Posted on 12/02/2004 3:56:16 PM PST by reportgirl73
GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. (AP) - An elementary school bus driver was fired after sharing a statistic she had read about embryonic stem cell research with students, then encouraging them to tell their parents about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Yeah, but that doesn't mean that you have carte blanche to attribute motives to her. You accused her of doing this as a publicity stunt. I am not going to let that go by unchallenged.
She KNEW it was an issue that many parents would disagree with. She HAD to know that. And she did it anyway.
No one disputes that.
As I said before - the issues for discussion are whether this was an appropriate forum for such a topic. In what context did it come up? Those are the questions we should be asking - not attributing motives to her, which really neither you nor I have sufficent basis to judge. I can say, from the times I've met her at FR stuff, she struck me as anything BUT publicity-seeking.
It may be. It's worse manners to attribute motives to someone without a sufficient basis in fact.
First, a "bus driver" has as much right as any knucklehead teacher to voice his/her opinions! Anywhere! Any time! You sound like an elitist snob.
Second, Mrs. Mayor was not spouting right wing "indoctrination" She was simply putting forth her point of view on a topic that most kids have heard about and if not, have every right to hear about given the fact that in this nation their little lives are so at the mercy of abortionists!
Third, judging from your post you have absolutely no idea what a school bus driver can or cannot do while on the job. The freedom to speak is a right that does not get shoved aside once those school bus doors shut no matter what the union says or the mandarin educationist establishment proclaims.
If you actually read the article you would discern that the kids always got home safely and in the case of this particular bus, got home with a more balanced point of view of the world and life.
Perhaps you should read her reply letter before judging this lady's intelligence. It's clear that she isn't driving a school bus because she's incapable of anything more.
In what law school class did you learn that brilliant legal strategy?
When your first case goes to trial and you lose are you going to tell the judge to shut up and throw yourself on the floor crying?
Your friend has had ample opportunity to explain how the subject "just happened to come up" on a school bus, with the bus driver. She has neglected to explain. But I've seen several comments about media contact and a reference to Paul Begala.
I certainly can surmise that perhaps bringing media attention to facts she wishes were more widely known could have been a factor here. I have enough information at hand to make that case.
I would really appreciate it if you could find 3 posts made to threads about liberals spouting off to kids which support the teacher's right to free speech.
Just 3. I hope at least one of them is yours.
I'd be nuts to go to trial at this stage. There's a LOT of questions I'd want answered before filing a complaint.
Dianna is not Justice Scalia.
"Their biggest worry should be what toys they are going to play with, not politics."
No no no. You are not getting it. In our society, children are very vulnerable both before birth and afterwards. We tell our children to beware of strangers on the hustle, of those who prey on them on the internet, at school, in fact everywhere! We should be applauding Mrs. Mayor for informing the kids of the evidence against stem cell research!
And yet...you would punish and denounce this woman for merely espousing a point of view that is ultimately a position that favors the continued existence of children in the face of a mass media gone wild elevating fetal stem cell research as the ultimate in therapeutic treatment possibilities?
Your post makes no sense...(but then again I've been up since 7AM.)
I responded to a post (not yours) that portrayed an equivalency between what knucklehead teachers do in the classroom and what this bus driver "dared" to do on a public school bus. And I said that she had every right to say what was on her mind given the fact that these kids need to know of the dangers facing them.
Now what's your beef exactly? Are you saying that bus drivers have no right to express their views on issues that affect their passengers?
No, we are denouncing her for interfering with the rights of those children's parents. The parents get to decide what to tell their elementary school children about stem cell research.
Frankly, I was rather upset that it was a topic for "research" when my son was in 6th grade. The teacher gave the kids two articles which supported the use of embryonic stem cells for research and then told them to form an opinion and write about it. That was wrong. This was too.
When the teacher is driving a taxpayer funded bus, her salary is paid for by taxpayers and the passengers are other people's children, she does NOT have the right to say things to the children that she KNOWS many parents will disagree with.
If she had been speaking FOR stem cell research, she would have been promoted to Secretary of Transportation or something.
And yours also. Thank you!
Why is your school bus driving wife talking to elementary school children about stem cell research?
I don't put my child on the bus to allow her to have a captive child audience for her subversive mind molding asperations.
That I agree with her opinion in no way mitigates the fact that she has no right to practice the same kind of subversive, anti-parent tactics I fight my childs school about.
Tell her she should have shut up and drove!
It sounds like she is not capable of handleing a fairly simple job task.
Your post demonstrates what happens when economic conservatives without a ounce of moral conscience start moralizing about issues of concern to children! I see discussion of the abomination of fetal stem cell research to be a completely valid topic to bring up anywhere and that includes a bus filled with children who in the country have been murdered to the tune of tens of millions in the last 30+ years!
I would expect any concerned adult to protect the welfare of children. What Mrs Mayor did was exactly that and I applaud the strength of her convictions and her defense of children in the face of her own personal well being.
She is a hero!
Her right to speak out does not end when she starts driving a school bus!
Pick up a copy of the Constitution sometime...you may be surprised.
You have no right to speak to my child about anything without my knowlege and permission. You think you want to take that right away from me? HUH?
You think I got a constituional right to NOT have that happen? HUH?!! You're damn right I do!!
If I caught you doing that to my kid you wouldn't need a lawyer.
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