Posted on 05/29/2013 8:17:00 AM PDT by lowbridge
After picking up the survey forms from his mailbox about 10 minutes before his first class of the day, John Dryden noticed that they had students' names on them and that they asked about drinking and drug use, among other subjects. Dryden, who had just finished teaching a unit on the Bill of Rights, worried that students might feel obliged to incriminate themselves—an especially ticklish situation given the police officer stationed at the school. Since there was no time to confer with administrators, he says, he decided to tell his students that they did not have to complete the forms if doing so involved admitting illegal behavior. Tomorrow the school board will consider whether and how to punish Dryden for taking advantage of this teachable moment.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
I rarely agree with the idiocy coming from public schools.
However, this teacher is most certainly correct.
I await the appropriate legal defense to take care of this teacher and hopefully impoverish the idiots that disciplined him.
That’s “impoverish” as in “take all their money...NOW!”
I tell my students all the time:
1. If cops show up to your house and there is no visible criminal behavior, DO NOT LET THEM IN.
2. If you are arrested, say nothing other than “I want a lawyer,” until he shows up.
3. Always remember that the police are the prosecution’s professional witness in your court case - be very polite to them, follow their directions, but know your rights.
So the administration has decided to turn one teachable moment (the Bill of Rights contains a provision against self-incrimination) into another teachable moment (schools are part of an evil, big-brother operation to destroy anyone who poses any threat to the oppressive state). Do they really want to do that?
When I was faced with this, I loudly suggested to the class that we lie about the answers, then we shuffled the papers so they could not correlate the paper with a seat. Got sent to the principal but he could do nothing about it.
Drinking, drug use...bad attitude towards gays, church affiliation, parents who keep guns in the home, all to be included in the proposed national educational system database of student and family “troublemakers.”
To “plead the Fifth” is to refuse to answer any question because “the implications of the question, in the setting in which it is asked” leads a claimant to possess a “reasonable cause to apprehend danger from a direct answer”, believing that “a responsive answer to the question or an explanation of why it cannot be answered might be dangerous because injurious disclosure could result.”[Ohio v. Reiner, 532 U.S. 17 (2001), citing Hoffman v. U.S., 351 U.S. 479 (1951); cf. Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U.S. 547 (1892)]
Seems the teacher has correctly applied the 5th
Given the asymmetry on making false-statements (i.e. the police can lie to you, but you cannot to them) what prevents them from pretending to be, or hiring someone to act like, your lawyer in order to violate the attorney/client relationship?
If they are able, willing, and unprosecuted for planting false evidence then why should we assume that anything they do would be morally (or lawfully) right?
Who conducted this ‘survey’ and why were student’s names on them in the first place?
Unless “none of your business” was a possible choice I would not have responded at all (but that’s me- I’ve been obstinate all my life)
When I went to school in the 70s the teachers gave us the ACLU’s book “The Rights of Students” on the first day of class.
The thing that absolutely terrifies the Powers That Be about nullification is that it removes power from them. Indeed that is why, once lost, a right is so hard to regain: nature abhors a vacuum and so the powerful fill that spot, and the powerful are very often disinclined* to give up their power.
* There are notable exceptions, including one which gives hope to the world: God giving up power and position to become man.
I have no problem with this. It would be nice if in addition to tell students about their rights, teachers would also (again) tell them about what is expected, and normal. Having the right to do something doesn’t mean it should be done.
Stand up against tyrrany and you lose your job. Welcome to fascism.
>>Given the asymmetry on making false-statements (i.e. the police can lie to you, but you cannot to them) what prevents them from pretending to be, or hiring someone to act like, your lawyer in order to violate the attorney/client relationship?
The best thing to do if you have no money is to keep quiet until arraignment and then meet your public defender. Otherwise, make your phone call.
It’s worse than it sounds. When this guy’s classroom was searched they found a copy of the Constitution. He’ll do hard time for that one.
And an NRA membership application...
Was the Constitution “Framed”?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.