed to be taking notes – until one night, while she was in the restroom, I happened to glance down at her unattended screen and discovered she was doing online chat with a her boyfriend. Students who would never dream of opening up a newspaper and reading it in class have no scruples at all about going to CNN or Fox to catch the latest news. And even those who are on-task are so concerned about “getting it all down” letter perfect (which folks do not do with hand-written notes) that they don’t process the material until class is over, rendering class discussion listless. When one of my best students this spring got a laptop, for example, his class participation dropped markedly.

I donÂ’t know if I will ban the devices when summer term starts. IÂ’ve not made my decision on the matter. But I am considering it, given that I am unsure that the devices provide greater benefit than distraction in the classroom. At a minimum, I will explicitly reserve the option to request that individual students stop using laptops in class.

Posted by: Greg at 12:02 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Billzebubba has done it again -- forgotten that he is no longer president, and stuck his nose in where, quite frankly, it does not belong. The deal negotiated by Bill Clinton with "Big Soda" will remove most soft drinks from our nation's schools as a health risk.

Yesterday, the beverage industry announced that it will voluntarily remove the high-calorie sodas from all schools, under an agreement with anti-obesity groups led by former president Bill Clinton.

The pact will probably bolster efforts in Washington area school systems -- many of which have been on the forefront of policing what students are eating and drinking. The District and Fairfax and Montgomery counties, among others, ban the sale of soft drinks during the school day.

Such efforts are cutting into the revenues that schools receive from vending machines, principals say, and the national agreement will doubtless accelerate that trend.

"The money is important, but not as important as kids' health," said Sean Bulson, principal at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

The national pact restricts the sale of drinks in elementary schools to water, milk and lower-calorie juices in containers no larger than eight ounces. In middle schools, those drinks can be 10 ounces.

In high schools, the drink size will be limited to 12 ounces. No sugary sodas will be sold, and half the drinks offered will be water or low-calorie beverages, such as diet soda. Sport drinks will be allowed if they have fewer than 100 calories.

"I think it's a great step in the right direction," said Robin Ziegler, chief of school and community nutrition programs for the Maryland State Department of Education.

Frankly, I think that soft drink manufacturers should have spuned any effort to change the availability of their products in schools. Let the schools decide what they wish to stock -- or allow the separate states to do so. The trend of private groups to set public policy in this manner is troubling, and anti-democratic. After all, what real choice did the soft drink manufacturers have -- they were up against a group led by a former president, married to a sitting US Senator who is the likely next Democrat nominee for president. Would legislation be far behind had they not agreed to voluntary curbs, regardless of the actual feelings of the American peole no the matter?

This deal also raises an interesting question. If soda ihas such deleterious effects upon the health of our nation's children, why are we limiting this effort to schools? Are soft drinks outside of schools somehow less harmful? Why are we not banning young people from purchasing soda completely? Why not make supplying such sugar-laced beverages to those below the age of 18 a crime, just as we do the sale of alochol and cigarettes? Perhaps this neo-prohibitionist -- dare I say neo-puritanical --movement will consider making a similar effort to wipe out soda vending machines (I'm old enough to remember both beer and cigarettes available from machines in public places).

That isn't to say that I think the removal of soft drinks from schools is a bad thing. I'm concerned about the process -- and the next step.

Posted by: Greg at 10:41 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Looks like some folks feel that there is an abortion exception to the First Amendment.

A Western Washington University student did $2,700 of damage Tuesday to a Red Square display showing pictures of aborted fetuses next to images of genocide before being arrested, police said.
David Janus Zhang, 21, jumped over the three-foot high aluminum fencing surrounding the exhibit at about 1:30 p.m., said Dave Doughty, assistant chief of the Western Washington University Police Department. Zhang then “went on a rampage,” punching, tearing and pushing over the display, he said.

Police eventually arrested Zhang in Sehome Arboretum. He was booked into Whatcom County Jail on malicious mischief and disorderly conduct charges.

The display is by the Vancouver-based Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. Its Web site, www.abortionno.org, offers links to download graphic abortion videos.

The display will be on Red Square through the end of today. After TuesdayÂ’s incident, Doughty said officers would continue to monitor the area.

The damage to the display could be in the thousands of dollars.

Pictures of the destruction are available at Lifesite.

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All too often, we hear demands for affirmative action to make institutions more diverse and inclusive, even at the cost of accepting less qualified or less prepared (which is not necessarily to say unqualified or unprepared) individuals in a program.

But now, in Chicago, they are discovering that students accepted at the elite college-prep magnet schools are trending 2-1 in favor of female applicants. There are discussions about how to make the ratio more balanced.

Judy Kleinfeld of the Boys Project, a not-for-profit group that deals with the male gender-gap, had this to say about the prospect of “gender weighting”.

"It will just do what affirmative action generally does. It will make everyone suspicious of the achievement of the group," Kleinfeld said. "What we need to do is teach boys better so they actually learn more."

An amazing concept – act to bring members of the underrepresented group up to the standard rather than lowering the standard. I applaud Kleinfeld for acknowledging that acting any other way hams not just those admitted under special programs, but every member of the favored group.

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Because I am a teacher, I keep my identity secret. Tenure doesn’t exist down here in Texas, so I can be terminated at the end of any contract. I’d hate to think that my blogging could be the cause, so I have cut the cards to make sure it doesn’t – I rarely blog about school, and very few school folks know about the site. I don’t want this blog to ever be an employment issue.

But when you have horrendous events involving teachers, and online statements that do send warning signs about possible inappropriate or unprofessional behavior, there will be suggestions that the online conduct of teachers be monitored as a condition of employment.

Until now, schools have been mostly concerned with policing computer usage on campus.

But a veteran educator said Monday that the episode could jar schools to sleuth more into online behavior of teachers.

"I wouldn't hire him," said William Rebore, chairman of the department of educational leadership at St. Louis University and a former superintendent for the Francis Howell and Valley Park school districts.

"If the person said, 'Oh, that's nothing, it's just a joke,' well, professional people don't joke in that manner, especially when it comes to children."

Rebore said he thinks schools will more commonly ask employees to disclose what they are posting on the Internet.

A job application could ask, "Do you have a Web site? Are you featured in any Web site?" Rebore said. "Certainly, if someone were not honest about that, it could be grounds for termination. It wouldn't surprise me if districts started putting that on an application."

I can understand wanting to make sure that teachers are not giving off warning signes of nascent pedophilia. I accept that schools might not want to have a teacher who has her own internet porn site. But do we really want teachers – who are, after all, protected by the First Amendment – to be judged by their public employers based upon what they write online? Would blogging – or at least blogging that doesn’t conform to a supervisor or school board member’s point of view -- become grounds for termination. Would edublogging be a thing of the past? Indeed, would our underage students have greater rights to online freedom of speech than their adult teachers?

How do we strike the balance between civil liberties and student safety?

Posted by: Greg at 12:41 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 pozzo.. che cosa posso dire.. luogo piacevole, buon stile, lo gradisco

Posted by: Calciomercato at Fri May 26 04:03:58 2006 (WMCQi)

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I'll bet this guy doesn't get off because he is "too pretty to go to jail".

A Freeburg High School driver's education instructor and professional wrestler, whose ring name is "The Teacher," has been charged with breaking the neck of 17-year-old Ashley Reeves of Millstadt and leaving her in dense woods to die.

She was found by police at 2 a.m. Saturday. First listed in critical condition, Reeves had improved somewhat as of late Saturday afternoon after being evacuated to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis.

On Saturday evening, hospital spokesman Bob Davidson listed Reeves' condition as serious.

The sheriff's department held a press conference at 11 a.m. Saturday to announce the charges against Samson "Sam" R. Shelton, 26, of Wildwood Lake Estates in Smithton. Shelton was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of kidnapping. He is being held at the St. Clair County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

Shelton teaches both driver's and physical education and is a volunteer assistant baseball coach at Freeburg High School.

The formal charges state that Shelton "used his forearm with such force as to break the neck of Ashley Reeves," and also used his belt in an attempt to strangle her. The 6-foot, 1-inch, 200-pound Shelton is listed as a wrestler in the Ultimate Wrestling Alliance and has appeared in several metro-east prize rings, including in Fairview Heights and Cahokia.

After spending more than 30 hours over a rainy night in thick brush and trees behind a baseball diamond at Citizens Park in Belleville, Reeves, a student at Columbia High School, was discovered about 2 a.m. Saturday by sheriff's investigators.

She was reported missing by her family about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

Now I will say that this guy clearly was not Ashley's teacher -- she attended school in a different district. Knowing what I do of the geography of the area, I suspect he may have been a neighbor or a member of the same church.

But regardless, this is a horrifying crime. It sounds like there is much more to come out -- but hopefully not in a manner that resembles the circus unfolding in North Carolina.

May this young lady recover and be restored to health to whatever degree is possible.

UPDATE: Just read the article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- this guy was a real freak!

A profile of Shelton on the Web site for his fast-pitch softball team says: "Sammy is single and currently looking for a female companion. This may include long term or short term relationship. Age does not matter, must be cute or hot."

The profile also said his hobbies include "touching hookers" and pornography, and described his occupation as a "teacher, pimp, pimp teacher, pro-wrestler."

Why do I get the impression that there may be some guys in the Illinois prison system who are hoping to have Shelton as a cellmate?

Posted by: Greg at 11:25 AM | Comments (70) | Add Comment
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Looks like here may be a little justice in the vandalism of a pro-life display at Northern Kentucky University. Not enough, but some.

A professor and six students at Northern Kentucky University have been charged with vandalizing an anti-abortion display on campus, a prosecutor said.

Professor Sally Jacobsen and six students face misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief and theft by unlawful taking, Campbell County Attorney Justin Verst said. Jacobsen, who teaches in the literature and language department, also faces a charge of criminal solicitation because she allegedly encouraged students to participate in the destruction, Verst said.

Four hundred crosses representing aborted fetuses were pulled from the ground and thrown in trash cans around campus on April 12. A sign explaining the temporary display, which had been approved by university officials as an expression of free speech, was also removed.

Jacobsen told The Kentucky Enquirer that she had "invited" students in her graduate-level British literature course to exercise free-speech by destroying the display. She said she was offended by the simulated cemetery, which she considered intimidating to women who might be considering abortions.

* * *

Jacobsen would plead not guilty, Grubbs said, adding that the dismantling of the display didn't amount to a criminal act.

"The intent was just an expression of freedom of speech," Grubbs said. "She saw harm coming from it, and she was just expressing her attitude toward the harm."

The six students charged were Michelle Cruey, Katie Nelson, Heather Nelson, Stephanie Horton, Sara Keebler and Laura Caster. A court date was set for May 11.

