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Beaumont (TX) students watch 'Fahrenheit 9/11' in class
Houston Chronicle ^ | Some AP Hack

Posted on 10/09/2004 9:37:00 AM PDT by Jalapeno

Oct. 9, 2004, 10:29AM

Beaumont students watch 'Fahrenheit 9/11' in class

Associated Press

BEAUMONT -- A Southeast Texas businessman is upset that his son's English class watched Michael Moore's scathing documentary on President Bush and his handling of events after the terrorist attacks. ADVERTISEMENT

Michael Kurth, a veteran, said he was opposed to the film "Fahrenheit 9/11" based on its R rating and political partisanship. His son Matthew, 17, said that he put his head on his desk and tried to sleep through it.

"It bothered me," he said.

Moore's condemnation of Bush's actions regarding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon became the first documentary to top the $100 million mark domestically. In the film, Moore examines the Bush administration's alleged financial ties to Saudi Arabia and the bin Laden family.

"It is spun to a very liberal viewpoint," the businessman said. "It is absolutely wrong for teachers to take a political position with some of these kids at legal voting age."

Michael Ryals, principal of Pathways Learning Center, said that he previewed part of the film before he allowed the teacher to show it in class Friday.

"I didn't hear anything that was offensive to me," he told the Beaumont Enterprise in today's editions, adding that he did not know of the R rating.

Ryals said one student told him of another movie that takes an opposing view and he urged the student to bring it Monday for review to see if it could be shown.

Pathways is an alternative school for students moved from their home campuses for disciplinary reasons. Kurth said his son is at the school for 40 days after having too many tardies.

Beaumont Independent School District spokeswoman Jolene Ortego said she spoke to Kurth and assured him the matter would be addressed by Monday morning.

School board trustee John Williams said R-rated films should not be shown without parental consent.

Kurth, 39, said he watched it to see all sides and decided he did not want his family to see it, then was "livid" to hear that his son's class was viewing it weeks before the general election.

Earlier this summer, thousands of people watched the documentary in Crawford, Bush's adopted hometown, where Moore's staff had made arrangements to send a copy after learning that no theaters in the Waco area had been showing the film. A Waco theater subsequently agreed to screen the film.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: democratsarescum; education; indoctrination; whyjohnnycantread
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Wansn't someone fired for showing a 911 film to his class?
1 posted on 10/09/2004 9:37:01 AM PDT by Jalapeno
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To: weegee

your tax dollars at work ping


2 posted on 10/09/2004 9:37:20 AM PDT by Jalapeno
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To: Jalapeno
Oh man!! Teachers are sent home for having photographs of all of our Presidents including George Bush and this teacher is still working?
3 posted on 10/09/2004 9:40:05 AM PDT by armymarinemom (Get with the program, Troops don't need body armor against spitballs)
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To: Jalapeno

Yeah, but did they get some rotten tomatoes to throw?

Didn't know about the R rating? As if the idiot principal couldn't read the rating on the box.


4 posted on 10/09/2004 9:40:57 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn
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To: Jalapeno

This crap has to stop. It would never fly the other way around. Somebody's ass should get busted over this bs.


5 posted on 10/09/2004 9:42:13 AM PDT by rj45mis
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To: armymarinemom

This is southeast Texas where there is the LAST bastion of heavy union influence and corruption. I am not surprised that BISD has allowed it. This is the home of 2 of the 5 biggest Texas personal injury law firms that did the Texas tobacco litigation. Nuf said.


6 posted on 10/09/2004 9:44:03 AM PDT by shankbear
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To: Jalapeno
Nothing like a little political propaganda in class to get young minds 'on the right track', right? They probably needed a break from their current assignment, 'What part of the Bush regime is worse: Iraq and the coming draft, the destruction of the environment and the economy, or the coming legalization of rape.'

Maybe for extra credit, the teacher can send the kids to key cars with Bush/Cheney bumper stickers, or tear up signs on people's lawns.

7 posted on 10/09/2004 9:44:29 AM PDT by Steel Wolf (Got wood?)
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To: Jalapeno

The only possible justification I can think of for watching F911 in class is to study and dissect it as a propaganda film.

The movie has no historical value, and no artistic value. It's viciously partisan. So how can you possibly justify it as part of anyone's "education"?

Even if it were to be used to analyze propaganda techniques, I can think of better film examples to use. Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," for instance, which is far superior both as propaganda and as art.

Or how about "Birth of a Nation," perhaps the all-time great propaganda film and likewise generally recognized as a great artistic accomplishment and a major milestone in the history of film making.


8 posted on 10/09/2004 9:47:33 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Jalapeno
Michael Ryals, principal of Pathways Learning Center, said that he previewed part of the film before he allowed the teacher to show it in class Friday.

