Thread: Indoctrination of our youth

March 07, 2006

Ace of Spades Exclusive: Jay Bennish's Geography Pop Quiz

You will have 10 minutes to complete this test. Please mark all answers clearly. You will be judged on your knowledge of world geography, of both the actual and "holistic" types.


1. What river did conquistador Hernando DeSoto discover?

a) The Mississippi River

b) The Missouri River

c) The Rio Grande

d) What river did he discover? Discover? As if there weren't a diverse and ecologocially-sensitive people living there for 5000 peaceful years of enlightened communal property sharing before. Yeah, kind of like Hitler "discovered" the Sudetenland, right? You know what I'm talkin' about.


2. Which of the following natural resources does the US have the least of?

a) Uranium

b) Gold

c) Forestland/Timber

d) Freedom. It's as precious as gold and as bright as diamonds, and that's the name of that tune. Instead of drilling in the Arctic for oil, Bush should be drilling in his own black heart for freedom, baby.


3. What separates England from continental Europe?

a) The Irish Sea

b) The English Channel

c) A history of promoting human slavery, both actual and constructive, in the form of the vicious capitalism imposed on the world by the cannons of British warships, and a jingoistic militaristic fascism in the form of a disgusting monarchy and repressive class system. You should write this sh!t in your notebook, kid. This is all pure gold I'm giving you here.

d) Both b and c, but mostly c. They got the Chunnel and **** now to bridge the first one.


4. I just sparked up before class and I've got a serious case of the munchies. Anyone have any Doritos, Ho-Ho's, or even Chuckles-brand licorice treats?

a) I've got Doritos (bring them up and grade your own test)

b) I've got Ho-Ho's (bring them up and choose your own grade for this semester)

c) I've got Chuckles (stay in your seat; I'm waitin' to see if someone has anything better; plus, those black ones taste like filth)

d) I've got a fresh cheesesteak sandwhich drippin' hot grease in my desk (meet me out in the parking lot and we'll share some cheestake and spleef; plus, you can have my sweet ride, a 1984 Chevette with a picture of Marvin the Martian in the hatchback window)


5. The film The Wall seems pretty incomprehensible, but it makes perfect sense if you watch it high.

a) Not really a question here.

b) I'm just sayin', I got really baked last night and the whole thing just really gelled for me.

c) Ralph McQaurrie's animations are really freaky and scary when you're high, though. Jesus! I swear, that one judge looks like a butt-hole or somethin'. I'm tellin' you, I think he's a giant dumper in a barrister's wig.

d) I guess no one has a cheesesteak, huh? Okay, how about those Chuckles?


Put down your pencils. Let's skip the test and go outside and lay in the sun and just "rap" about current events. Or other interesting topics, like if the universe really exists, or if it's just some magical vision dreamed by a cosmic unicorn.

I know I smell a cheesesteak. Who's holding out on me?

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/162020.php

Overland investigation almost done
School district officials say they will soon have a decision on any disciplinary against teacher Jay Bennish.
Chris Vanderveen 9NEWS Reporter
Created: 3/6/2006 8:32 PM MST

AURORA - The Cherry Creek School District may decide as early as Tuesday on whether it will punish Jay Bennish for talking politics during his world geography class.

District spokeswoman Tustin Amole says there will be a press conference when the investigation is complete. That should happen either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday, according to Amole.

Bennish is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of that investigation. He is scheduled to appear on NBC's Today Show on Tuesday morning. It will be his first public appearance since the controversy gained national attention.

In January a sophomore at Overland High School recorded 22 minutes of Bennish's advanced world geography class. Bennish can be heard criticizing both American foreign and domestic policy.

Critics say he clearly violated the school district's policy that requires teachers to present balanced viewpoints in class. Bennish's attorney says his client was simply trying to get the students to think critically about controversial subjects.

http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME...47-c589c01ca7bf

He was supposed to be teaching sophmore High School geography - not PoliSi in college. The question is not Free Speech - but was he doing his job. If he was conducting class in this manner 80% of the time as students claim ( which is why the student recorded this as an example ) then he wasn't teaching geography


The Jay Bennish 'Diatribe as Geography'
by Nicholas Provenzo (March 6, 2006)


Colorado high school geography teacher Jay Bennish plans to bring suit in federal court in order to be re-instated in the classroom after he was suspended for comments he made during a class lecture. Bennish is being represented by attorney David Lane, who also represented Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor who received national notoriety when he compared Americans killed on 9/11 to Nazis.