That Jacobsen is still unrepentant is a sign that her only sorrow is related to being caught and punished. She is not at all sorry for violating the civil rights of the student group which had requested and received permission to erect the display, as is permitted in a number of public areas on the campus
Students do have a right to free speech on a college campus. That includes setting up displays on controversial political matters and not having them destroyed by individuals with fascist mindsets.

The real shame here is not that Jacobsen and her brainwashed acolytes will face criminal charges -- it is that there is not a felony charge included, and that Jacobsen will be allowed to retire and receive a pension after violating the Constitutional rights of students at the university. Moreover, it is my hope that the students involved receive severe disciplinary action from the University for the same reason --preferably expulsion, but a suspension of at least one year should be sufficient.

And before you ask, I would feel just as strongly if the display were one on behalf of a cause or issue I reject. The First Amendment knows no ideological limits. I wish that the Left would learn that lesson.

MORE AT The Moderate Voice and The American Moderate

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Oops, never mind – she’s a Republican, so she loses all human rights protection on campus.

The threats began after the College Republicans sued the school over discriminatory distribution of student funds and violations of the First Amendment by the University. I’m not familiar with the merits of the suit, and will not address them here. What is undeniable is the campaign of racial and sexual harassment that began against the head of the campus chapter of the College Republican. Mike Adams sums the situation up well, in his usual colorful style.

Currently, the Pride Alliance at Tech receives funding from the SGA. The College Republicans do not. Now that Tech has been sued by a Republican over the funding issue the tension is palpable. Gays and their allies are calling the suit “intolerant” because, among other things, it seeks to allow the Republican group to be funded on an equal footing with Tech’s homosexual group.

But the gays and their allies don’t want that. They want two things: 1) For the school to keep funding the Pride Alliance and 2) For the school to keep denying the Republicans equal funding.

The fact that the gays and their allies a) see themselves as open-minded for supporting a one-sided presentation of gay issues and b) see the Republicans as narrow-minded for supporting a more diverse presentation of viewpoints speaks volumes about both their intellectual prowess and emotional stability.

But pointing out the lack of intelligence and emotional grounding of the Georgia Tech Gay Gestapo isn’t enough to make them angry. The way to really make them mad is to point out their intolerance. Lately, that’s been easy to do.

Gay Yellow Jackets and their allies have started a campus group condemning a plaintiff in the lawsuit. They have sent emails to that plaintiff (from Georgia Tech addresses) saying things like “bitch I want to choke you.” Some have expressed a desire to throw acid in her face. They have posted pictures of her adorned with swastikas on the internet. They have also passed out posters in dorms calling her a “Twinkie bitch” – this to suggest that she is Asian on the outside and Caucasian on the inside.

In other words, these people are more than just dumb and emotionally unstable. They are also intolerant, not to mention violent

Now let me make a couple of observations here. I have serious qualms about using student fees about student fees funding ANY political groups – but if political groups are to get funds, they must receive them on an equitable basis. I have serious issues with “status” groups receiving funds – whether we are talking gay groups, ethnic groups or gender groups, though I believe that they should also receive funding on an equitable basis. Heck, I’ve never believed in the notion of student fees being used to fund student groups, feeling that they should be self-funded and self-sustaining.

But whatever issues I might take on the question of funding, I can see no legitimate basis for threats of violence, gender-based insults, or the distribution of racist materials. I realize that such basic moral principles are not generally shared by the Left (see the treatment of Michael Steele by Maryland Democrats or the racist insults directed against Condi Rice).

Unless, of course, “tolerance” policies are simply an “Endangered Species Act” to protect liberal interest groups – and intended to turn convert conservatives into road-kill.

Posted by: Greg at 12:47 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Oops, never mind – she’s a Republican, so she loses all human rights protection on campus.

The threats began after the College Republicans sued the school over discriminatory distribution of student funds and violations of the First Amendment by the University. IÂ’m not familiar with the merits of the suit, and will not address them here. What is undeniable is the campaign of racial and sexual harassment that began against the head of the campus chapter of the College Republican. Mike Adams sums the situation up well, in his usual colorful style.

Currently, the Pride Alliance at Tech receives funding from the SGA. The College Republicans do not. Now that Tech has been sued by a Republican over the funding issue the tension is palpable. Gays and their allies are calling the suit “intolerant” because, among other things, it seeks to allow the Republican group to be funded on an equal footing with Tech’s homosexual group.

But the gays and their allies donÂ’t want that. They want two things: 1) For the school to keep funding the Pride Alliance and 2) For the school to keep denying the Republicans equal funding.

The fact that the gays and their allies a) see themselves as open-minded for supporting a one-sided presentation of gay issues and b) see the Republicans as narrow-minded for supporting a more diverse presentation of viewpoints speaks volumes about both their intellectual prowess and emotional stability.

But pointing out the lack of intelligence and emotional grounding of the Georgia Tech Gay Gestapo isnÂ’t enough to make them angry. The way to really make them mad is to point out their intolerance. Lately, thatÂ’s been easy to do.

Gay Yellow Jackets and their allies have started a campus group condemning a plaintiff in the lawsuit. They have sent emails to that plaintiff (from Georgia Tech addresses) saying things like “bitch I want to choke you.” Some have expressed a desire to throw acid in her face. They have posted pictures of her adorned with swastikas on the internet. They have also passed out posters in dorms calling her a “Twinkie bitch” – this to suggest that she is Asian on the outside and Caucasian on the inside.

In other words, these people are more than just dumb and emotionally unstable. They are also intolerant, not to mention violent

Now let me make a couple of observations here. I have serious qualms about using student fees about student fees funding ANY political groups – but if political groups are to get funds, they must receive them on an equitable basis. I have serious issues with “status” groups receiving funds – whether we are talking gay groups, ethnic groups or gender groups, though I believe that they should also receive funding on an equitable basis. Heck, I’ve never believed in the notion of student fees being used to fund student groups, feeling that they should be self-funded and self-sustaining.

But whatever issues I might take on the question of funding, I can see no legitimate basis for threats of violence, gender-based insults, or the distribution of racist materials. I realize that such basic moral principles are not generally shared by the Left (see the treatment of Michael Steele by Maryland Democrats or the racist insults directed against Condi Rice).

Unless, of course, “tolerance” policies are simply an “Endangered Species Act” to protect liberal interest groups – and intended to turn convert conservatives into road-kill.

Posted by: Greg at 12:47 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'm not the author of those words describing the anti-First Amendment decision handed down by a pair of Ninth Circuit judges in Harper v. Poway Unified School District.

No, they are the assesment of the decision by the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times -- a group which is generallly knee-jerk in its support of gay rights and not too friendly towards conservatives Christians.

But in this case, I think ithe paper has put together an editorial that says what i've been trying to say, only better.

Free-speech fashion

IF STUDENTS AT A PUBLIC SCHOOL have a 1st Amendment right to wear black armbands as an antiwar protest — and they do, according to the U.S. Supreme Court — does a Christian student have a similar right to wear a T-shirt proclaiming "Homosexuality Is Shameful"? He should, despite a recent federal appeals court ruling so sweeping and loosely reasoned that it virtually begs the Supreme Court to overrule it.

Offended by the fact that Poway High School near San Diego had declared a "Day of Silence" designed to teach tolerance of gay and lesbian students, sophomore Tyler Harper wore a T-shirt with the "Homosexuality Is Shameful" message on the back and this message on the front: "Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned." A teacher told him that the shirt violated the school dress code and was inflammatory. When he refused to remove it, he was kept in a school office for the rest of the day.

Harper and his parents asked a U.S. District Court to issue an injunction preventing the school from interfering with his constitutional rights. The court declined, and its ruling was affirmed last week by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Unfortunately, in explaining why the school was within its rights, Judge Stephen Reinhardt misapplied the Supreme Court's 1969 armband decision and created a "right" that doesn't exist: the right not to be offended.

The armband case gave schools the constitutional authority to suppress student speech only when it poses a "substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities." A federal district judge had cited that exception in ruling for the school district in the current T-shirt case.

But Reinhardt, joined by another circuit judge, tacked on a spongier rationale: that the T-shirt was "injurious to gay and lesbian students and interfered with their right to learn." He maintained students should be protected not only from face-to-face harassment but also from "derogatory and injurious remarks directed at students' minority status such as race, religion and sexual orientation."

There are several problems with this broad formulation. Harper's T-shirt did not feature lewd or "fighting" words. It did not attack individual gay students. Reinhardt's expansive definition could cover all sorts of utterances that gay students might find offensive — like a classmate's praise for the pope's opposition to gay priests or a civics class comment that states shouldn't legalize same-sex marriage.

Students certainly have a right to learn, free of bullying and harassment. But they also have the right to express opinions that their classmates might find offensive — as long as doing so doesn't pose a substantial threat of disruption.

Thirty-seven years after the armband decision, some may wish the high court had never let the genie of student free speech out of the constitutional bottle. It is also true that gay students have been victims of bullying that no one believes is protected by the 1st Amendment. But Reinhardt's opinion does gay students no service by endowing them with a "right" to be shielded from the offensive opinions of others.

Precisely right -- and if I may extend the principle beyond the scope of this editorial, I'd like to say that no student, regardless of race, sex, orientation, ethnicity, or religious faith is well-served by giving them the right to be shielded from views which offend them if it involves permitting them to invoke the censorship of their fellow students.

Posted by: Greg at 01:28 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One of my favorite columnists is Mike Adams, a professor from University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

In today’s columns, he recaps some of his “most offensive” (to liberals) lines from his columns. I’ve taken the liberty of excerpting a few.

“When I talk to liberals, I don’t expect them to understand my positions on various issues. I spend most of my time trying to help them understand their own.”

* * *

“When I am hunting and I know I see a deer in the brush, I pull the trigger. When I know it is a human, I hold my fire. When I don’t know, I also hold my fire. The feminist who doesn’t know whether it a fetus is a person, has the abortion anyway. In other words, she just pulls the trigger. Nonetheless, feminists still feel they are morally superior to hunters.”

* * *

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve been tying to see things from a liberal perspective. Unfortunately, I can’t get my head that far up my ass. I guess it takes a lot of flexibility to be a liberal. It also takes a considerable lack of backbone.”

* * *

“Men are fully capable of masturbating without taking a seminar. For men, it’s a natural talent. For campus feminists, it’s another excuse to seek funding from the university administration.”

* * *

“Bringing American professors to laughter is nearly as tough as bringing American feminists to orgasm. It’s a theoretical possibility that is seldom achieved without a workshop.”

* * *

“I do not believe that surgically applying a breast to a man’s chest can make him a woman any more than surgically applying a horn to a man’s forehead can make him a unicorn.”

