Teacher's Anti-Bush Pin Stirs Controversy

Foxnews.com ^ | 3/4/2003 | Carol McKinley and Liza Porteus

[Gforce11]

CONIFER, Colo.

[Betty Jane]

Leftwing ideology is allowed in public schools, right wing ideology is not tolerated at all.

This school is in the same district as Columbine. At Columbine, the administation will not let Memorial Tiles with crosses to even be hung up. These tiles were made and paid for by the victims' families.

Free speech for all that agree with the Superintendent. If you don't agree, then you are trying to force your beliefs on others.

Nice double standard of tolerance the Jeffco School District has.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

The schools would yank that teacher out of the classroom immediately if she wore a "Support Pres Bush" button...and no comment would be made of their First Amendment rights.

Our public schools...what a mess

[NewLand]

"...a sixth-grade teacher wore a pin that said, "Not My President, Not My War,"

The parents should give their children pins to wear to that teachers class that say:

Not My Teacher, Not My Nonsense"

[nonliberal]

The teacher's goonions are the most zonked out bunch of leftist whiners out there.

I will NEVER put my kid in a government school.

[jackd]

Didn't the returning soldiers from Vietnam teach these a&*^&%*s anything? Support our troops or think about it while I throw this brick right at your unpatriotic face.

[ImpBill]

"Nice double standard of tolerance the Jeffco School District has."

Would you really have expected any different?

[Betty Jane]

No, I didn't expect it anything different from a bunch of "educators". It's just interesting to see the hypocracy so blatant.

[BOBWADE]

I believe it was a Federal Court of appeals that made a ruling concerning freedom of speech that basically said that a police officer that made public political statements on the job had the right to free speech but not the right to be employed as a cop. The same thing goes here. She has the right to free speech but the school has the right to tag her for it. They are just gutless.

[BOBWADE]

No wonder the Libs are against vouchers, They would lose a ton of students every time a liberal teacher started preaching lies to the students. (every day)

[GoRepGo]

Put these publik screwl teachers out of business for goodness sake! Homeschool, need I say more?

[Thud]

ping

[ClearCase_guy]

But the Jefferson County School District, saying "teachers have the same First Amendment rights as all Americans," wouldn't demand the teacher remove the button -- although it said it encouraged teachers not to wear such items.

Nice to hear that the school district feels this way about the First Amendment.

Ummmmm, if a different teacher starts leading her class in prayer, and discussing the concept that George W Bush is a great leader, in part because he follows the teachings of Christ ... this school district would do nothing more than "encourage" the teacher not to say such things.

Right?

[cinFLA]

They still see the Vietnam peace protests as a success story. They are now proud to be in the next phase: the support N. Korea, Cuba, China, Iraq, Milosivic, etal. era.

In memory of Sam Marcy they go.

[HitmanLV]

The real lesson in all this is the incredible duplicity in the leftist ranks.

When Clinton launched his Kosovo military campaign, there was no great moral outrage, marches (virtual or otherwise), pins, commercials, speeches, or otherwise..

And Slobo never did anything to us. Though a case could be made that slobo anmd his buddies should have been taken out, there was a remarkable absense of dissent from the 'anti-war' crowd.

Of course, this time we are attacked by a hotsile force, and connections can be made to Iraq, but the anti war crowd wails.

This will come and go. The real problem is that increasingly it seems the leftist mindset in the states and abroad do react to situations like insolent children. Childish remarks. Shallow, unsophisticated observations. Parroting slogans with almost no brain power behind them.

Lots of noise. Shrill baseless accusations. Finger pointing. Name calling.

Then insolence.

This is the real problem. We need to tackle this issue before it gets worse.

[harpo11]

Leftists proclaim incessantly, PRO Choice....unfortunately, pro and choice does not include education. I resent that my tax money goes to teachers who think it is their primary duty to indoctrinate their young and captive students with leftist gunk.

[mathurine]

Perfect summarization of the situation. And if the fired teacher were the best math or science teacher in the entire country, it wouldn't matter to the authorities and union as he, she or it was fired for expressing right of center sentiments. But if the "pinko" teacher were outspoken, but also the worst math or science or any other subject teacher, he, she or it would be supported by the teachers' unions as indispensable, infallible and unimpeachable. Funny how teacher's unions always can speak up for liberal causes and more money for themselves, but never speak up for accountability regarding the students' mastery of real academic skills. Anything but that, for the sake of all that is good and holy in the pantheon in which teachers worship.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Teacher's anti-Bush pin stirs controversy

[metesky]

The beat goes on.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Teacher has been finally publicly identified by Mike Rosen of KOA Radio in Denver as Martha Swisher.

mswisher@jeffco.k12.co.us

Martha Swisher 303-982-3073