In an interview on Denver's CBS 4, Lane inadvertently revealed the weakness in his client's case. According to Lane, Bennish's remarks are protected speech-as long as they fit within the curriculum of his class. How a twenty-minute stream-of-consciousness leftist diatribe falls within the rubric of a high school geography class escapes me, so it will be interesting to see how the court rules.

Of course, the key rests in defining the nature of the speech at hand. I was most taken aback by Bennish's absurd and off-topic smears against America and the free market, but the media seems to be highlighting the more concrete remarks against George Bush. I suspect Bennish's attorney will claim that is was those remarks alone that earned Bennish his suspension. As "political speech," Bennish's attorney will argue his remarks are protected.

Yet this is not the real question at bar. The real question is simply does an employer have a right to sanction an employee for inappropriate comments that stray from the task at hand. The proper view is to take Bennish in his entire context and determine if his employers have any cause to dissatisfied with any aspect of his performance as teacher. I think its clear that Bennish's employers have ever right to be upset with his conduct and sanction him accordingly. Bennish is free to let loose his diatribes on his own time, but he has no right to demand a captive audience of high-school students.

It will be bad news for education if Bennish wins re-instatement. In essence, the court will have ruled that a high-school teacher has no professional responsibility to follow the school curriculum and that school administrators cannot admonish teachers who bring inappropriate and off-topic opinions into their classrooms.

The tragedy is the whatever the court's decision, the real question behind this debate-which is the legitimacy of the public schools themselves--will yet again be evaded.

http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4595

SHAMELESS IN SEATTLE
By Michelle Malkin · March 24, 2005 01:35 PM

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001843.htm

For those of you who have been following the Seattle anti-war school spectacle we've been blogging about for the past week, there are new developments. I just got off the phone with Maj. Terry Thomas, who was in attendance at the moonbat assembly at West Seattle High School. He'll be meeting with the Seattle School Board president today to discuss the controversy.

As you'll recall, three veterans including Maj. Thomas were invited to speak at what was supposed to be a fair and balanced presentation on the war in Iraq. Instead, they were confronted on the high school theater stage with figures costumed as Iraqi men, women and children splashed with blood. Here's a reminder of how Maj. Thomas described the scene:

As I stood there in my Marine Corps Dress Blue uniform, there before me stood numerous kids running around in sloppily dressed and ill-fitted helmets and military fatigues with utter disrespect for the symbols and uniforms of the U.S. military. The walls were covered in camouflaged netting and the stage was covered with approximately twenty white, life-sized cut-out patterns in the shape of dead women and children, all of which were splattered in red-paint to depict human blood. Onstage, children were kneeling and weeping while dressed in ill-fitted Arabic headdress with white-faced masks similarly covered in red paint to depict human blood. At a podium, children were reading a monologue of how U.S. troops were killing civilians and shooting at women and children. Moreover, several grown adults were standing on stage in bright orange jump-suits, with black bags on and off their heads, some bound and tied, and some banging symbols and gongs in a crude depiction of what I believe were their efforts to depict victims of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse episode.

Within the auditorium, numerous adults appeared to have been supervising this behavior and children were literally running amok. What is going on in your classrooms and auditoriums? Who supervised this program? Who are these grown adults dressed as prisoners and performing such the attics on the stage of our public schools? Since when has it become Seattle School Board policy to take an official anti-troops position and declare returning combat veterans from Iraq such as myself as killers of innocent women and children as if this war were some sick sport. As an Iraq war veteran I am outraged by what I witnessed going on at West Seattle High School!

"It was the classic, Vietnam War-era baby-killer stuff," Maj. Thomas told me this morning. Outside anti-war groups had "free reign" on campus, Maj. Thomas recounted. And contrary to the initial defense of school officials, it WAS NOT just unsupervised kids who came up with and executed the idea for the assembly.