* * *

“If you are easily offended by free speech on campus, I have just the solution: Get the hell out of college.”

Well done, Dr. Adams! Academia is in need of many more men and women with your clarity of vision.

Posted by: Greg at 01:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One of my favorite columnists is Mike Adams, a professor from University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

In today’s columns, he recaps some of his “most offensive” (to liberals) lines from his columns. I’ve taken the liberty of excerpting a few.

“When I talk to liberals, I don’t expect them to understand my positions on various issues. I spend most of my time trying to help them understand their own.”

* * *

“When I am hunting and I know I see a deer in the brush, I pull the trigger. When I know it is a human, I hold my fire. When I don’t know, I also hold my fire. The feminist who doesn’t know whether it a fetus is a person, has the abortion anyway. In other words, she just pulls the trigger. Nonetheless, feminists still feel they are morally superior to hunters.”

* * *

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve been tying to see things from a liberal perspective. Unfortunately, I can’t get my head that far up my ass. I guess it takes a lot of flexibility to be a liberal. It also takes a considerable lack of backbone.”

* * *

“Men are fully capable of masturbating without taking a seminar. For men, it’s a natural talent. For campus feminists, it’s another excuse to seek funding from the university administration.”

* * *

“Bringing American professors to laughter is nearly as tough as bringing American feminists to orgasm. It’s a theoretical possibility that is seldom achieved without a workshop.”

* * *

“I do not believe that surgically applying a breast to a man’s chest can make him a woman any more than surgically applying a horn to a man’s forehead can make him a unicorn.”

* * *

“If you are easily offended by free speech on campus, I have just the solution: Get the hell out of college.”

Well done, Dr. Adams! Academia is in need of many more men and women with your clarity of vision.

Posted by: Greg at 01:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Centralia Orphans (IÂ’m not making up the team name) went 1-8 last year during the high school football season. But earlier this week, several members of the team proved themselves to be winners of a different sort.

Eleven members of the Centralia High School varsity football team are being credited with saving a mechanic's life by lifting a pickup that had crushed him after it slid off a hydraulic lift.

The injured mechanic, Ed Marsh, 33, was in serious condition Tuesday at St. Louis University Hospital, where doctors had placed him in a coma to treat his injuries.

* * *

Marsh, a married father of three, had been working Saturday morning at ExpertTire in Centralia when the Ford F-150 pickup slipped off the lift.

At the time, 11 Centralia football players were collecting used tires on ExpertTire's rear parking lot as part of a community cleanup.

Travis Patten, 16, one of the players, said: "We were throwing tires into the back of a semi when some guy came running over from the Sonic (restaurant) next door. He said, 'We need all you guys to help us. There's a guy trapped underneath a truck.'"

Without hesitation, the boys sprinted around to the front of the garage. In one of the bays, they saw several tire company employees straining to keep as much of the truck's weight as possible off of Marsh. The back half of the truck was still resting on the hydraulic lift.

All that could be seen of Marsh were his legs.

"I grabbed under the driver's tire," said Patten, who stands 5 feet 9 and weighs 135 pounds. "The rest of the players grabbed all around the front.

"We got it up, and they were able to scoot him out."

The other team members involved in the rescue were Jarren Baker, Tyler McAbee, Kyle Pender, Darren Whitelow, Travis Arnold, Lucas Waters, Marquise Shackleford, Nathan Berry, Marcus Currie and T.J. Erlinger.

Well done, men – this is the sort of victory that transcends any you might win on the playing field.

Posted by: Greg at 12:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Those silly Islamists! Not only do they want to kill folks for daring to show cartoons of their false prophet, but now they want to punish anyone who dares criticize them or their religion on the basis of the terrorism regularly carried out in its name.

An Islamic student group at Michigan State University demanded Monday that university officials publicly reprimand a professor whose Feb. 28 e-mail called on Muslims who don't "like the values of the West" to leave the United States.

But MSU officials said there's little that can be done to punish Indrek Wichman, 55, a tenured professor of mechanical engineering, because his comments essentially constitute free speech. Wichman sent the message to the Muslim Students' Association of Michigan State University while it handed out free cocoa during a public awareness event about controversial cartoons that depicted Islam's founder as a terrorist.

The cartoons, one of which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, sparked violent protests and riots around the world in February.

Now let’s be clear on the context here – these comments were written at a time when Muslims were rioting in the streets over the fact that non-Muslims dared exercise freedom of speech. It was at a time when hostages were being beheaded in the name of Islam. It was at a time when homicide bombers were committing many murders in the name of Islam.

What did Wichman write?

Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intened to protest your protest.

I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavain girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.

This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests."

If you do not like the values of the West -- see the 1st Ammendment -- you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.

Cordially, I. S. Wichman
Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Strong words? Yes, they are. Reasonable words? I would say yes, but that is subject to debate? Offensive words? Probably, but then again the First Amendment does not require that we refrain from uttering words that offend others, even in an educational setting (contrary to the belief of some commenters around here). The University was actually rather timid in its refusal to discipline Wichman – his message was not “essentially” free speech – it was essential free speech, plain and simple. My only real objection here is to the fact that he didn't use the spell-check.

Notice, please what sort of things Wichman objects to – murder, violence, rape, violations of human rights. How can anyone be offended by someone objecting to such things? He indicated that these issues were more important than mere drawings that are an affront to religious belief. Only someone who supports them – or who is so weak intellectually, morally, spiritually and physically that they cannot handle having their own beliefs and actions challenged.

Well, it appears that the president of the Muslim Students Association is such an individual.

To Farhan Abdul Azeez, an MSU senior studying human biology and the president of the student association, the e-mail was startling.

"Naturally, I was very upset. I was disgusted. All of those emotions went through my body," said Azeez, 20, of Canton.

In other words, son, you are a pathetic weakling. Rather than respond with ideas, you responded with a call for censure and censorship – with a healthy dose of thought control thrown in.

Unfortunately, the University is buying into some of your demands – both silencing the professor and “discussing” (read “capitulating on” ) the demand for a reeducation and thought control

Terry Denbow, spokesman for MSU, said Wichman's views in no way represent the university's views. But, he said, they do not violate the university's antidiscrimination policy.

"He was cautioned that any additional commentary ... could constitute the creation of a hostile environment, and that could ... form the basis of a complaint" under the policy, Denbow said.

* * *

Denbow said discussions with students about sensitivity training are ongoing.
"We're not only willing to, but eager to listen to the students. Their commentary to date has been thoughtful," Denbow said.

So you see – Michigan State really doesn’t believe that Wichman’s words are covered by the First Amendment. After all, if they did support the First Amendment, there would have been no need to caution him or dialogue implementing the demanded brainwashing program.

Which leads me to echo Wichman’s comments about those who are troubled by First Amendmen freedoms – any member of the MSA who is so offended by the exercise of free speech here in America is welcome to leave.

Posted by: Greg at 11:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I usually respond to comments in the comment section. Sometimes, though, a comment is of such length or its content is so notable that an entire separate post is warranted.

I got one of those last night, in response to my (widely read, thanks to the Houston Chronicle) post entitled "First Amendment (Revised Edition)". The commenter, Jan L Perkins, rather vehemently disagrees with me, and clearly put a lot of time and thought into her words. In doing so, she fell into what I see as some common errors -- errors that I want to correct publicly. I don't do this to ridicule her (in fact, I praise her efforts), but to attempt to lay to rest certain incorrect notions regarding the First Amendment and schools.

So let us begin with the fisking of Jan's comment.

WOW – a court makes a ruling that a school has the right to enforce rules, which are designed to prevent disturbance between different factions within the school, and the court is now violating the US Constitution – how about that – and I thought it was just attempting to head off the conflict before it became nasty – but, of course, perhaps the objection is because the T-shirt read “homosexuality is shameful” rather than “homosexuality was created by God, too”

Several points here.

First, as a government entity, public schools must conform their rules with the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

Second, schools cannot, as a rule, permit speech on one side of a controversial issue and not ont he other. The school had been more than willing to permit and sponsor a so-called "Day of Silence" (complete with literature distributions and students disrupting the academic mission of the school by opting out of verbal participation in class as a form of political/religious/social expression). It could not then turn around and argue that a single student expressing the opposite perspective in a passive manner (via a t-shirt) constituted a material disruption or a threat to good order and discipline. In fact, the situation that existed appears very close to that set forth in Tinker v. Des Moines, which is the major precedent dealing with the First Amendment rights of students.

The problem posed by the present case does not relate to regulation of the length of skirts or the type of clothing, [508] to hair style, or deportment. Cf. Ferrell v. Dallas Independent School District, 392 F.2d 697 (196 ; Pugsley v. Sellmeyer, 158 Ark. 247, 250 S. W. 538 (1923). It does not concern aggressive, disruptive action or even group demonstrations. Our problem involves direct, primary First Amendment rights akin to "pure speech."

The school officials banned and sought to punish petitioners for a silent, passive expression of opinion, unaccompanied by any disorder or disturbance on the part of petitioners. There is here no evidence whatever of petitioners' interference, actual or nascent, with the schools' work or of collision with the rights of other students to be secure and to be let alone. Accordingly, this case does not concern speech or action that intrudes upon the work of the schools or the rights of other students.

Only a few of the 18,000 students in the school system wore the black armbands. Only five students were suspended for wearing them. There is no indication that the work of the schools or any class was disrupted. Outside the classrooms, a few students made hostile remarks to the children wearing armbands, but there were no threats or acts of violence on school premises.

* * *

In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint. Certainly where there is no finding and no showing that engaging in the forbidden conduct would "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school," the prohibition cannot be sustained. Burnside v. Byars, supra, at 749.

* * *

It is also relevant that the school authorities did not purport to prohibit the wearing of all symbols of political or controversial significance. The record shows that students in some of the schools wore buttons relating to national political campaigns, and some even wore the Iron Cross, traditionally a symbol of Nazism. The order prohibiting the wearing of armbands did not extend to these. Instead, a particular symbol--black armbands worn to exhibit opposition to this Nation's involvement [511] in Vietnam--was singled out for prohibition. Clearly, the prohibition of expression of one particular opinion, at least without evidence that it is necessary to avoid material and substantial interference with schoolwork or discipline, is not constitutionally permissible.

In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school as well as out of school are "persons" under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State. In our system, students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate. They may not be confined to the expression of those sentiments that are officially approved. In the absence of a specific showing of constitutionally valid reasons to regulate their speech, students are entitled to freedom of expression of their views. As Judge Gewin, speaking for the Fifth Circuit, said, school officials cannot suppress "expressions of feelings with which they do not wish to contend." Burnside v. Byars, supra, at 749.

