Communist Campaign Button = DoublePlusGood.
Cross around your neck = DoublePlusUNGood!!!
Posted on 10/11/2008 6:13:04 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The New York City teachers’ union filed a federal lawsuit on Friday claiming that a policy banning political pins and signs in schools violates teachers’ First Amendment rights by blocking them from political expression.
The lawsuit comes nearly two weeks after the Department of Education sent a memo to principals directing them to enforce the longstanding regulation, which requires that all school staff members show “complete neutrality” while on duty. The policy also prohibits teachers from using school property to promote a candidate.
Randi Weingarten, president of the union, the United Federation of Teachers, said that while the policy has been on the books for more than two decades, it has rarely been enforced, and that teachers have routinely worn political buttons as recently as this year’s presidential primaries.
But in the lawsuit, the union — which has endorsed Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee — states that the principal of Community School 134 in the Bronx removed an Obama poster that a teacher placed on the union bulletin board, and that a teacher at another school who wore political buttons was warned against it.
Ms. Weingarten, who is also president of the American Federation of Teachers, and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, said that for a quarter of a century she had watched teachers “balance their obligations as professionals and their responsibilities as citizens.” She added that “teachers, maybe more than others, understand how important democracy is and how important the Constitution is, particularly the Bill of Rights.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“teachers sue over the right to politic”
they want to politic but they don’t want to see nativity scenes at Christmastime.
double standard anyone?
IMHO
Fine, start your own school but stay the hell out of my wallet.
Voucher the schools. Problem solved.
They are already using MY tax dollars to pay union dues that support Democrats 99% of the time.
Question are union dues tax deductible?
Yeah, here in Mexico politics is in the classroom, and every day in Guerrero and Oaxaca they see a portrait of Che Guevara hanging over the teachers head. Teachers on strike blocked the turnpike in Acapulco, coming and goin for 6 hours, Teachers in Morelos want eternal tenure, THEY get to choose who fills THEIR slot upon retiring, (they can sell or barter for the highest bidder, make no matter if they are stooges or dumb)...
Communist Campaign Button = DoublePlusGood.
Cross around your neck = DoublePlusUNGood!!!
Teachers like to flatter themselves by calling themselves “educators.” Actually they’re just indoctrinators.
They can thank the ACLU for this mess by the restricting of Freedom of Speech in the public schools. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. There is NO freedom of speech in public schools for ANYONE!
If the teachers win the suit, then the “Equal Protection” under the law applies to all.
They have no business indoctrinating our kids.
Hey, could you please say some teachers. Many of us are educators,and likewise, many try to be indoctrinators. But I consider myself to be a very good teacher who is in the profession for all the right reasons. And I don’t like being lumped into your category.
“there is no freedom of speech in public schools for anyone.”
not true. there is freedom of speech in public schools only for enlightened, liberal, brilliant, self-appointed-intellectual, atheist, elite “ed-yoo-kay-tours”? all others are worthy of contempt and scorn.
(dontcha know that there are people in this world who are brilliant and worthy of being worshipped by those who are not as genetically well-endowed with brilliant intelligence?)
IMHO
99%?! I (respectfully) defy you to find even a single New York City Public School Teacher willing to wear a McCain - Palin button to work. They may quietly vote that way but they’ll never come out fo the closet and subject themselves to the wrath of their peers.
Are you allowed to use your own curriculum or are you forced to use the school system's?
“Teachers like to flatter themselves by calling themselves “educators.” Actually they’re just indoctrinators.”
That is a really unfair statement that slanders millions of dedicated and hard working teachers who put up with all sorts of garbage (including attitudes like that) in order to perform one of the most important functions in society. There are some bad apples but almost every teacher i’ve had personal experience with is a dedicated professional. The unions and the school boards are where the problems usually come in but we have some amazing people in the school systems who have dedicated their lives to educating young people to go onto do great things and its unfair to crap on all of them.
I too ask to not be lumped in with the likes of Randi Weingarten as I have nothing to do with the AFT or NEA or any of the subsidiaries
Thanks
Referring to federal state and local public service unions in general.