As principal Susan Dersé acknowledged in a letter sent home to parents, the assembly "was organized by students with the guidance of faculty advisors and administrators."

Which advisors? Which administrators? Maj. Thomas and others are demanding accountability from school officials, but so far we have no names. An apology from the unhinged adults who allowed this shameless exercise to occur is in order as well.

The principal, Susan Dersé, has long had an axe to grind with the U.S. military. According to a 1997 Seattle Times article, when she was principal of another Seattle-area high school, Shorecrest High School, she went out of her way to pander to a local peace activist who complained about the presence of military recruiters on campus:

SHORELINE - For years, you could find them regularly in the halls of Shorecrest High School, medals shining, black shoes agleam, trouser creases sharper than a regulation haircut.

They dropped into the weight room or career center, set up tables and chatted up students at lunch, recruiting for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

That bothered Glen Milner.

"It's so common to see a recruiter on campus, it's like the school is condoning military activity," says Milner, whose son just graduated from Shorecrest and whose daughter will be a junior there in September.

"But in the case of military recruitment, there's no truth squad. There should be an alternate voice," he said.

It took Milner, a 46-year-old electrician and longtime peace activist, two years to persuade school officials to allow one.

Because of him, the school's career center this spring started displaying brochures from an anti-war organization that questions recruiting claims about job training and money, the military's two biggest selling points.

More dramatically, Shorecrest Principal Susan Derse said she planned to reduce the number of recruiter visits starting next fall - from four times a month, as has been the practice for years, to only six times annually. Recruiters would be allowed to meet students only in the presence of career specialists.

Is it any wonder these kids grow up, graduate, and then pull these kind of stunts against the troops? http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...protest04.html
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000171.htm
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001801.htm


Maj. Thomas told me this incident "shows to what depths the radical anti-war movement will go to invade our public schools and lash out at returning Iraq war veterans like myself." It's a travesty.



Ed Morrissey weighs in here. http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/...ves/004094.php

An excerpt:

The school could provide no explanation for the skits prepared and enacted by the students, and could not determine if any adult supervision had been involved. However, as anyone who survived public school knows, students don't just disappear into the theater for any period of time without having some cooperation from teachers. This wasn't an improvisation; they had costumes, effects, and at least a rudimentary set built for this play. Combined with the access given the students to the assembly, it's clear that teachers set this ambush up -- and that's exactly what this was intended to be[.]

[b]Colo. Teacher's Dad Cites Death Threats 4 minutes ago



DENVER - The father of a teacher who made a classroom comparison between President Bush's State of the Union address and speeches made by Adolf Hitler says he and his family have received at least 12 death threats.

ADVERTISEMENT

Teacher Jay Bennish is on paid leave from Overland High School in suburban Aurora while Cherry Creek School District investigates whether his Feb. 1 lecture violated a policy requiring that balancing viewpoints be presented in classes.

Bennish has defended the lecture, saying he was trying to encourage his students to think.

His father, John Bennish of Beverly Hills, Mich., told The Detroit News that people have called his house threatening to kill him or his family.

"This has been totally lopsided and one-sided," John Bennish said of the news coverage of his son's lecture, the News reported Wednesday.

John Bennish said he did not report the threats to police.

A student recorded at least part of the lecture in Jay Bennish's world geography class and took it to a Denver radio station, which played excerpts on a talk show.

Bennish told "Today" the excerpts broadcast weren't representative of the full lecture.

"This is 20 minutes out of a 50-minute class. The rest of the class provides the balance," he said.

On the recording, Bennish said some of Bush's speech "sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say. We're the only ones who are right, everyone else is backwards and our job is to conquer the world and make sure that they all live just like we want them to."

Later in the recording, Bennish said he was not claiming Bush and Hitler were the same, "but there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use."

School district officials postponed a meeting with Bennish scheduled for Wednesday, citing calls "from people who have something they think may be pertinent to our investigation."