How very like the events which happened that day at Poway High School! Tyler Chase Harper was passive, did not disrupt or confront, and while he was subject to a few hostile remarks, there was no substantive disruption. For his trouble he was removed from class, questioned by law enforcement, and told by assistant principal Ed Giles that he must "leave his faith in the car" if it was deemed offensive by school officials. This is in blatant contradiction of the major holding of Tinker.

First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.

It seems that Mr. Giles, along with the rest of the administration of this school and district, slept through that portion of their school law classes while working towards tehir administrator certification.

Similarly, they ignored an even older precedent, that of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).

The Fourteenth Amendment, as now applied to the States, protects the citizen against the State itself and all of its creatures-Boards of Education not excepted. These have, of course, important, delicate, and highly discretionary functions, but none that they may not perform within the limits of the Bill of Rights. That they are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes.

Such Boards are numerous and their territorial jurisdiction often small. But small and local authority may feel less sense of responsibility to the Constitution, and agencies of publicity may be less vigilent in calling it to account. . . . [N]one who acts under color of law is beyond reach of the Constitution.

Oh, and Jan, nice attempt on your part to tar me with the taint of homophobia. You ignore that I did note some anti-homosexuality messages might be legitimately banned as disruptive. You also are unaware of my past writings on incidents of school censorship and punishment of student speech -- posts in which I stand up for students taking decidedly liberal views as well as conservative ones.

As a teacher you know that children do not have all of the constitutional protections afforded to adults.

You are right -- but I never said they did. There are limits placed in the school setting, but as i noted above, they are tightly drawn.

For example, their lockers may be searched without their permission, even over their objections,

True -- but then again, the school owns the locker and makes those search provisions a part of the student code of conduct. A kid does not have to use thelocker, either.

and they may be compelled to submit to drug tests even when there is no probable cause, indeed no cause whatsoever, to believe they have used drugs,

Half true -- the courts have upheld those policies only with regard to participation in extra-curricular activities, not school attendance.

and the case law is replete with decisions upholding limitations on student speech.

And replete with decisions the other way, which make it clear that the ability of schools to limit student speech is, dare I say it, limited to narrow circumstances.

Those are just three of the ways in which they do not have the same rights as you may have as an adult.

They are three ways in which you misrepresented the holdings of the courts regarding the rights of students under the Constitution.

Even as an adult it is well established in courts all over the country that one may not yell “fire” in a crowded theater when there is no fire.

Nice try -- the only problem is that hte quote you are reaching for refers to FALSELY crying "fire" in a crowded theater, because it needlessly and recklessly puts individuals in danger. One could, for example, shout "fire" in a crowded theater if there were a fire. But the expression of a political, social, or religious oipinion could never fall under that rubric, for the expression of a dissenting opinion is not the sort of thing likely to cause a crowd to stampede and trample the vulnerable under foot.

This school may well have had good reason to believe that the T-shirt in question was crying “fire” in a theatre.

The school could never have legitimately taken such a view.

I should not need to have to point out that a “Day of Silence” is not the same as a T-shirt with a message.

Actually, it is functionally the same, and is even less disruptive than the Day of Silence, for reasons I pointed to above. And given the "leave your faith in the car" policy dictated by one school official, the competing event (the Day of Truth) would have been prevented under the same standard -- and the opinion of the judges in this case would mandate the school prohibitting the event.

In fact, if those opposed to homosexuality had sought to have their own day to express their viewpoint silently and peacefully, then you would be closer to having a valid position, assuming they had been denied that right.

Jan, dear, free speech is free speech is free speech.

The problem with Justice Alex KozinskiÂ’s position as reported by you (I have not read the decision) is that he viewed the school as having taken a position on a controversial topic, when, based solely on your version of the facts, it appears to me that the majority concluded the school correctly saw the difference between a Day of Silence and a T-shirt as the difference between the proverbial apples and oranges, and had the power to act to prevent potential violence.

How was the shirt creating a potential act of violence? Would not the Day of Truth be considered equally impermissible, due to the fact that instead of one student expressing the offending opinion we would have many doing so?

By the way, who is Theriot?

Don't be lazy -- click the link and find out for yourself.

I would note that the phrase “under God” was not in the Pledge of Allegiance until I was nearly out of high school. I was raised in a country Methodist church in the Midwest. My mother ensured that I went to church every Sunday, for which I avow I am eternally grateful, although I was not always so grateful at the time I was being required to get out of bed and go. I do not recall anyone in my community at that time, who spoke either for or against the insertion of “under God” into the Pledge, yet they were all good god fearing country folk. I have no strong personal opinion about the phrase, but I have to wonder why one might believe the sky would fall if it were removed?

I'm not going to engage on that issue -- if you notice, the quote you are referring to is bringing out the fact that the Ninth Circuit -- and one of the judges in this case in particular -- has a perceived hostility towards religious speech that offends minorities, to the point that he has repeatedly sought to ban such speech even when it is clearly protected by the Constitution. It is part of why the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has been the most overturned circuit for the last several years -- it is out of step with the Supreme Court precedents and the US Constitution.

Posted by: Greg at 01:14 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I've long had mixed emotions about punishing students for online speech.

As a rule, I don't believe schools have any business regulating out-of-school activity.

On the other hand, I do believe that schools need to monitor -- and perhaps punish -- certain behaviors that bear a direct nexus to school and cause a major disruption.

And that raises some questions.

When high school teacher Lee Waters logged onto a popular Web site and read the demeaning sexual comments a student had posted alongside her picture, the Sarasota woman felt completely degraded.

The school district suspended the North Port High School student, but attorney Geoffrey Morris said Waters doesn't think the boy understands the humiliation she feels.

The teacher filed a lawsuit against the student in March, but she isn't looking for money. She just wants other students to understand how harmful Internet pranks can be, Morris said.

"This teacher was maligned by this kid," Morris said. "She was so upset about it and she filed this lawsuit because she says teaching is a profession and that the administration turned their back on her complaint."

The Sarasota County School District said it did what it could to help Waters, by suspending the student and taking other disciplinary action, but it's not alone as it struggles to deal with cyber-bullying. Similar lawsuits and complaints are popping up in Florida and elsewhere nationwide as bullies move from punching someone on the playground to writing nasty and sometime libelous postings about classmates, teachers and school officials on the Internet, where everyone can read them.

There is a serious question here. The First Amendment is high on my list of non-religious sacred things, but i recognize that there are limits to the First Amendment, especially for kids, when it disrupts school. At the same time, schools regularly exceed authority, and sometimes even attempt to suppress legitimate speech that teachers/administrators find inconvenient.

Ultimately, I guess it comes down to a question of whether the speech/behavior would be within the reach of school officials if it happened someplace other than MySpace or other internet venues.

Threats of violence and assualt at school would clearly be covered.

So, too, might incidents of racial/sexual/other harassment by students against students, if it can be tied to the school setting -- i.e. was part of a pattern of behavior which exists both at the school and away from it.

And at the risk of sounding quite self-serving, retaliatory attacks on teachers and other staff members might qualify, provided the goal is not an attempt to suppress true statements about matters of legitimate public concern.

And remember, sometimes a bit of school discipline might be preferable to the alternative.

Which is preferable -- a three deay suspensio from school for cyber-bullying or criminal charges 9even juvenile charges) for harassment or communicating a threat? A ten day assignment to an alternative school setting or a lawsuit for defamation? And in Texas, there is specific language in state law which protects teachers from acts of harassment (or violence) by students if it is related to the teacher's performance of his or her job, and it even applies to events that occur off school ground and outside school hours -- and the offense can rise to the level of a felony.

And then ther eis the other issue -- can the contents of websites be used for disciplinary purposes by schools.

And it's not only cyber-bullying that's a problem — it's the photos students post. Young girls in barely there clothing, cigarettes dangling from their lips. The basketball team chugging beer at a party. Blogs that threaten a Columbine repeat. All have public and private school officials debating possible disciplinary actions.

What happens when some kid posts a picture on their website of the star quarterback holding a can of beer? Can the school use that picture to punish the student under a no-drinking policy that the athlete and his parents signed as a condition of his participation in extra-curricular activities? Can the coach use it to bench the kid without involving the school?

The internet raises all sorts of questions and issues for educators. What is the solution? I don't know the answer.

Posted by: Greg at 01:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What else can be said about this statistic?

Chicago public high school freshmen are battling daunting odds: Only 6.5 percent of their predecessors have been earning four-year college degrees by their mid-20s.

For black and Latino male ninth-graders, the numbers are even more alarming. Only about 3 percent wind up graduating from four-year colleges within six years.

So says new research from the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research, which looked at the high school graduating classes of 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003.

One of the study’s authors calls the statistics “appalling.” I agree – and also call it evidence of educational malpractice. It is time for CPS to be taken out of the hands of the corrupt Democrats of the Chicago and their union cronies. Vouchers, anyone?

Posted by: Greg at 01:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What else can be said about this statistic?

Chicago public high school freshmen are battling daunting odds: Only 6.5 percent of their predecessors have been earning four-year college degrees by their mid-20s.

For black and Latino male ninth-graders, the numbers are even more alarming. Only about 3 percent wind up graduating from four-year colleges within six years.

So says new research from the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research, which looked at the high school graduating classes of 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003.

One of the study’s authors calls the statistics “appalling.” I agree – and also call it evidence of educational malpractice. It is time for CPS to be taken out of the hands of the corrupt Democrats of the Chicago and their union cronies. Vouchers, anyone?

Posted by: Greg at 01:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, after a day off for . . . well, I don't know why they scheduled a day off from testing yesterday, TAKS testing resumes today with the 10th grade Science test. So I'll be trapped in a room all day with the same kids as Tuesday (including one of my most obnoxious students from my history classses), silently praying for the coming of the bell that signals the end of the school day.

* * *

In honor of the day of torture (for them) and boredom (for me), I hereby declare this special edition linkfest and trackback carnival to be OPEN!

Post a link to your noteworthy writings and most interesting rants -- not to mention your well-reasoned and intellectually challenging essays -- for all of us to see.

As usual, I will not limit the number of items you can link, provided you stay reasonable.

And also as usual, remember the rule.

No Porn. No Spam. No Problem.

Posted by: Greg at 10:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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They have decided to add BCE and CE to the textpbooks in Kentucky. It is a move that caused controversy.

State board of education members approved curriculum recommendations that would change the designation of time from only the traditionally used terms B.C., or Before Christ and A.D., Anno Domini, for in the year of our Lord. Now, time designations will also include B.C.E., for Before Common Era, and C.E., for Common Era.

Board member David Webb attempted to pass an amendment that would prevent the inclusion of the new terms, but the majority of board members voted against it.

"Dates throughout history have been referred to as B.C. and A.D.," said Webb, who abstained from the curriculum vote. "It's also some degree of a faith-based issue. Especially this Easter season, I thought it was inappropriate for us to reference this."

