Posted on 10/04/2004 9:22:34 AM PDT by areafiftyone
A New Jersey middle school teacher who displayed a portrait of the President of the United States in her classroom side-by-side with pictures of other U.S. presidents and the Declaration of Independence was thrown out of her school on Friday for refusing to take the Bush photo down.
"I'm requiring that you take the picture down," Shiba Pillai-Diaz says she was told by Mark Daniels, assistant principal at the Crossroads South Middle School in Monmouth Junction. The teacher refused and now faces dismissal for insubordination.
According to Pillai-Diaz, who recounted the incident to WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg on Sunday, Daniels told her he had consulted with the school's principal, Jim Warfel.
The consensus: "We decided that there was a very destructive atmosphere in your classroom and that you're going around the school spreading your political views."
But Pillai-Diaz - an admitted Bush enthusiast who attended the GOP convention - said she leaves her politics at home when she comes to work. "I don't discuss politics [in my classroom]. I wouldn't go near it with a ten-foot pole," she told Malzberg.
The trouble started Thursday during parents night, when one mom complained about the Bush picture and demanded that Pillai-Diaz explain, "What is he doing up there? Don't you think you should have the other side also?"
"Having the picture up wasn't in any way political," she responded. "He's the current president. The picture was sent to my fourth grade class last year."
The photo was "next to my desk on a bulletin board that had the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution [and] some printing from Ben Franklin's printing press," Pillai-Diaz told Malzberg - in a display that had nothing to do with politics.
After the initial complaints, parents emailed school officials claiming that the teacher had suppressed the free speech of her students - with some questioning why she liked George Bush even though "he's killed people."
In a Friday morning meeting with Principal Warfel, Pillai-Diaz says she was told, "You have caused more disruption to this school and to these students with your partisanship and your hatred and your inflammatory ways. Get yourself and get out of the building."
But Warfel may not have the last word on the dispute. New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine, who followed Pillai-Diaz on Malzberg's show, said Monmouth Junction school officials had gone overboard.
"If it's just a straight-up picture of George Bush and Laura then I don't understand the issue at all," the leading Democrat said. "I don't see why [a picture] of the President of the United States can't be displayed."
Sen. Corzine promised to help Pillai-Diaz if she contacts his office.
Corzine?? Wow.
WOW, Can't stand the POS, but good for him!
I hope she sues the pants off the school and bankrupts that city. I am so livid now.
Good for Corzine. I hope she contacts his office. This is an outrage!
Pillai-Diaz needs to be canned!
Anybody want to make a phone call?
http://www.myschoolonline.com/folder/0,1872,0-36919-38-76184,00.html
Board of Education Offices - 4 Executive Dr., Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852 (732-297-7800)
I plan on complaining. Anyone else????????
ping
I live in NJ ... now you see WHY we private Christian school out daughter. We don't need this **it. Nor do we need Corzine "helping" us out.
So now public schools can only display a picture of a sitting president if it passes a "global test"?
Words fail me.
Uh, no.
Mark Daniels needs to be canned.
I would not hold my breath waiting for Corzine's help.
"The consensus: "We decided that there was a very destructive atmosphere in your classroom and that you're going around the school spreading your political views."
REALLY!!!
I wonder how "unbiased" THEIR curiculum is. I don't think that jerk administrator has the authority ro remove her like that if she has tenure. If she has portraits of other Preidents on the wall, she should be able to sue the pants off that school and I hope she does. I hope she goes after the idiot Democrat parent who lodged the complaint in the first place.
NEVER since 1860 has this Country been so radically polarized on politics.
Appears that they just changed the emails -
afraid of what we might say?
cowards.
typical lefties.
d'oh sorry, pulled wrong name.
The principal should have to go, and with the talk he gave her which was dispicable.
Me thinks they've had it out for this teacher for awhile, this has just been their first opportunity.
The hate really is eating their brains out.
FASCISTS!!!!!
Should they take down Lincoln, too? After all, he was the first Republican President and 500,000 people died during his war that was the wrong war, at the wrong place, and at the wrong time.
Since this school does not acknowledge the elected head of our Federal government we should act to have Federal funds cut off to that school immediately.
But hey, if you'd like to display a picture of Castro or Karl Marx, that'd be perfectly fine. Or, maybe satan. Yeah, satan would be okay also.
Oh, and maybe one of those 'renderings' by Maplethorpe? Yes, we the annointed believe that would add to the learning (evil) experience.
But whatever you do, don't have a dipiction of someone who loves America and by no means display anything that has to do with God. Or else.
If there is a fund set up to accomplish exactly that, count me in for a monthly contribution no matter how long it takes. This goes beyond stupid. And they are "educating" our children!
Who runs the schools these days? Moron moms? I want that original complainer identified; and if this goes to court she must be identified. Does she have any assets to personally lose?
I was going to send an email to the principal but the link doesn't work on their school website. The only one that works is to the asst. principal. I will still send one to the principal though without using the link.
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