Posted on 03/08/2010 5:29:37 PM PST by blkmontecarlo
By all accounts, Brad Johnson, a 30-year math teacher at Westview High School in Rancho Peñasquitos, is the salt of the classroom. If he feels his AP Calculus students are sagging, he’ll perform a cartwheel to pump them up. What a 57-year-old guy.
About three years ago, Johnson was told to remove two 7-foot banners he had displayed for more than two decades (along with about 200 nature photographs.) Granted, he’ll never be confused with designer Tom Ford, but his students like his folksy style, Johnson told me.
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
In its finite wisdom, the district argues these ancestral phrases, framed in isolation from historical “context,” advance one religion over another.
Johnson did as he was ordered, but he was mystified. No student or parent had ever complained. District officials and board members had been in his classroom over the years. No blowback.
In Poway, it should be said, tradition allows teachers discretion in adorning classrooms.
As revealed in court filings, Poway classrooms included a 40-foot string of Tibetan prayer flags, posters of the Dalai Lama, pictures of Buddha, an American flag with 50 peace symbols in place of stars, and lyrics to John Lennon’s “Imagine”: “Imagine there’s no Heaven/It’s easy if you try/No hell below us/Above us only sky … .”
Johnson contacted the Thomas More Law Center, the Michigan-based law firm that defends Christian expressions, including the Mount Soledad cross. A civil-rights lawsuit was filed.
On Feb. 25, U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez issued a blistering summary judgment in favor of Johnson.
Benitez ordered that Johnson’s banners be restored, the district pay Johnson’s legal expenses (up to $250,000) and each of the eight named defendants — board members, the superintendent, an associate superintendent and Johnson’s principal — pay $10 to the math teacher, an exquisite kick in the pants.
A school, Benitez wrote, should sponsor tolerance.
“Fostering diversity, however, does not mean bleaching out historical religious expression or mainstream morality,” the judge wrote. “By squelching only Johnson’s patriotic and religious classroom banners, while permitting other diverse religious and anti-religious classroom displays, the school district does a disservice to the students of Westview High School, and the federal and state constitutions do not permit this one-sided censorship.”
Last week, I sat at a desk in Johnson’s classroom and stared at his banners. To celebrate his victory, he had brought in red, white and blue helium balloons.
I asked him how his students had reacted to the good news. They gave him a round of applause, he said.
For the past three years, an AP government class has argued his case in mock court, creating a high level of campus awareness.
Though he never discusses religion during math class, Johnson told me why he feels such affection for his banners.
“Our national value is that we’re not here by chance,” he said. “When I look at my students, I don’t see them as random things. I see them as somebody God has created, designed, and I have the privilege of having a hand in building them as human beings for the future. That inspires me every day, every day.”
In a district news release, Associate Superintendent Bill Chiment signaled that the beat would go on. The board would vote to appeal Benitez’s ruling:
“School administrators need to have clarity and guidance from the federal court of appeals in this area. It is not just about these particular banners in this particular room, we are concerned with the lawsuits we will get in the future if the district cannot control what goes up on classroom walls.”
Gee whiz, a federal judge, citing precedent, isn’t good enough guidance for Poway?
Tonight, the school board will decide whether to appeal. Another option is strip all extracurricular decorations, closing down that forum for teachers.
By all means, the board should feel free to appeal Benitez’s ruling. With one small caveat.
Every cent of future legal costs should come out of the pockets of the eight defendants.
They’re already $10 in the hole. What’s another few thousand if they can entice yet a higher court to conclude that they truly are divinely perfected idiots.
This is my first post, please be gentle.
Well what took you so long?! ;-))
You done good!
Good for Mr. Johnson and Good for Judge Benitez...
But given how the School Board is still going to fight on the wrong side - this is just further confirmation that the schools need to be privatized and gotten out of the hands of godless bureaucrats and unions. Teachers such as Mr. Johnson would be in demand anywhere...
Thank you
This was a GREAT post...Thank you!!
The administrators know that the appeal will be heard in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco’s answer to the asylum in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Post more. Would read again.
I have a better idea how about the parents of these kids get together and demand that they fire whoever thinks they know better than a federal judge on the school board/adminstration!
Wow, your first post? You did good. That was a great read. Thanks so much for posting.
And a fine first post it is!
Huzzah! Huzzah!
What the hell are they tryng to prove??? Especially, if NO ONE is complaining??? Talk about an abuse of power!
You’re off to a great start!
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