The changes are recommendations to curriculum standards for students from preschool through 12th grade. The proposal would use both kinds of dating. For example, a date could read 500 A.D./C.E.

"I would want my child to have familiarity with both terms," said board member Hilma Prather. "I could not vote for the deletion of one or the other; I would like the inclusion of both."

The changes will now have to be voted on by a legislative committee and go through a public hearing, board spokeswoman Lisa Gross said. The recommendations could be in effect as early as the 2006-07 school year.

Looks to me like the supporters of the change are doing this for the right reason, and the opponents are supporting the specious argument that it is somehow an attack on religion. The point is that both will be used and taught, so that students will be aware of the commonly used terms that they WILL encounter in college.

I wrote on this issue about a year ago, and feel like it might be useful to repost that earlier commentary on the issue for those who find the issue one of interest.

ORIGINALLY POSTED APRIL 26, 2005

B.C./A.D. Or B.C.E./C.E

We got new textbooks at school last year. As I began to flip through them, I noticed that they used the traditional B.C./A.D. dating convention rather than the newer B.C.E./C.E. convention that has become more popular in recent years. Personally, I donÂ’t have a problem with using either system, but it seems that folks on both sides of the debate are somewhat more worked up over it.

In certain precincts of a world encouraged to embrace differences, Christ is out.

The terms "B.C." and "A.D." increasingly are shunned by certain scholars.

Educators and historians say schools from North America to Australia have been changing the terms "Before Christ," or B.C., to "Before Common Era," or B.C.E., and "anno Domini" (Latin for "in the year of the Lord") to "Common Era." In short, they're referred to as B.C.E. and C.E.

The life of Christ still divides the epochs, but the change has stoked the ire of Christians and religious leaders who see it as an attack on a social and political order that has been in place for centuries.

For more than a century, Hebrew lessons have used B.C.E. and C.E., with C.E. sometimes referring to Christian Era.

This raises the question: Can old and new coexist in harmony, or must one give way to the other to reflect changing times and attitudes?

Now I don’t see why both sides cannot exist in harmony. The breaking point is still the same, and that is the life of Christ. But while I am generally accepting of the B.C.E./C.E., I was initially taught it as Before Christian Era and Christian Era. In my classes, I present both dating systems, and discuss the underlying reasons for using each. I also tell my students that they ultimately have to make a choice in what system to use, and that either one is acceptable – and then proceed to use B.C. and A.D myself for the rest of the year.

Now I am particularly shocked at this criticism that shows up in the article, indicating extreme ignorance or extreme bias.

Although most calendars are based on an epoch or person, B.C. and A.D. have always presented a particular problem for historians: There is no year zero; there's a 33-year gap, reflecting the life of Christ, dividing the epochs. Critics say that's additional reason to replace the Christian-based terms.

Hold on just one moment. There is no 33-year gap between the eras. The year 1 B.C. is followed by 1 A.D., marking the traditional year of the birth of Christ (who probably was born between 7 B.C. and 4 B.C.) – there are no years floating around in limbo, falling into neither category. And the lack of a Year 0 is a rather absurd idea as well. After all, when we start counting something, we do not begin by labeling the first one as zero. No, we count them out sequentially, beginning with the number one. The arguments the article makes are just plain stupid, and I cannot imagine any serious scholar offering them.

Now there is a legitimate argument to be made against using B.C. and A.D., and that is the fact that it makes every date into a statement about a religious figure who is rejected by about 75% of the people of the world – more, if one recognizes there are a lot of folks out there who call themselves Christian who have no particular faith in Christ. I certainly understand where making a religious profession every time one uses a calendar might trouble them.

"When Jews or Muslims have to put Christ in the middle of our calendar ... that's difficult for us," said Steven M. Brown, dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.

I accept that argument, which is why IÂ’m not troubled by the usage of B.C.E. and C.E. as meaning Before Christian Era and Christian Era. It accurately acknowledges the reason for the reason for making a change in dating in the traditional Western calendar system, but avoids requiring anything that resembles a profession of faith. At the same time, it does not engage in religious cleansing, in that it acknowledges the historical centrality of Christianity in the Western world.

Not everyone agrees with me, though.

Candace de Russy, a national writer on education and Catholic issues and a trustee for the State University of New York, doesn't accept the notion of fence-straddling.

"The use of B.C.E. and C.E. is not mere verbal tweaking; rather it is integral to the leftist language police -- a concerted attack on the religious foundation of our social and political order," she said.

For centuries, B.C. and A.D. were used in public schools and universities, and in historical and most theological research. Some historians and college instructors started using the new forms as a less Christ-centric alternative.

"I think it's pretty common now," said Gary B. Nash, director of the National Center for History in the Schools. "Once you take a global approach, it makes sense not to make a dating system applicable only to a relative few."

Now I think de Russy overstates the case. The original use of the term in Hebrew schools was designed to be sensitive to both Christians and Jews, and I think that principle certainly extends beyond those two groups and into the world as a whole. But I think Nash carries the argument too far, given that the logical implication of his position is that we should develop a whole new calendar that begins with the year 1 B.W.S.S. (Because We Say So). And that ignores the fact that for some 15 centuries, dates in the West have been calculated according to the system set up by Dionysius Exiguus. It has become the de facto dating system of the world.

In the end, I find myself coming down on the same side as the Professional Association of Georgia EducatorsÂ’ Tim Callahan.

"Is that some sort of the political correctness?" said Tim Callahan, of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, an independent group with 60,000 educator members. "It sounds pretty silly to me."

The entire debate is rather silly. There are much greater issues for us to look at. In the end, any of the usages should be considered acceptable. This is a battle that does not need to be fought by either side, and from which all should disengage with an understanding that all three dating conventions will be tolerated. Anyone who cannot do that does not deserve to be taken seriously.

Posted by: Greg at 03:26 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Imagine this situation. Two black children, a brother and a sister, enrol at a school which is predominatly white. they are subject to racial slurs and other harrassment. They are threatened and assaulted. In one instance, after the girl is threatened, her white nemesis is forced to apologize -- only to return to school three days later with a weapon, threatening to kill the girl.

What do you think would happen?

We know the answer. There would be marches, protests, outaged community members appearing at emergency meetings to demand that action be taken. State and federal officials would intervene. There would certainly be changes inthe school and district administration, designed to change the "festering culture of racism" that had been permitted to arise in the school.

Well, that isn't what happened at one school in Peoria, Illinois. But then again, the victims were white, and the perpetrators were. . . well, the columnist is too PC to actually tell us what race the perpetrators are. Doing so might be construed as racist, I suppose.

Up to the point a fourth-grader brought a box cutter to school and threatened to kill their daughter, Joe and Jessica Sweeney wanted to give Glen Oak Primary School a chance.

"'This is our neighborhood. This is where we live. Let's give the public schools a shot,'" is the way Joe describes their reasoning. "We've lived here six years. Let's give it a shot."

* * *

From the beginning, it was uncomfortable. Both children were taunted with racial slurs, particularly Alexis. The Sweeneys tried to make this a life lesson, coaching their kids to respond appropriately. They advised the children to report any threats or poor treatment to teachers, assuming the adults were addressing the problems. And they prayed their kids were simply learning the uncomfortable truth that life can be tough. But the incidents didn't stop, despite a lot of back-and-forth with the school. The kids kept their grades up, but they got pretty quiet.

In mid-March, matters came to a head during an after-school program. Alexis was alone in a bathroom when she was threatened by three other girls. Jessica went to the principal, who brought the ringleader in and made her apologize. Days later, the same girl was back - with a box cutter - threatening to kill Alexis. On the ride home after that incident, Jacob displayed a large bruise on his arm from being shoved to the ground and called a "stupid white boy."

Jessica pulled both kids out of the school immediately.

"I'm done," she says. "I'm done putting her life at risk because you won't do anything."

"This is beyond standard fourth-grade stuff," agrees Joe. "This is becoming racial now. They're not going back."

Frankly, I think these parents should have pulled the kids much earlier. The failure of the school to adequately address the situation should have been a signal that the situation would only get worse. After all, consider how the school and the district responded.

He feels this is a two-part problem. First and most importantly, they feel the school has failed to ensure the children's safety. But, second, they don't think Peoria School District 150 offered much in the way of alternatives or support. The Sweeneys were given the option to switch to Kingman Primary School. They refused. Alexis and Jacob would still be a small part of the handful of white children there.

"It's racial harassment. It's just the other way," says Joe. "There needs to be a zero-tolerance policy of any type of harassment."

One suggestion was that the family move. Again, they refused. Four houses along their street near Midtown Plaza belong to members of Jessica's family. The kids have plenty of friends - and cousins - in the neighborhood. Their grandmother runs a small business up the block.

"This is our home," Joe says. "It may not be in the best area, but this is our home."

THEY TOLD THE FAMILY TO SELL THEIR HOME AND MOVE! Could you imagine the outrage if they had been a black family in a mostly white school and had been told that the solution was for them to move somewhere where there were more of their own kind? That district would be under court supervision until two or three years after the Second Coming. Individuals would have lost their teaching and administrative credentials. But since the kids are only white, it really is not a big deal, I suppose.

And lest you think this is a family of whiners, consider the situation of the older brother who is a few years ahead of the threatened students.

Unlike other families who have pulled children from Peoria schools in favor of Catholic education or more upscale neighboring districts, the Sweeneys are in a unique position to publicly explain why. They are not fleeing the inner city. This is not a knee-jerk reaction against District 150. And it's tough to brand them as closet racists.

They actually have three children. Their oldest son, Caleb, is bi-racial. He has attended District 150 schools and thrived.

"My son is in Von Steuben," Jessica says. "He's mixed. He doesn't have one problem."

The mixed-race child is fine. He isn't subject to the harrassment faced by his younger siblings. So the problem clearly comes down to one of race, and the failure of a school and district to address racist actions by minority children.

Most galling, in my opinion, is the reaction of Assistant Superintendent Cindy Fischer. She claims that all procedures have ben followed correctly.

The bottom of the official line is that the district has policies that were followed in each of these instances. Every one was addressed, in large part through a nationally-recognized program that teaches and reinforces appropriate behavior. District-wide, 150 has four committees exploring various aspects of discipline problems. And for this family, offering Kingman is a respectable option: It is late in the year, so the district is reluctant to make any transfers. But Kingman has fewer discipline problems and several openings. Hines Primary School, which is the Sweeneys' choice because Caleb did well there, has none.

"It certainly is our regret that we were not able to bring satisfaction to this parent," Fischer says. "As consumers, when we're not satisfied with one product, we go to another. I think that is what this parent has done."

