Teacher defends pic of president (Back to School Night Update)

Home News Tribune ^ | 10/03/04 | By JERRY BARCA and DINA GUIRGUIS

[11th_VA]

SOUTH BRUNSWICK: A middle school teacher walked out on her job after being asked to remove a picture of the president from her classroom, she said.

Though she says he has not resigned, the teacher's situation at Crossroads Middle School South is not yet resolved.

Shiba Pillai-Diaz's walkout involved the local police, left school officials mum and appalled the local Republican Party.

Pillai-Diaz, 33, a volunteer with the Bush campaign and an English teacher, has had a publicity picture of the First Couple hanging in her classroom since the start of the school year, she said.

The photo became an issue last week.

Parents e-mailed an assistant principal accusing Pillai-Diaz of suppressing free speech because the teacher refused to talk to pupils about why the color photo hung in the room.

"Students said, 'You like George Bush? He's killed people,' " Pillai-Diaz said. "As a rule I don't talk about my politics in the classroom."

According to Pillai-Diaz, Assistant Principal Mark Daniels said he had no problem with the photo, which hung next to posters of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. But Daniels told the teacher she should address questions that arose because of the photo.

"He wasn't giving me the power to direct conversation in my classroom," said Pillai-Diaz, who regarded the picture just as an image of the current president.

Thursday, at back-to-school night, the controversy exploded after a parent asked why the picture was up, Pillai-Diaz said.

"The way she asked was a political assault," the teacher said.

Then the parents started their own debate about the picture, and one mother stormed out of the classroom, Pillai-Diaz said.

Friday morning, the teacher, who is in her sixth year of teaching and her first in South Brunswick, was called into the assistant principal's office. Daniels told her to remove the picture, Pillai-Diaz said.

"He said, 'If you care about your job, you'll take the picture down,' " she said.

Pillai-Diaz told the assistant principal to take the picture down himself. Then she sought Principal Jim Warfel, who gave her an upbraiding.

"He said, 'You've caused more disruption, hatred and anger than anyone I've ever known,' " she said.

The teacher said the principal told her to "get out," so she left and headed to the South Brunswick Police Department.

An officer accompanied Pillai-Diaz back to the school because she said she feared for her safety when she went to collect her belongings, police said.

Once Pillai-Diaz felt safe at the school the officer left, police said.

In the school, Pillai-Diaz had a two-hour meeting with Superintendent Gary McCartney and a representative from the teachers' union. Both parties told the teacher she would lose any fight she would try to start about the picture, Pillai-Diaz said.

"They weren't interested in the substance of the issue," she said.

The superintendent said no one has resigned, been fired or suspended. McCartney would not discuss the incident, calling it a personnel matter.

When reached Friday night, Sylvia Lee, president of the teachers' union, said no teacher had been fired and she didn't know about the incident. Lee did not return multiple telephone messages left for her yesterday.

Board of Education President Robert Long declined to comment on the incident, calling it a personnel matter.

He did say he could not find any district policy addressing the presence of pictures of presidents in classrooms. He said it would be too early to tell whether the incident merited a policy change.

"We don't want to develop a policy for something that is not needed," Long said. "Whatever the facts may be, it is something we will certainly take a look at if needed."

Democrats dominate South Brunswick's government, holding the Mayor's Office and three of the four council seats.

Of the 40,000 people living in the township, about 5,000 are registered Republicans. Registered Democrats outnumber them by a 3-to-2 margin, said local Republican officials.

"It's horrible that a teacher was asked to take down a picture of the president of the United States," said Dawn Smith, chair of the local Republican Committee. "It's unconscionable."

Smith said she would expect the same procedures to apply whether it was President Bush or former President Clinton.

"When did we stop honoring our country's leaders?" Smith asked.

Pillai Diaz said the only way school officials may have known she was a Republican is because she could not attend a meeting with teachers on the day she volunteered at the Republican National Convention in New York.

"I never once said 'I am a Republican' or 'I support the president,' " Pillai-Diaz said.