"I didn't hear anything that was offensive to me,"


Of course he didn't...
9 posted on 10/09/2004 9:54:00 AM PDT by kenth (Tucking tail and running is not an exit strategy, it's cowardice and surrender.)
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To: Jalapeno
Back in the late 1970s, one of my high school English teachers decided to show A Doll's House, featuring Jane Fonda. As we were aware of Hanoi Jane's notorious past, a few of my high school buddies and I informed the teacher that we could not, in good conscience, partake in such entertainment.

All fine and good, she said, but we had to stay and watch. So we did, more or less. After the lights came up, she asked for opinions. My friend Jeff answered "good story, but lame acting", to which she said "Actually, I agree; just remember that the next time Hollywood makes a movie out of your favorite book!"...

10 posted on 10/09/2004 9:55:27 AM PDT by HolgerDansk ("Oh Bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round.)
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To: Jalapeno

You can show Moore propaganda to the kids in your class but if you say the Pledge its a crime against humanity...

Exactly what the problem is in America.


11 posted on 10/09/2004 10:04:45 AM PDT by tomnbeverly (John Kerry has forgotten the lessons of 911 and he wants us all to forget them too.)
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To: Jalapeno

we watched bowling for columbine as half the semester in my english comp 1 class last semester... it is in college, but still made me mad and sick... grrrrrrrrrrr.... :-D


12 posted on 10/09/2004 10:06:18 AM PDT by AJM085
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To: Jalapeno

You can show Moore propaganda to the kids in your class but if you say the Pledge its a crime against humanity...

Exactly what the problem is in America.


13 posted on 10/09/2004 10:08:08 AM PDT by tomnbeverly (John Kerry has forgotten the lessons of 911 and he wants us all to forget them too.)
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To: Jalapeno

My son's science teacher tried to show "Bowling for Columbine" last year in class. Luckily, she sent home permission slips to make the parents sign. Nobody would sign. The film was not shown.


14 posted on 10/09/2004 10:14:13 AM PDT by G.Love (Senate majority - use it or lose it.)
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To: Jalapeno

If this happened in my kids school I wouldn't stop raising cain until the teacher had been run out of the school.


15 posted on 10/09/2004 10:28:06 AM PDT by Reagan is King (The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal.)
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To: Jalapeno; Chieftain; Naomi4

WHAT?!!!!!!

This is our educational system? An alternative school where kids go because of problems they've had in school need to be taught the reading, writing and math or basic history and geography that they have missed in regular classes, not having films for the "nuances" of propaganda.

How could any teacher show any film when these kids can't read or count change back at McDonalds?

Disgusting waste of our tax dollars to pay for a teacher who's too lazy to teach.


16 posted on 10/09/2004 10:30:28 AM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie
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To: Jalapeno

I think a lawsuit that makes a Kerry-Edwards-Jackson 'shakedown' look like a coin tossed into a Salvation Army kettle, is in order.


17 posted on 10/09/2004 10:33:37 AM PDT by DaBroasta (They're not anti-war, they're still pi$$ed about 2000)
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To: Jalapeno
Under regulations promulgated by the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, all teachers are required to endorse John F. Kerry with all their heart, soul, and mind, and to do everything in their power, even in violation of school rules which might otherwise apply, to encourage and even to force students and parents to vote for Kerry. This teacher merely was fulfilling his union obligation to advance the Kerry campaign in the classroom and to thereby commit sedition against these United States by endorsing an open and habitual traitor for election to the Presidency, thereby encouraging the defeat of the United States in the traitor-decreed catastrophic failure of Iraq and encouraging the success of our terrorist enemies. Showing any film that reminds American schoolchildren of the terrorist attacks or portrays President Bush in a positive light or that advances the victory against the terrorists violates union rules and thereby school regulations and must lead to immediate, unconditional, and irrevocable removal of teaching credentials, loss of job and source of income, and possible physical violence against offending teacher, family, and property.
18 posted on 10/09/2004 10:36:01 AM PDT by dufekin (President Kerry would have our enemies partying like it's 1969, when Kerry first committed treason.)
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To: Jalapeno

Reason #88 I'm not a Democrat.

What a disgraceful, low-class thing to do. Pigs.


19 posted on 10/09/2004 10:44:06 AM PDT by Finalapproach29er ({about the news media} "We'll tell you any sh** you want hear" : Howard Beale --> NETWORK)
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To: Jalapeno
,i>Wansn't someone fired for showing a 911 film to his class?

It is illegal to show a copyrighted Video to a class, they are for single family viewing only. No public showings allowed.

20 posted on 10/09/2004 10:56:04 AM PDT by itsahoot (Sometimes the truth hurts, sometimes it makes a difference, but not often.)
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