In other words, the family should be thankful that the district even offered the kids refuge in another school -- they could have been required to stay in their old school, under regular threat of violence with no effective response from the administration. And that last line about consumers making choices is positively obscene, for the parents are taxpaying citizens who will still have a portion of their assets extorted from them in the form of taxes to support a school system which so ineffectively dealt with the racial abuse of their children. Yeah, they made a choice to move the kids to a school where they would be safe -- but they are still paying for the school they wish to have their children attend but cannot due to safety concerns.

It is situations like these that make the best case for vouchers -- if not the outright shuttering of the public school system. After all, if the funding of the district actually depended on dealing effectively with racial harrassment of all children -- and not just those of vocal minority communities -- maybe there would be an adequate response.

Posted by: Greg at 12:34 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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We've heard a lot about freedom of speech and academic freedom from professors over the last couple of years as our nation has wrestled with the issue of political indoctrination in the classroom and hostility to Christian and conservative viewpoints at various schools around the country. Interestingly enough, the academics always are defending the Left to be heard, despite the fact that such views are teh dominant ones in the groves of academe. Conservative views, on the other hand, are almost always dismissed as irrelevant at best and intolerant at worst, and those expressing them usually find themselves fighting for the right to be heard (when there are not active attempt to suppress such views as intolerantbigottedracistsexistandhomophobic).

Which takes us now to Northern Kentucky University. (H/T Michelle Malkin)

A professor at Northern Kentucky University said she invited students in one of her classes to destroy an anti-abortion display on campus Wednesday evening.

NKU police are investigating the incident, in which 400 crosses were removed from the ground near University Center and thrown in trash cans. The crosses, meant to represent a cemetery for aborted fetuses, had been temporarily erected last weekend by a student Right to Life group with permission from NKU officials.

Public universities cannot ban such displays because they are a type of symbolic speech that has been protected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Witnesses reported "a group of females of various ages" committing the vandalism about 5:30 p.m., said Dave Tobertge, administrative sergeant with the campus police.

Sally Jacobsen, a longtime professor in NKU's literature and language department, said the display was dismantled by about nine students in one of her graduate-level classes.

"I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to," Jacobsen said.

Asked whether she participated in pulling up the crosses, the professor said, "I have no comment."

Such courage on the part of this so-called educator -- inciting criminal activity (not free speech) by her students and then refusing to answer a simple question about the extent of her own involvement. And I would like to remind the professor that property destruction is not free speech -- and she would not consider it to be so if someone ransacked her office, broke her car windows, or torched her house in protest of her vile act of speech suppression.

Why encourage/participate in this anti-freedom activity? Jacobsen explains it this way.

She said she was infuriated by the display, which she saw as intimidating and a "slap in the face" to women who might be making "the agonizing and very private decision to have an abortion.'"

Jacobsen said it originally wasn't clear who had placed the crosses on campus.

She said that could make it appear that NKU endorsed the message.

Pulling up the crosses was similar to citizens taking down Nazi displays on Fountain Square, she said.

"Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it. Some of my students felt the same way, just outraged," Jacobsen said.

Let's break that down.

1) The display made her mad -- and her unstable emotional state trumps the rights of every other American.

2) Women are so emotionally delicate that they could be upset by the display's message and so the display needed togo -- but women have the strength of mind and will to be permitted to decide whether or not to take an inconvenient human life.

3) Right to life folks are Nazis and Nazis are entitled to no free speech rights (funny, that isn't what the First Amendment, the courts, and even the ACLU have to say on the matter).

4) The display's sponsorship was unclear, and someone might infer that private speech by students represented an official university position (this is false -- more on that in a moment).

Notice -- not a single legitimate justification for her violation of the rights of others. So much for freedom of speech and academic freedom!

And then there is that sponsorship issue.

In an e-mail sent to campus officials earlier this week and obtained by The Kentucky Post, Jacobsen demanded the display be removed immediately. She wrote that the crosses violated the separation of church and state because NKU is a state institution.

Jacobsen knew who had put up the display, and that the university had determined that the pro-life group had every right to do so under the laws and the Constitution of the United States. She further knew that the university could not legally censor the speech that offended her. So she took it upon herself to gather a group of vigilantes and engage in conduct which differed from that of a KKK lynch mob in degree but not in nature -- the violation of the civil rights of American citizens designed to intimidate others who might exercise those same rights.

Fortunately, NKU has a president and a dean who will not stand for such unAmerican conduct by a faculty member, tenured or not. Police are investigating, charges against those involved are promised, and support for the victims is being offered. Let's hope the result is the removal of this uncivil anti-libertarian from the faculty.

Oh, and to those who want to argue that the actions of Jacobsen and her band of anti-free-speech terrorists constitutes civil disobedience, I have one question -- would you consider it to be an act of free speech and civil disobedience if a group of men, hurt by their inability to stop the feticide of children they wanted, were to attack Sally Jacobsen with clubs in order to express their outrage at her activities and then justify it by claiming that "any violence perpetrated against that silly woman was minor compared to how we felt when we read of her actions"?

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Posted by: Greg at 11:31 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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This little blurb from the Alliance Defense Fund appeared in my email today. I'll be interested in watching the story develop -- and hope that some press accounts appear that will flesh out the story.

Officials at the Ohio State University are investigating an OSU Mansfield librarian for “sexual harassment” after he recommended four conservative books for a freshman reading program. ADF has demanded that OSU cease its frivolous investigation, yet the university is pressing forward, claiming that it takes the charges “seriously.”

“Universities are one of the most hostile places for Christians and conservatives in America,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David French, who heads ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom. “It is shameful that OSU would investigate a Christian librarian for simply recommending books that are at odds with the prevailing politics of the university.”

Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU MansfieldÂ’s First Year Reading Experience Committee. The four books he suggested were The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat YeÂ’or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum. Savage made the recommendations after other committee members had suggested a series of books with a left-wing perspective, by authors such as Jimmy Carter and Maria Shriver.

Savage was put under “investigation” by OSU’s Office of Human Resources after three professors filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment against him, saying that the book suggestions made them feel “unsafe.” The complaint came after the OSU Mansfield faculty voted without dissent to file charges against Savage. The faculty later voted to allow the individual professors to file charges.

If the facts as presented are, in fact, accurate, then this complaint is a serious breach of academic freedom. Furthermore, if the professors in question are threatened or made to feel "unsafe" by the mere suggestion that students be exposed to ideas other than their own, then it strikes me that they need to be terminated forthwith as unfit for membership in the University community.

MORE AT Instapundit, Volokh, Ed Driscoll, Ace of Spades

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And what's more, provided no option for students who did not wish to attend or who were offended by the speaker -- making them a captive audience.

A Tucson High Magnet School student will tell state lawmakers next week that she was forced by school officials to listen to a pro-immigrant speech.

Senior Mon-yee Fung,17, voluntarily attended an assembly where co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union Dolores Huerta spoke, but could not leave after Huerta began saying "Republicans hate Latinos."

"I wanted to listen to what they had to say, but all they had to say was hate speak," said Fung, head of the school's Teenage Republicans Club. "They're saying that I don't like Mexicans or that I don't try to understand what they're doing, but I am trying to understand."

State Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, wants Fung to tell her story to Fox News today at 5 p.m.

"She was forced to listen to a political speech for over 40 minutes," Paton said. "To me that's a real problem because we shouldn't have the schools as a forum for political speech. They should be a forum for education."

Now her attendance clearly was not voluntary, based upon this admission by the principal of the school.

Tucson High Principal Abel Morado said he was unaware of the incident involving Fung.

"I will take the young lady's word for it," he said. "It may have been a supervision issue. We ask teachers to properly supervise their students during an assembly and sit with their class."

Students were told they could go to the assembly or the library, but the library locked because of miscommunication.

"I did learn after the fact that the library was closed," Morado said. "It may have been that the librarian chose to go to the assembly. That's my responsibility."

In other words, you could choose to attend the assembly -- or attend the assembly. So you see, there really was no free choice on Fung's part. Besides, if attendance was voluntary at this political event, doesn't that include the right to leave in protest of the hateful and malicious falsehoods being spewed by the speaker?

Now I have no problem with the choise of speaker -- Dolores Huerta is a figure of historical importance in contemprary Hispanic history -- but I do believe she crossed a line in this setting. That Huerta did not see this is troubling -- and that she remains unapologetic for her defamatory comments is more disturbing still.

Huerta said she was invited to speak at Tucson High as part of the effort to keep students in school and disagreed with Paton's assertion that political speech has no place in school.

"This is a terrific opportunity for young people to learn what the democratic process is about, the way that bills are passed," Huerta said. "I explained this whole procedure to the students."

Huerta said her "Republicans hate Latinos" comment was based on the number of anti-immigration bills sponsored by Republicans.

"Large numbers of the Republican Party are anti-immigrant or anti-Latino," she said. "I can justify that."

Wrong, Ms. Huerta -- there are large segments of the GOP that are anti-wetback, just like Cesar Chavez was. You know, the guy who you worked with all those years in founding and runing the UFW. Chavez recognized that those who come to this country illegally depress the wages of citizens and legal immigrants, and that illegals are exploited by unethical employers. So unless it is your contention that Cesar Chavez was anti-immigrant or anti-Latino, your statement is way out of line.

I'm also cuious -- precisely who invited Huerta to speak? the article does not say, and it would appear that the school administration was not involved. After all, if they were, they surely would have brought in another speaker to provide the other side, in the interest of intellectual honesty.

Or maybe not.

Morado said the school is a "wonderful venue" to see the opposing sides of an issue, but acknowledged that no effort has been made on his part to bring in somebody who supports the controversial immigration bill, HR 4437.

"I don't see that it is my role to turn around and say that "OK, we've had this speaker, now let's turn around and get this speaker," he said. "If there was somebody in favor of that and they wanted to speak at Tucson High, I wouldn't oppose that if my students invited them or if my teachers invited them."

Excuse me? You don't see it as your role to provide a balanced look at a hot-button issue when you have brought in a speaker from one side of the issue? Are you running a school, or an indoctrination center. Never mind, sir, you don't need to answer -- the above makes it quite clear what the honest answer would be. Not that you would give us an honest answer.

Oh, and while we are at it, maybe you could address this little issue of censorship.

Flung also said she was asked to remove a poster recruiting young Republicans because it was "too inflammatory."

The poster read "Be an American, join the Teenage Republican Club."

I get it -- "GOP=PATRIOTIC" is inflamatory, but ""GOP=RACIST" is just fine. Sounds to me like there needs to be a housecleaning at this school -- starting with the principal.

Posted by: Greg at 04:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It took a while, but the Alabama Democrat Party has called upon West Limestone High School science teacher Steve White to withdraw from the race for the party's nomination for the state legislature, due to his unprofessional conduct in the classroom.

