Posted on 10/02/2004 10:43:17 PM PDT by 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.
I definitely believe it. I quit my job in September 2000 because my boss told me to remove a Bush/Cheney bumpersticker from my personal vehicle and I refused to do it. I quit and never looked back. Dummycraps, who needs them.
To bad your not allowed to spank these little bastards anymore...
More PC! More liberal Democrat BS!
I'd walk out too, who needs parents like the ones teaching those kids ...
The superintendent's email is james.warfel@sbschools.org
How sad. For people to protest against a picture of the current President and First Lady. Fortunately, I get to look at GWB and Norman Mineta's mug when I go to work...
Good God. Give me a break. the teachers union WOULDN'T EVEN STAND UP FOR HER what the hell are these people around for. disgusting. sickning. If she lived around here i would walk up there and open up a can of whoop ass on her behalf.
This is not even a freedom of speech issue. This is about America and what is right and this school has shown that they do not subscribe to what is right and this is what is being taught in our schools.
My goodness, where were you working that they thought they could dictate to you what you had on your own car???
I think its lawyer time for this teacher! I hope she wins BIG!
"the teachers union "
One of the strongest branches of the Democratic party.
My daughter's public high school has a poster of Communist revolutionary Che Guevara conspicuously posted in the English classroom. Any pictures of Washington, Lincoln, Bush or any other president in sight? No, of course not. My kids don't want me to complain for fear that they will be singled-out for "re-education" or receive bad grades. This is in an ultra-liberal San Fran Bay Area county. I so fear for our country!
Actually, of the two, only Kerry has personally killed someone. And he killed a teenager. Shot him in the back, he did. While he was running away at that. So he claims -- in Viet Nam. You did know he was in Viet Nam?
Spelling error. Remember, the PrinciPAL is your PAL.
*gasp* A picture of the President in a government school? Who'da thunk it? It's outrageous I tell you! OUTRAGEOUS!
Hanging in the room BECAUSE he is the PRESIDENT OF OUR COUNTRY
Stupid, moronic, half-witted...
What the heck kind of baloney is going on in this country, when a teacher can't have a photo of the sitting President in a CLASSROOM????!!!!!! That is just outrageous. He is now, and forever will be, a historical figure, and an American one at that. Can you imagine anyone being outraged and firing a teacher for having a picture of Lincoln, or Washington, or Jefferson, or even Carter or Clinton in a @#%@%$%^% classroom? Are we revising history even as its being made, these days? This has to be one of the most ignorant and detestable PC incidents I have ever heard of. I am so angry at the gall of those people! OK, I got my aerobics for today....
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