Pillai-Diaz turned in the keys to her classroom on Friday. She packed up the picture and her classroom decorations, taking them with her when she left. She is unsure about her future employment, but said she is supposed to speak with district officials about it tomorrow.

"My ultimate goal is to teach," she said.

[baseballdad]

As this story unfolded it baffles me how people across the country have taken this woman's side of the story at face value and completely dismissed the administration's response. I live in South Brunswick, NJ, my wife teaches at Crossroads South Middle School, my oldest son was in the Delta Unit that this teacher is part of and my youngest son is currently going to school at Crossroads North Middle School. Not that any of that matters much, but I guess I have a bit more of a close tie to the school than most of you, so I suppose it is relevant.

1). The issue isn't the picture, it's the fact that students in her class have said that she's openly criticizing them for having opposing views on politics. According to the school district's official statement, "Recently, the school administration began receiving complaints from students and parents that Ms. Pillai-Diaz was using her position, classroom and teaching time to engage in partisan politics. Students reported that she had made statements which denigrated one party over the other." Also, according to students she has stated, "It's a good thing you aren't old enough to vote" and "you should be ashamed to be a Democrat." She has said the school administrators are lying, now she's saying the students are lying. There are a lot of people on the other side of this issue that seem to be lying and she seems to be the only one that anyone believes....

2). A direct quote from Sylvia Lee, the president of the South Brunswick Education Association (teacher's union). "She was never relieved of her duties and there are expectations that she will be in tomorrow," Lee said. (from the Newark Star-Ledger, Tuesday, Oct. 5th). In other words, the Union isn't standing behind her (it's important to note that apparently because she is a first year teacher she isn't represented by the union, but I can't confirm that, I seem to recall my wife paying union dues from day one, but I just don't know). Instead of showing up for work, she hired an attorney because the school district put out what she calls a "press release that smeared her." Of course, it was OK for her to go to the New York Times, Good Morning America, the O'Reilly Report and who knows where else she'll show up and say that she was fired, when she never was, but it's not OK for the school district to put their side of the story out. From the beginning she stated that she was fired and that she was told to turn over her keys. I don't see her saying anything about the keys in any of the recent interviews, did she forget that part?

3). During the first meeting on Friday, she was not asked for her keys, she was not fired, principals do not have hiring or firing authority in the South Brunswick School district (nor in any that I've been part of and I've been a member of a school board in the past).

4). This is her third school district in six years of teaching, why is she moving around so much? Has anyone called the school she worked for in Brooklyn to find out why she left, how about Tenafly, NJ? I wonder if this is a pattern...

Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to talk to other teachers in her unit to see what they think of this situation, but my wife has stated that they have some pretty strong opinions of her and what's going on and from what I understand there are very few, if any, teachers in the building that back her on this. That says a lot to me because as we all know, teachers typically stick together, but it doesn't seem like it on this one.

The bigger issue that I'm upset about is things like people sending emails to my wife, who has absolutely nothing to do with this situation saying things like, 'You people should be ashamed of yourselves...' So because my wife, who's taught in this district for nine years, happens to be in the same building with this woman, she should be ashamed of where she works and what she's done for her students for the past nine years? Are you kidding me? I'm also amazed that people who have no idea of this situation are comparing this to communism, calling for people to send letters and emails to the administrators, call the school, etc., without the whole story. I spoke to the woman that answers the phone at school today, a wonderful woman that is always cheerful on the phone when I call to speak to my wife, can you imagine what she's had to go through? Here's a woman that comes to work every day, goes about her business, is an incredible 'voice' to our award winning school and she's being harassed by people all over the country because they think they know what went on in our school. Put yourself in her shoes for two minutes, what did she do to offend anyone? Why should she have to put up with these calls? And please, don't tell me it's the price you pay or anything else ridiculous like that, I assure you, she doesn't get paid enough money to put up with the stuff she's had to put up with.

The best quote I've heard through this entire thing is, "We are one lie away from being ruined." I'm not going to mention who said it, but it was said a long time before this, unfortunately for him, it's entirely possible that it might come true for him, which is sad, because he's a one of the good guys...