Under siege by Republicans, a Limestone County teacher has been asked by Democratic leaders to withdraw his Democratic candidacy for a state House seat amid allegations that he showed students a vulgar video of President Bush.

The Alabama Democratic Party, in a statement Wednesday, said the withdrawal was discussed with Steve White, a candidate for the House District 4 seat, "days ago, prior to Republican protests."

It also said White had resigned his position as a local party official. But there was no immediate word from White on whether he will drop out of the race.

"The safety and welfare of Limestone County's children and their families is our number one concern right now, not politics," Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham said in the statement.

Turnham said that if the allegations against White are proven true, he will face "appropriate consequences" by the party committee.

The statement came amid GOP calls for Democrats to rebuke the teacher and for school officials to fire him.

The Alabama Republican Party in a statement released Wednesday asked Turnham to rebuke White. Accused of showing the vulgar video about Bush and other conservatives, White first was issued a reprimand; he was put on leave after another complaint, the details of which have not been disclosed by school officials.

Before Turnham released his statement, state GOP Chairman Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh issued one denouncing Democratic inaction. "By remaining silent, Joe Turnham is, in essence, condoning what Steve White did, and that says a lot about the Alabama Democrat Party," she said.

I wonder what "appropriate consequences" would be. After all, the party would have no way of forcing him off the ballot prior to the primary, nor if he were to officially win the nomination. Could it be that they are just blowing smoke as a matter of "saving face"?

And is it a matter of concern for the children in White's classes, or that he is alleged to have shown a video to his students which mocked Bill Clinton?

Now let's hope that the school board has the guts to fire Steve White.

MORE AT: Michelle Malkin, SpunkyHomeSchool, Right Wing Nation, AListReview, J Rob's House of Opinion, Church and State, HoodaThunk?, Freedom for Some, Freedom Folks, Once More Into The Breach, Daily Musings, Moonbattery, Brutally Honest, Aldaynet, Right Voices, Independent Conservative, Expose the Left, Michelle Malkin (again), Media Crunch, Church and State (again), Skilletfan, Mike's America, Strata-Sphere

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Remember Steve White, the moonbat schience teacher and Democrat candidate for the Alabama Legislature who showed a profane anti-Bush video to his eighth grade science students? Well, it appears that he is under further investigation for unprofessional behavior in showing inappropriate and non-subject related material to his students. This one also provides presidential insults, and could result in more serious discipline.

But then again, this (allegedly) obscene video mocks and insults Bill Clinton. No wonder they are taking action.

School officials were talking with some students Monday at West Limestone High School after receiving additional complaints from parents about offensive material shown to students by teacher Steve White.

“We’re investigating that now,” said Superintendent Dr. Barry Carroll.

White, who is a Democratic candidate for the District 4 seat on the state House of Representatives, was previously accused of showing an offensive Internet video against the Bush administration to his eighth grade science class at West Limestone High School.

“We’ve had some calls from parents about other allegations and we are talking to students,” Carroll said. “We hope by (Tuesday) we will be able to determine something and move in whatever direction we need to.”

Carroll did not describe the new complaints but one parent said an obscene video showing an animated Bill Clinton was shown to students.

Sorry, but this double standard is pretty offensive. The first offense was so egregious that White should have been fired, or at least suspended, due to his unprofessional conduct, not merely reprimanded. That there is a pattern makes termination of the now-suspended teacher mandatory.

And interestingly enough, the superintendent that defended the initial reprimand of White had a much harsher standard when it came to recommending the termination of a bus driver a few months ago. I didn't know the details when I first wrote on this issue, but it seems that the language used in that case was significantly less offensive than that which White brought into the classroom and for which he was merely reprimanded.

However, in a public school board meeting in December, Carroll recommended the board fire a bus driver who allegedly said the phrase “p—-ed off” and the d-word to students on the bus. The board voted not to terminate the driver.

Compare that to over twenty uses of the word "asshole" in the video, along with one use of "shit" and the flipping of a profane gesture. Seems to me that Dr. Carroll has some serious explaining to do about his sense of proportionality.

Hopefully this incident will be sufficient to result in Steve White's permanent removal from the classroom -- and that certain other folks in both campus and district administration are ushered out the door in Limestone County.

UPDATED HERE

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Posted by: Greg at 12:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, he is a liberal – and a Democrat candidate for the legislature. Why would they possibly want to fire him for professional misconduct?

An eighth-grade science teacher, who is a Democratic candidate for state office, won't face suspension for showing students a derogatory, profanity-filled Internet film about the president.

Limestone County Superintendent Barry Carroll said Thursday that he talked with West Limestone High School teacher Steve White about showing the film.
"It's a personnel matter, and it's been handled," Carroll said. "Both I and Principal Stan Davis discussed the matter with him. He's not on suspension or anything like that."

Carroll would not specify how he handled it.

White has qualified to run for District 4 state representative, which includes portions of Limestone and Morgan counties.

A personnel matter? Well I suppose it was, but it should have been handled much more severely. Consider what he showed to a captive audience of middle school students.

The video by Filmstripinternational.com opens with the words "American Civics Volume II" and shows black and white clips of war and what appears to be the Great Depression.

It refers to a country at war, the poor getting poorer and jobs moving overseas. Then it shows a color photo of President Bush with a profane caption.

That upset some parents, who complained to school officials about the content of the clips featuring Bush, members of his administration and his supporters.

Other captions, some containing profanity, are shown under photos of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The band Big Jim's Ego performs the film's song. As images of Bush's administration scroll across the screen, the song says:

And I know there are those people,
Who say they never are to blame;
And that's not my modus operandi,
I don't play that game.
And then there are some people, who claim the sun shines out their behind
And it's oh so hard to get them to change their mind;
And I've given up trying.

Carroll said White did not give a reason for showing the film. Carroll said the incident occurred before spring break.

Somebody, please, explain to me a sound educational reason for showing a profane political propaganda piece in a middle school level science classroom. I mean, I only have a decade of experience teaching on the high school level (half of it teaching social studies courses) and a nearly a decade teaching government on the college level, so I may lack the training and level of expertise to understand the valid educational objective that the film would accomplish in an eighth grade science setting . IÂ’ve not been able to think of one -- not even for my high school history classroom.

In light of the clear abuse of his position, I think termination is in order. And if the school board does not quickly intervene in this situation, I believe that the voters should see to it that they also are removed from any position of influence in the school district.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin writes on this topic today -- and the article she links to points to some interesting details about this clown's "science" class. This isn't the first time he has turned the topic to politics -- or imposed his views on students.

[Parent Christy] Jackson said she is disturbed by both the political message and the obscenities in the video. “I don’t see what that has to do with science,” she said.

According to her son and his friends, she said, discussion in WhiteÂ’s science class often turns to politics.

“I know of one instance where my son was told he couldn’t leave the room without saying, ‘John Kerry rocks,’” she said. “I think my son is entitled to his opinion, just like (his teacher) is. I don’t think any issue should be forced on my son.”

I'm sorry, but such conduct by a teacher is outrageous! He certainly out-did Jay Bennish by a country mile. Imposing a statement of political loyalty upon a student in any class -- much less a science class -- is not simply unprofessional, but also unAmerican.

Oh, and about the content of the video in question -- this additional article includes some furhter explanation of the objectional contents.

The video clip, which can be viewed at Filmstripinternational.com, shows a slideshow of images accompanied by a song called “A—hole.” The slides show President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others in the administration. Words are typed on each image; a photo of bush in college bears the caption “A ‘bad apple’ in college.” A scene showing Rice said she was shopping for shoes after the “levee broke.”

The word a—hole is sung nine times and shown on screen 11 times; the s-word is used once and someone is shown “flipping a bird” once.

In.

Eighth.

Grade.

Science.

Class.

How on earth can this be defended -- and how can a reprimand possibly be sufficient?

Oh -- don't overlook these previous actions by the panty-waist superintendent, Dr. Barry Carroll.

On Dec. 14, Carroll immediately suspended and then recommended that board members fire a school bus driver accused of using a vulgarity aboard the bus. The board did not terminate the driver.

In August of 2004, Carroll removed Internet access for teachers and students from county schools to prevent misuse and protect students. A few months later, access was returned to those faculty and staff who signed Internet use agreements and stated they would not access the Internet for personal use. Students only have access to Internet sites that are pre-approved by teachers.

A single vulgar statement was grounds for terminating a bus driver back in December, according to Carroll -- but 21 vulgar words and an obscene hand gesture in the classroom merits only a stern talking-to for a teacher. Seems to me that he has a warped notion of appropriate professional conduct. And givent hat the material in question would have been barred to the students under district policy -- and that accessing the video from school could in no way be deemed as a part of White's professional duties (remember -- he teaches science), it appears that Carroll is unwilling to enforce district policies in a fair and even-handed way when the out-of-control employee is a politically-connected left-winger. I'd have to argue that not only does Steve White merit termination, but that Dr. Carroll needs to go as well. And if I lived in the area, I'd look askance at the school board, too, for letting this situation be handled in such a manner.

UPDATED HERE -- 4/11/06 & HERE

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Posted by: Greg at 12:34 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I wish more folks would make this point about higher education today – athletics has come to outweigh academics and research.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Carl Wieman announced Monday that he is leaving the University of Colorado and blasted the school, saying it stresses athletics over academics.

Wieman will leave CU in January for the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he will head a $10.6 million science education project.

He will retain a 20 percent appointment at CU to lead the Science Education Project there, funded with $5 million during the next five years.

Wieman, 54, said at a news conference that the Canadian funding offer was the main reason for his departure from CU after 22 years.

But afterward, he said CU regents' and administrators' preoccupation with athletics contributed to his decision.

"If you want to have any sort of large-scale education initiative, where you're really focusing on education, you need people at the highest levels to put thought and attention into it," he said.

"If our Board of Regents spent half the time on discussions of how to improve the education for students that they do on athletics, it would be a very different university," Wieman said.

The recent CU football recruiting controversy was a major distraction that diverted attention from the classroom, Wieman said.

"My personal view is that there's a considerable overemphasis (on athletics) that takes time and attention away from what we could be doing to improve education."

As a high school teacher, I’ve seen the same thing happen on my level. When discussing decisions about scheduling for next year, one administrator admitted that it be difficult get rid of the block schedule because of objections from the football and basketball coaches and their associate booster clubs. Guess what? We are almost certainly keeping block scheduling. When it came to a decision on splitting our 3500 student school into two schools or keeping it as one entity, the possibility that one or both schools would become a 4A school was a serious point of discussion, as well as the relative competitive disadvantage the smaller schools would have in 5A. Never mind that the bulk of the educational research shows that the opposite decision would have been preferable in both cases – if the first consideration was the best outcome for students.