District spokeswoman Tustin Amole would not discuss the content of the calls but said they came after Bennish appeared on radio and TV. She did not know when the meeting would take place.

Amole would not say what disciplinary action Bennish might face if administrators conclude he broke any rules.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060308/...MzBHNlYwM3MDM-

While I think the guy may be a twit and needs to stick to teaching the subject assigned ( or at least to research his diatribe better ) - there is no call for harrassing him or his family. Death threats are by definition terrorism and if they can catch the callers, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. JMHO

Fire Bennish for His Moral and Historical Ignorance
March 2006
Terrence Moore

The righteous indignation against the classroom activism of Jay Bennish has thus far centered on the inappropriateness of such remarks, the obvious left-wing slant of Bennish and his desire to proselytize, and the clear violation of district policy. All these considerations make a slam-dunk case for getting rid of Bennish quickly, and the school district’s plodding attempts to decide what to do simply show how bureaucratic, union-driven, unfocused, and cowardly the regular public school system has become.

Yet there is a much more obvious reason for firing this so-called teacher, one that has escaped most of the media scrutiny thus far. He is incompetent. He makes moral statements without understanding basic morality. He makes historical statements that clearly reveal an ignorance of the simplest historical facts. This moral and historical ignorance should disqualify him from teaching children regardless of whether he ever makes a controversial statement again.

Let us consider the moral worth of Bennish’s statements. He compared President Bush to Hitler and claimed that the United States "is probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth." These are more than political statements; they are moral. As everyone knows "Hitler" or Nazism has become shorthand for evil in contemporary terms. In fact, as Allan Bloom argued two decades ago, "Hitler" is basically the only person whom post-modern relativists are willing to designate as evil. So Bush (and Americans who support him and fight his wars) is evil. Then what does that make Saddam Hussein? Bennish’s comparison of President Bush to Hitler thus undermines basic moral understanding in two ways. First, it diminishes and obscures the monstrosity that Hitlerism really was. Second, by suggesting that President Bush and Americans are simply imposing their values on Iraqis (who have recently voted for their government, even at great personal risk, for the first time in their lives), Bennish renders constitutional democracy and oppressive dictatorship as moral equivalents. Yet the most basic common sense suggests that they are not. How many people living in democracies were emigrating to Saddam’s Iraq? Was that reluctance to emigrate simply the result of Western values, or might the basic human rejection of torture chambers and tyranny have something to do with it? By equating President Bush with Hitler, Bennish cannot identify evil when it truly exists.

Bennish’s ignorance of history is also inexcusable. Hitler spoke fervently of the supremacy of the Aryan race. President Bush has never done so and has appointed numerous minorities to his cabinet and recently attended the funeral of Coretta Scott King. Hitler despised the Jews, blamed them for the political and financial woes of Germany, and sent them to concentration camps. President Bush recently appointed a Jewish man to head the Federal Reserve Board and openly declares the Israelis to be "our friends." Hitler enslaved the nations he conquered. The Bush doctrine is to promote democracy everywhere, including the Middle East where it hardly exists because of tyrannical regimes. Where are the "eerie similarities" between Hitler and Bush?


If the design of Bennish’s class were to deal with contemporary issues responsibly, President Bush could be criticized for his foreign policy or compared to leaders in the past, provided the teacher maintained the "balance" required by district policy. Yet even then the appropriate historical analogy would not be Hitler but Woodrow Wilson. President Bush’s second inaugural—"the best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world"—seems to be almost lifted out of Wilson’s declaration of war against Germany—"the world must be made safe for democracy." Would Bennish consider Wilson, a Democrat, akin to Hitler? Whether either Wilson’s or Bush’s grand hopes for democracy and world order were or are translatable into prudent foreign policy is a matter for serious historical and political discussion. Such discussion is not to be had with the likes of Bennish.


Bennish should be fired for his irresponsible activism, to be sure. Yet he should also be fired for his obvious lack of moral and historical understanding. Interestingly enough, the Cherry Creek school district could not have predicted what inflammatory remarks he might make in the classroom when he was hired. But shouldn’t someone have been checking whether he knows a thing or two about history?

http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/ope...6/bennish.html

Bennish expects to be back in classroom Monday
By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News
March 9, 2006

An attorney for Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish said this afternoon he expects Bennish to be back in the classroom on Monday.
Attorney David Lane said that is his best guess after he and Bennish spent 90 minutes speaking with Cherry Creek Schools administrators and attorneys.

