Some years ago, one of my grad students was picking up some extra money substitute teaching in the local schools. It also happened that he was interested in critical thinking and rational analysis as a philosophical study.
He had worked up what I thought was an excellent and quite brief presentation on the subject. It happened that this included some UFO cases as examples of lying by omission. The public schools give quite a bit of lip service to critical thinking, so he had given the presentation several times during his substitute assignments. The reaction had always been positive. He had also cleared the presentation with several educators who could reasonably regarded as experts on teaching critical thinking skills, including one who had authored a standard textbook on the subject.
Unfortunately, he was soon notified that he had been banned from working at a particular junior high school here. Because subs don't have contracts and are therefore not human beings in the local school district, he had some trouble finding out the reason for this ban. It emerged that a teacher for whom he had substituted had complained about his ufo references. According to her report (of which I have a scanned copy if anyone is interested) he had "talked about ufo's", wasted class time, and claimed to have authored a "book about ufo visitation."
The teacher dropped her claim of wasting time after the victim's initial protest, since it was objectively provable that most of the students had in fact finished their assigned work. She and her principal continued to insist, however, that the sub had discussed "inappropriate and controversial material", frightened the children with weird tales of visiting aliens, and asked the children not to tell on him for this(a major red flag in education).
The overall impression was that he was some sort of nut who believed in ufos and had used his position to proselytize among captive 8th graders. In fact, he was a skeptic, one whose views on the subject had been widely published under his own name. The teacher might as well have accused Madalyn Murray O'Hair of coming into the classroom to preach Christianity (also an offense, oddly enough).
He had given the presentation many times and nobody had ever shown any sign of complaint or miscomprehension. The "book about alien visitation" was actually a short story about a ufo hoax that leads to murder. In fact, parts of the presentation followed the pattern of a fifth grade textbook story in which ufo hoaxes are also used as an illustrative example of critical thinking.
I happened to listen in as my student attempted to discuss his complaints in a phone conversation with an administrator. The administrator ignored my student's complaints, interrupting constantly, monopolizing the conversation, ignoring relevant facts, and continually asserting the presumed truth of the allegations. His attitude was a textbook example of the naked authoritarianism that prevails in many public schools; the relative status of disputants is the sole determinant of truth. The teacher was not only certified and contracted, she was a cheerleading sponsor as well, so her status was very high indeed, insane rants notwithstanding.
As for myself, I am not nearly as skeptical in this area as my former student, but that is quite beside the point here. Just treating it seriously is enough to drive power seekers into a frothing rage.
My student eventually wrote a scathing rebuttal of the teacher's report, pointing out that his views on the subject were a matter of public record, that virtually all children are familiar with ufo claims and alleged aliens, and that it was not illegal or unethical to believe in or assert the reality of alien visitation even if the teacher's (mis)characterization had been accurate. He also analyzed the deceptive wording of her report, demonstrating to a reasonable certainty that this was a willful distortion rather than a simple misunderstanding. Finally, he noted that the allegations would be open-and-shut libel under the Texas statutes if they ever resulted in harm to his career and community standing.
This guy has gone on to a career in publishing, so it doesn't matter that this case resulted in his being permanently blacklisted at our yokel school district. The district administration has never disputed the accuracy of his rebuttal, they simply have the power to punish those who dispute the authoritarian hierarchy, even if the latter is composed of pathological liars.
Of course, what goes around comes around and there are many kinds of power. Ethics matter, to me and to some of my colleagues, at least. For example, positive evidence of ethical problems can become a valid consideration in graduate school admissions. By sheer coincidence, some of those involved in persecuting my former student have had difficulty in furthering their own academic careers, at least when it involved my university.