When will we go back to allowing schools to put education first?

Posted by: Greg at 01:14 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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For having the courage to publish newsworthy material of international importance, the editor of the Daily Illini has been fired.

An editor who chose to publish caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in the University of Illinois' student-run newspaper last month has been fired, the paper's publisher announced Tuesday.

Acton H. Gorton was suspended, with pay, from The Daily Illini days after the Feb. 9 publication of the cartoons, which sparked Muslim protests around the world after they first appeared in a Danish newspaper.

At the time, Daily Illini publishers said the action was taken against Gorton not for publishing the cartoons, but for failing to discuss it with others in the newsroom first.

The Illini Media Co. board of directors, which comprises students and faculty, voted unanimously to fire the editor after a review "found that Gorton violated Daily Illini policies about thoughtful discussion of and preparation for the publication of inflammatory material," according to a statement.

Gorton has said he sought out advice from The Daily Illini's former editor-in-chief and others before deciding to run the cartoons. He has said that accusations he tried to hide his decision were wrong.

On Tuesday, he called his firing a blow against free speech on college campuses.
"If I can be fired, what will other students think who maybe want to challenge the status quo?" said Gorton, who had briefly addressed a board meeting the previous night. "This is a bad precedent."

Gorton said he intends to sue the publishers of The Daily Illini, citing, among other complaints, unlawful dismissal.

Board member Adam Jung said he is confident the company "has acted properly on this issue."

The paper's opinions page editor, Chuck Prochaska, also was suspended for his role in publishing the cartoons. He declined to be reinstated, the board said.

Prochaska said he and Gorton moved quickly to publish the cartoons because they were newsworthy.

"We had a news story on our hands, with violence erupting about imagery, but you can't show it because of a taboo, because of a taboo that's not a western taboo but a Muslim taboo?" he said. "That's a blow to journalism."

Decisions like this show why the major media in this country were such panty-waists when it came to publishing the Muhammad cartoons – that’s how they are trained in college. I hadn't realized that a J-Schoool degree included castration.

Posted by: Greg at 10:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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IÂ’ve often wondered what I would do if gunfire broke out at my school. IÂ’d like to think that IÂ’d place myself between the shooter and my students. IÂ’d like to think I would act in a way that would keep my kids safe. But I donÂ’t know that I would be as cool as this lady.

A gym teacher is being hailed as a hero for risking her life to persuade a 14-year-old student to drop his gun after he allegedly wounded two eighth graders.

The teacher at Pine Middle School heard three shots just before 9 a.m. and rushed out of a room to find the alleged shooter, James Scott Newman, standing outside the school cafeteria.

"She empathized with him, tried to be understanding and de-escalated the situation. She was successful in having him place his gun on the ground which is pretty amazing," Reno police Lt. Ron Donnelly told KKOH Radio.

After he dropped the gun, the teacher "bear hugged" Newman until additional staff arrived on scene, Donnelly said. "It was an heroic job done by the school teacher," he said.

Newman was booked into the Washoe County Jail as an adult on a charge of attempted murder, Donnelly said. He also was charged with use of a deadly weapon and use of a firearm by a minor.

Two students were injured during the shootings. One boy was shot in the upper arm and chest and was treated and released from a hospital. A girl received a superficial wound to the leg from shrapnel and was treated at the scene.

Investigators were withholding the names of the victims - both eighth graders.

Steve Mulvenon, spokesman for the Washoe County School District, said the teacher who intervened had requested that her name not be released.

"She didn't want any publicity," he said.

Wow! I think I can guess who will be teacher of the year.

Posted by: Greg at 10:08 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Do students have the right to expect their professors to speak English in a manner that can be understood? One would hope so, and a piece of legislation under consideration in Minnesota would require that they do so.

Instructors who want to teach at Minnesota colleges would have to prove they can speak English clearly before appearing at the head of the classroom, if a bill at the Legislature becomes law.

The bill would require schools in Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to ensure their undergraduate teachers speak plain, unaccented English. It would request the same of the University of Minnesota, which the Legislature has limited authority to regulate.

Rep. Bud Heidgerken, a former teacher and current cafe owner, said he's heard plenty from former students and employees about their struggles to understand professors with thick accents.

"I've had many students say they dropped a course or delayed graduation for a semester because they couldn't get around this one professor they couldn't understand," the Freeport Republican said. "All I'm trying to accomplish is getting the best education we have for postsecondary students."

Three states -- North Dakota, Texas and Pennsylvania -- have laws dealing with the English proficiency of college teachers.

MnSCU officials said few international students teach undergraduates at state colleges and universities. At the University of Minnesota, officials say international students already take a spoken language test before they are allowed to teach.

Peter Hudleston, associate dean for student affairs at the university's Institute of Technology, said comprehension problems sometimes crop up. But he said school officials warn students "they have to expect to be able to understand and converse with people from other parts of the English-speaking world. They have to be able to deal with different accents."

Wait just one minute – shouldn’t those who are coming here to teach be able to make themselves understood by people in this part of the English-speaking world? After all, the needs of the students who are paying to take these courses should take precedence.

Of course, there are the usual obstructors of common sense coming out to play.

Travis Reindl, director of state policy analysis with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, finds the legislation troublesome.

"If we start sending a message here that if you can't speak the king's English flawlessly, we don't want you in our classrooms, that sends a message that the U.S. is not a friendly place for them," he said. "(Besides), there are parts of this country where you would swear that English is a second language based on your own background. If you took somebody from Minnesota and plunked him in Mississippi, then you might have a question."

What a patronizing response. No one is demanding flawless English, or even unaccented English. What is being sought is comprehensible English, which is a significantly lower barrier. I can recall being in an economics class many years ago, taught by a graduate student from India. He could not be understood by nearly half of the 150 students in the lecture hall, and was finally reassigned after a sufficient quantity of complaints – but such complaints should never have been necessary.

Posted by: Greg at 02:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Do students have the right to expect their professors to speak English in a manner that can be understood? One would hope so, and a piece of legislation under consideration in Minnesota would require that they do so.

Instructors who want to teach at Minnesota colleges would have to prove they can speak English clearly before appearing at the head of the classroom, if a bill at the Legislature becomes law.

The bill would require schools in Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to ensure their undergraduate teachers speak plain, unaccented English. It would request the same of the University of Minnesota, which the Legislature has limited authority to regulate.

Rep. Bud Heidgerken, a former teacher and current cafe owner, said he's heard plenty from former students and employees about their struggles to understand professors with thick accents.

"I've had many students say they dropped a course or delayed graduation for a semester because they couldn't get around this one professor they couldn't understand," the Freeport Republican said. "All I'm trying to accomplish is getting the best education we have for postsecondary students."

Three states -- North Dakota, Texas and Pennsylvania -- have laws dealing with the English proficiency of college teachers.

MnSCU officials said few international students teach undergraduates at state colleges and universities. At the University of Minnesota, officials say international students already take a spoken language test before they are allowed to teach.

Peter Hudleston, associate dean for student affairs at the university's Institute of Technology, said comprehension problems sometimes crop up. But he said school officials warn students "they have to expect to be able to understand and converse with people from other parts of the English-speaking world. They have to be able to deal with different accents."

Wait just one minute – shouldn’t those who are coming here to teach be able to make themselves understood by people in this part of the English-speaking world? After all, the needs of the students who are paying to take these courses should take precedence.

Of course, there are the usual obstructors of common sense coming out to play.

Travis Reindl, director of state policy analysis with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, finds the legislation troublesome.

"If we start sending a message here that if you can't speak the king's English flawlessly, we don't want you in our classrooms, that sends a message that the U.S. is not a friendly place for them," he said. "(Besides), there are parts of this country where you would swear that English is a second language based on your own background. If you took somebody from Minnesota and plunked him in Mississippi, then you might have a question."

What a patronizing response. No one is demanding flawless English, or even unaccented English. What is being sought is comprehensible English, which is a significantly lower barrier. I can recall being in an economics class many years ago, taught by a graduate student from India. He could not be understood by nearly half of the 150 students in the lecture hall, and was finally reassigned after a sufficient quantity of complaints – but such complaints should never have been necessary.

Posted by: Greg at 02:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Todd Manzi writes on the Jay Bennish story, and raises the issue of who should determine what is said in the classroom. Is it the teacher, the district, or the taxpayer who foots the bill?

Who determines what a teacher can and cannot say? Many teachers like Bennish think it should be the teacher. The school districts think it should be them. Lawyers and teachers unions think it is the teacher. How about the taxpayer? IsnÂ’t there a reasonable expectation that the tax dollars funneled to government schools are not used for propaganda against the capitalist system that generated them?

* * *

On the Today Show, Bennish said, “My job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues that are affecting our world and our society.”

Many parents might think BennishÂ’s job is to teach their children geography.

Manzi has a point here, though I think he drops the ball at the end. He clearly does not know that teaching critical thinking skills is part of the social studies standards in most states, and that Bennish is therefore partially correct -- teaching critical thinking IS his job in a geography class. Unfortunately, Bennish isn't doing that, as I discussed earlier. But it is, ultimately, the taxpayers and their elected representatives who should set what is to be taught, as long as the school system is taxpayer funded.

Posted by: Greg at 05:57 AM | Comments (75) | Add Comment
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John Stossel notes that he has pissed off the teachers unions by shining a spotlight on what is wrong in American education. He notes that they don't refute his data, merely attack the messenger.

Instead, teachers' unions announced that Wednesday (3/ , they will hold demonstrations against me and ABC in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, and elsewhere. One police permit suggests the crowd outside my office will number 750-1,000 people. It should be interesting.

"We want to make sure that ABC hears the voices of incredibly hard-working teachers," says the union website, quoting New York City's UFT President Randi Weingarten. "The network needs to hear how unfair and biased those of you in the trenches believe their broadcast to have been."

I'm sorry that union teachers are mad at me. But when it comes to the union-dominated monopoly, the facts are inescapable. Many kids are miserable in bad schools. If they are not rich enough to move, or to pay for private school, they are trapped.

It doesn't have to be that way. We know what works: choice. That's what's brought Americans better computers, phones, movies, music, supermarkets -- most everything we have. Schoolchildren deserve the joyous benefits of market competition too.

Unions say, "education of the children is too important to be left to the vagaries of the market." The opposite is true. Education is too important to be left to the calcified union/government monopoly.

Which is, of course, one reason I'm glad that I don't have to be a union member down here in Texas. Now if only he will focus in on the politicians who don't know squat about education -- they make some real stupid policy decisions that need light shed on them.

MORE AT: GOPBloggers

Posted by: Greg at 05:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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