Lane said he heard nothing that led him to believe Bennish would be disciplined.

He predicted serious consequences if he is.

"I'm guaranteeing you that if they fire him or suspend him or take a paycheck from him that will very likely result in a trial in federal court where the sole issue at the trial would be did they fire him for the content of his speech or did they fire him based on a policy violation," Lane said.

He also said that Bennish reiterated to Superintendent Monte Moses and other administrators he provides balance in his classes. And Lane said that Bennish would not apologize for what he said on the recording.

Cherry Creek officials would not comment after the meeting, saying only the issue is a personnel matter.

Bennish and Lane will meet again with district administrators at 2 p.m. Friday. Afterward, Moses is expected to talk to reporters.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...528769,00.html

Jay Bennish Reinstated without Visible Penalty[i]
Posted by Tom Blumer on March 11, 2006 - 14:10. [/b]

School District to Taxpayers and Parents: Up Yours ..... and the Homeschooling Movement Gets a Yet Another Shot in the Arm: Here is yet another reason for parents to homeschool their children if at all possible (By the way, the story is hopelessly slanted -- The lecture was objectively biased; plus, the primary issue here is teaching the subject matter, and secondarily the political indoctrination Jay Bennish engaged in while not doing his job):

Bennish to teach again


Punishment not revealed; teacher returns Monday
An Aurora social studies teacher accused of giving a biased lecture that sparked national debate over academic freedom was reinstated Friday after assuring administrators he would give balanced viewpoints in all classroom discussions.

Jay Bennish will return Monday to his teaching duties at Overland High School, less than two weeks after Cherry Creek School District administrators placed the 28-year-old on paid administrative leave.

Speaking after a meeting with administrators Friday, Bennish said that he was "excited to be back in the classroom" and that he would continue to use his job as a way to "encourage democratic values in our society" and to "promote social justice, just as I have always attempted to do."

"I continue trying to improve myself as a teacher," he said, adding he would still seek to make his students "think critically."

Disciplinary action was taken against the teacher, though Superintendent onte Moses declined to provide details. Bennish did not lose any of his salary, his attorney said.

In his lecture during a geography class last month - which student Sean Allen recorded and then made public - Bennish compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler, criticized U.S. foreign policy and said capitalism is "at odds with human rights."

The message to indoctrinating teachers is, "Indoctrinate to your heart's content. When you get caught, you'll get a slap on the wrist (you might even become famous), and then you'll have to 'be good' for a few years. After a while, you can resume your regular habits of indoctrination. Rinse and repeat as necessary until retirement."


The message to taxpayers and parents who expect their kids to be taught the classroom subject matter instead of having them subjected to political rants: "Up yours. You can't touch us."


http://newsbusters.org/node/4392

I recomend reading the posted comments - very interesting.

This is not the first time Bennish has been reprimanded for ranting in the classroom.

THE GIRL WITH THE PATRIOTIC BEADS
By Michelle Malkin · March 11, 2006 09:19 AM

Source: Albany Times-Union

Reader Maria L. C. sends an update on a case I blogged about last year--the schoolgirl who was sent home for wearing red, white, and blue jewelry she handcrafted as a tribute to her relatives in the military. The student, Raven Furbert, is suing the school district and the case has advanced:

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/sto...date=3/11/2006

Student's suit over patriotic necklace will advance
First published: Friday, March 10, 2006

ALBANY -- A 13-year-old Mont Pleasant Middle School student who sued Schenectady school officials for the right to wear a red, white and blue necklace can move her case forward.
Advertisement

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn ruled Tuesday that constitutional issues in the case should be further explored and addressed later, perhaps at trial.

The student, Raven Furbert, filed the civil rights violation claim in U.S. District Court in February 2005, after school officials banned her from wearing a necklace she made to honor soldiers serving overseas, such as her uncle and three other relatives.