The NGO grants of our tax dollars to fund democrats are a travesty. Also NPR, community reinvestment act.
ACLU getting our tax dollars when they sue cities and states.
Our tax dollars to the Democrats again and again.
“Voucher the schools. Problem solved.”
You are absolutely right. Of course, Obama is against vouchers. Ahhhh well, he has the money to send his girls to private school. Hypocrisy? Yep!!!!
How about we put these teachers under the provisions of the Hatch Act, something our men and women in uniform live with every day. Then they’ll have something to whine about.
I am not doing that. I was curious if the schools allow any latitude and if so how much.
Keep up the good work.
When we had children in the Maryland pyblic shools I used to have small stigns on my truck about political and mostly educational issues. I knew they annoyed the NEA/MEA goons, but that was indeed the point. For a few days my daughter and I switched cars. When I got it back, the sign was gone. I asked her about it, and she sheepishly admitted that a teacher had told her to take it off since it was “disresptful and offensive”. It took a while, but I got the name of the teacher out of my daughter, who was quite fearful of consequences.
I took it to the princpal who danced a little, and then acknowledged what it was an over reaching. He brought the teacher in, who actually defended her position, including her threats of consequences if it were to return. She claimed the right to use her authority to fight “disrespect” wherever she saw it. When I brought up that what she had done was illegal and her threats grounds for termination, she asked for her union rep.
My signs returned and nothing ever came of it, and when word spread a few more appeared. Topic was brought up at a faculty meeting and it was made clear that political and social statements on student cars, even those considered offensive by some, were off limits and that anyone taking action would be at risk for dismissal.
Frankly, I don’t know how the teachers think they can win this. Past practice has been that there will be no politicking on government property. It’s that way nation-wide, not just for schools, but for all government-run agencies and facilities. Public schools receive Federal funds, and are paid by the taxpayers for work they do on government property. Any judge who would find in their favor is opening up a whole new can of worms, not just in New York City, but all over the country. The Principals who are not enforcing the rule should be disciplined. Weingarten threw fellow union members (Principals) under the bus when she said the rule has rarely been enforced. Snitching on union members Randi. Way to go.
Most people don't know this and the unions are not obligated to tell them. Members who exercise this option are usually ostracised.
If a large number, would chose to not make this "contribution" it would weaken the union politicaly and stop a lot of nonsense.
My sister-in-law did this because her union supported Gay Davis in Cal and she was opposed to his pro-abortion stance.
Were they supporting the First Amendment for just Obama supporters, or everyone in general? How about those crosses?
Oh, just as I thought. Obama only.
Given the condition of public education there apparently aren’t enough of you to make significant difference, unfortunately.
RANDI WEINGARTEN
She worked as a lawyer for the Wall Street firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1983 to 1986. She is an active member of the Democratic National Committee.
From 1979 to 1980, Weingarten was a legislative assistant for the Labor Committee of the New York State Senate.
On October 11, 2007, Weingarten publicly announced she was a lesbian. Weingarten introduced Liz Margolies, 54, a psychotherapist and health care activist, as her partner during the presentation of the Empire State Pride Agenda's 2007.
By the early 1990s, she was the union's primary negotiator in UFT contract negotiations. Her negotiating positions became more aggressive throughout the 1990s.
She is a vigorous opponent of standardized testing, private school tuition tax credits, and increased funding for charter schools.
Weingarten has also advocated the unionization of charter schools, and attempted to organize some of them in the city.
On February 12, 2008, AFT President Edward J. McElroy announced he would retire at the union's regularly scheduled biennial convention in July. Weingarten is widely expected to succeed him.
A lifelong Democrat, Weingarten is a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She was an early and critically important supporter of Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC.
******
Weingarten is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Albert Shanker Institute.
The Albert Shanker Institute is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to advancing democratic ideals, improving the quality of public education, and conducting research into the labor movement and the sociology of work.
Agreed! If they want to politic, do so at a non gov't funded school. I have zero problem with politicking as long as it isn't on the tax payer dime!
Well, I teach math, so it doesn’t really matter as much. But I use many different resources... there are not too many liberal ways you can teach a student to factor polynomials. :)
God Bless you for the work you do.
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