Teacher fired for exposing students to the truth
This is downright nasty.
Sharp as a Marble links to
this story about a teacher who put a photo of the current sitting president up next to some photos of previous presidents:
bq. You might say it is a symbol of the Great American Divide, a teacher putting up a picture of President Bush in the classroom. Some say it is partisanship while others say it is patriotism.
bq. Rita Bianco, Parent: "Children should know their president and their first lady!"
bq. Parents expressing outrage after a teacher is kicked out of her public school for hanging a picture of President Bush
next to pictures of other presidents in her classroom.
bq. Shiba Pillai-Diaz, Teacher: "It happened on a small bulletin board near the American flag and also with a poster of the Declaration of Independence."
bq. ...Veteran English teacher Shiba Pillai-Diaz says she was shocked when three parents confronted her. The three, insisting the teacher either add John Kerry's photo to the montage of presidents or remove the Bush photo. When Pillai-Diaz refused, she says the school's vice-principal threatened her job which is an act that has parents here fuming.
bq. Pillai-Diaz ultimately removed the entire bulletin board and says School Principal Jim Warfel told her she disrupted the school with her "inflammatory politics". She says he then ordered her out of the building. While she says she is a Bush supporter in her personal life, Pillai-Diaz says she keeps politics out of the classroom.
bq. Shiba Pillai-Diaz, Teacher: "There was no political intent, nor was there any political content in that photograph nor on the bulletin board."
bq. School officials would not talk on camera but insist nobody here has been fired. To that, Ms. Pillai-Diaz asks what does it mean then when your boss asks you to hand over the keys and kicks you out of the building? She also says she is not sure if she'll be returning to school tomorrow.
The idea that three parents could hijack the educational process to this extent over such a stupid partisan game makes me feel ill... This was not politics by the teacher, this was bringing politics into the classroom by the parents. These people should drink a nice hot steaming mug of S.T.F.U. and let the teachers teach.
Posted by DaveH at October 4, 2004 3:15 PM