School officials had asked for the case to be dismissed, saying the neck wear violated rules on potential gang-related items.

Furbert's attorney, Bob Keach, said the girl was happy with the decision but fears she will be suspended if she wears her beads.

-- Michele Morgan Bolton

Meanwhile, a teacher loses her job for showing her class a video clip of the opera "Faust."


Teacher seeks new job after 'Faust' flap
Despite support, educator sees no future in Bennett
By Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News
March 10, 2006

Tresa Waggoner, the Bennett School District music teacher put on paid leave for showing a video clip of the opera Faust, said Thursday that she's looking for a new job. Waggoner, placed on leave Jan. 30, said she called superintendent George Sauter on Thursday after a local newspaper reported that she would not be allowed to return to the classroom.

She said Sauter said she'd remain on paid leave. Sauter confirmed that, but declined further comment. "I'm applying for other teaching positions in schools and colleges," said Waggoner, a vocalist with two Christian CDs. "Maybe I'll become a church music director."

The video clip, narrated by opera star Joan Sutherland, featured sock puppets singing in French from the 16th-century morality tale.

Several parents complained that the video, which Waggoner got from the school library, contained references to abortion and Satan worship.

During the Feb. 16 board meeting, more than 53 people appeared to support her returning to the classroom and six opposed it, Waggoner said.

"Dr. Sauter told me it would be too disruptive to let me teach again," she said.

"I've done nothing wrong," she said. "I told him I would have to pray for him so he could live with himself for doing something so wrong."

The parents who asked that Waggoner be fired declined comment.

Waggoner isn't the only casualty in the culture wars in Bennett, an Adams County town of 2,500. Mayor Karen Grossiant resigned in late February and said Waggoner's removal was the "last straw.

"Tresa Waggoner was the last in a very long line of very peculiar situations," said Grossiant, an administrator at Regis University. "Bennett has a mean-spirited undertone. I'd had enough," she said.

When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built a meetinghouse in nearby Strasburg last year, there was a debate over whether Mormons were Christians, she said. "The issue with Tresa Waggoner wasn't the opera, but that she had run the holiday pageant without Christmas songs," said Grossiant.

Waggoner said she taught the elementary school students a variety of songs for the winter concert, but didn't include the traditional Christian songs.

Cory Babi, the wife of school board member Mike Babi, called four days before the program and said there would be problems if there were no Christmas songs, said Waggoner. "I told her we couldn't sing them because public schools didn't want to offend people of other religions, including Jewish people, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses," she said.

After Waggoner showed less than 12 minutes of the Faust videotape, Cory Babi said her daughter asked about abortion and suicide. Babi declined comment Thursday.

"The connection is transparent. They lied and said Faust is about abortion," said Waggoner. "The only thing I can do is expose this as the injustice that it is."

Faust: an old story

Faust, a legendary character in music and literature, dates back to a medieval morality tale of a deeply depressed man who sells his soul to the devil.

In all versions of the Faust story, the man obtains power and knowledge, but suffers dire and eternal consequences.

Early Christian teachers used the story to show the horrors that befall those who give in to the devil's temptations.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...529857,00.html

UNHINGED TEACHER OF THE WEEK
By Michelle Malkin · April 08, 2006 09:40 AM


The latest government education outrage from Alabama:

Demo candidate accused of showing Bush-bashing video to his students
Parent says West science teacher showed eighth graders video with obscenities
By Kelly Kazek

Christy Jackson does not want a teacher showing her 13-year-old son a video calling the president of the United States an a—hole during class. Nor does she believe her son should be shown Internet videos — which are barred to students by school system controls —that use obscenities.

But that is what West Limestone High School eighth grade science teacher Steve White, a Democratic candidate for the District 4 seat on the House of Representatives, is accused of doing. “My son and a group of his friends were talking about this video they had seen in school,” Jackson said. “One of the other student’s mother saw the video and she forwarded it to me. I saw it and I became livid.”

The video clip, which can be viewed at http://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.

Jackson said she contacted West Limestone Principal Stan Davis, who told her White had been reprimanded.

