After reading everything I could find and listening to the available audio/video, I don’t believe for a moment that was “satire.” I think she meant every word, but wanted to keep her job and/or ability to earn some kind of living in the future.
ABC reporter talked over her a lot. Nothing new here that wasn’t in HuffPo. She did not say what you said above from her own lips.
I don’t know what to say about the satire issue. She didn’t mention that on the video.
All the pejorative labeling is in summary fashion coming from the ABC narrator, not the teacher. He said she shares views with her students and “hides them”. But parent only emailed and said teacher was introducing political bias.
You could be right that it is not satire and she wants to keep her job.
Of course she didn’t mention it on the video. She hadn’t been outed yet. It was only after she was suspended that she claimed to have been acting a part. She doesn’t deny saying what she has been accused of saying, @TranquilMind.
http://www.baynews9.com/content/dam/news/images/2018/03/02/2017-03-04%20Press%20Release.pdf
When people show you who they are, you should just believe them. No sensible person would engage in this kind of writing and think it wouldn’t be highly suspect or objectionable (even if it were satire, which I don’t think for one minute is the case). My assumption is she knew exactly, intentionally, what she was espousing and just thought that in 2018 it would be acceptable.
^Thank you.
I don’t know why some people are fighting tooth and nail to defend her.
@TatinG
Yes, but I wouldn’t be comfortable having her as a teacher. Would you?
Maybe they share some of her sentiments.
In the Southern California example, this guy, a city councilman, had said similar remarks outside the classroom, but it wasn’t until he was filmed in class saying disparaging things about the military that he was fired. The OP’s teacher is certainly bad, but where is the line drawn? What can a teacher say on her/his private time without being fired? Does tenure protect a teacher no matter how many people are offended by his/her off the clock comments?
I just remembered an incident from when I was in high school. One of the most popular teachers wore a black armband to school to protest the War in Vietnam. He was threatened with being fired. (We were in a school with a lot of military families. The kids had dads serving in Vietnam). I think he backed down because he did keep his job. I don’t think there would have been an issue if he had marched in a protest or written an editorial against the war.
We still do have free speech in this country, I hope. As a government employee a teacher has more free speech rights than a private employee who can be fired at will. Recently the Washington Post had a story about a woman who was employed by a government contractor who on her free time, while riding her bike, gave the middle finger to the presidential motorcade and was fired. She is arguing her free speech rights were violated.
I don’t know the answer but I do think there is or should be freedom for a teacher to voice her opinions outside the classroom. However, inside the classroom, students, who are a captive audience should not be subjected to a teacher’s political or religious viewpoints no matter what they are. Because any POV is likely to offend somebody. Stick to the lesson plan, teachers.
Of course, the content of the lesson plan can be controversial.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/150-years-later-schools-are-still-a-battlefield-for-interpreting-civil-war/2015/07/05/e8fbd57e-2001-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/16/texas-schools-rewrites-us-history
For comparison, here is what the state of Texas wrote in 1861:
https://www.civilwar.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states#Texas
It should be noted that this teacher has resigned. She was not fired.
Talking about politics is one thing. Making racist and anti-Semitic and anti Muslim statements are quite another, because it calls into question her ability to be fair to students of color, students who practice a certain religion, or students belonging to ethnic groups she claims to be inferior intellectually or otherwise.
Sciencenerd: No one is defending her. I’m certainly not. I just like to look at the actual facts, and not jump to conclusions on the assumptions, which was happening here earlier on in this thread. What the person actually said or did is much more relevant than what a political interest group thinks she means by it.
And her podcasts were on her own time. She’s not obligated to believe and say only what others deem appropriate on her own time. She can say and believe anything she wants, no matter how atrocious.
Now actions are another matter. She is not free to take any actions she wants. Should she begin discriminating against kids, that’s another matter altogether.
I would certainly be comfortable having her as a teacher and so would my politically astute kids. They would welcome another opportunity to debate with her, should that be offered.
If you think your kids are never hearing objectionable view from teachers, that’s pretty naive. Mine have heard astonishing things along the way from all political viewpoints. It just gives us another discussion point.
I have not read the rest yet.