School board member Darin Russell, whose district the school is in, said board members were made aware of the situation about a month ago.

The matter did not come before board members for discussion or a vote, but was handled by the central office by Superintendent Dr. Barry Carroll as a “personnel matter.”

Carroll, who is out of town, did not respond to a call to his cellular phone. A message was left at the central office for Assistant Superintendent Richard Leath, but an assistant said only Carroll could comment on the matter.

Two calls to Davis were not returned. A message left on White’s machine also received no response.

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.

Jackson spoke out about the Internet video, she said, because she did not feel White’s punishment was strong enough. She did not know specifics, but said the teacher received a “slap on the wrist.”

“I think he should admit he was wrong and he should apologize,” she said. “I’m really not out to get anybody fired, but I think a lesson needs to be learned and I don’t want any teacher showing my son anything that is not clean or related to his studies.”

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 White’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.”

http://www.enewscourier.com/local/lo...yword=topstory

PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER GONE WILD
By Michelle Malkin · April 12, 2006 12:19 PM

http://michellemalkin.com/

My syndicated column today follows up on Steve White, the creepy science teacher and Democrat state representative candidate in Alabama who showed his students that insipid "A--hole" video. Intro:

Last month, the unhinged government school teacher of the month award went to Jay Bennish — a left-wing, anti-war screecher/teacher who used his high school world geography class in the Denver area as a Bush-bashing bully pulpit.
This month, the leading nominee is one Steve White. Like Bennish, this public school teacher reportedly strayed far from his core subject — he's an eighth grade science teacher in Alabama — in order to subject his students to his flaming, anti-war, anti-conservative views...

There are already some new developments since I filed the column. White is now on leave. And the Decatur Daily reports today that a parent told officials his daughter was shown a photo of a "half-naked" woman in a bikini in White's science class: http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturd.../teacher.shtml

An eighth-grade science teacher at West Limestone High School and candidate for state office is on administrative leave.

School officials are investigating allegations that he did more than show a derogatory Internet film of President Bush and his administration that repeated a vulgar word.

Mike Bloodworth said his daughter told him she not only saw the Bush film, but also saw an Internet photo of a "half-naked woman" in a University of Alabama bikini in Steve White's science class. "By no means do I approve," Bloodworth said. "And the classroom is not a place for a political stand. He needs to find a new job or be told to find a new job."

White has qualified to run for District 4 state representative, which includes portions of Limestone and Morgan counties. He has qualified as a Democrat for the seat that Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, now holds.

Probate Judge Mike Davis said Tuesday that White still is on the primary election ballot.

White has not returned phone or e-mail messages...

...Hammon said the public complaints forced school officials to address the situation with a more proper punishment.

On Tuesday, Limestone Superintendent Barry Carroll said White now is on administrative leave. Carroll said he received a call from a concerned parent Friday who made additional allegations against White. Carroll would not give details about those allegations, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Carroll did say the allegations were related to items on the Internet that White allegedly showed students on his computer this year. He said these allegations are separate from the Bush film. He would not say if the investigation includes a search of files on White's school computer...

...Carroll said Tuesday that the administration wrote a letter of reprimand to White for showing the film and placed it in his personnel file. The letter stated that if this conduct occurred again, "more serious disciplinary action would be taken."

He said White, who has taught for 10 years, has no prior reprimands in his file.

When Carroll received additional allegations Friday, he placed White on two days administrative leave. Carroll, who was out of town earlier this week, said he will meet with White today to discuss the investigation. "After a thorough investigation is completed, we will decide the appropriate action to be taken," Carroll said.

Expose the Left has video of Hammon's appearance on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes discussing the case. http://www.exposetheleft.com/2006/04...teacher-ahole/

Here's the West Limestone HS mission statement:

West Limestone teachers, administrators, parents, and community will share the responsibility for making sure the students' learning needs are the primary focus of all decisions that impact the work of the school. West Limestone's primary purpose is to ensure that each student acquires the skills to meet his/her true potential. We will guide students to a positive character development and provide a safe, structured, and academically challenging environment.