Posted on 03/02/2006 3:38:43 AM PST by Glacier Honey
The Overland High educator is on administrative leave. Cherry Creek's superintendent said a balanced viewpoint will be given to students.
An Overland High School teacher who criticized President Bush, capitalism and U.S. foreign policy during his geography class was placed on administrative leave Wednesday afternoon after a student who recorded the session went public with the tape.
In the 20-minute recording, made on an MP3 player, teacher Jay Bennish described capitalism as a system "at odds with human rights." He also said there were "eerie similarities" between what Bush said during his Jan. 28 State of the Union address and "things that Adolf Hitler used to say."
The United States was "probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth," Bennish also said on the tape.
Bennish, who has been part of Overland's social studies faculty since 2000, did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday. Cherry Creek School District officials are investigating the incident, but no disciplinary action has been taken, district spokeswoman Tustin Amole said.
Bennish was placed on leave "to take some of the pressure off of him" during the investigation, which could wrap up in a week, Amole said.
Superintendent Monte Moses, who received a copy of the recording on Monday from 850 KOA-AM radio show host Mike Rosen, said it appears "a breach of district policy" occurred.
"Our policy calls for both sides to be present ... in the interest of intellectual discourse," Moses said. Bennish's presentation appeared to be unbalanced, he said.
The district is looking into whether the incident was an isolated one and will ensure that a balanced viewpoint of the president's State of the Union address is provided to students, Moses said.
Moses also said the district will be fair to Bennish. "People in life make mistakes occasionally," he said. "We address them. We learn from them."
The 20-minute recording of only a portion of the class was made by 16-year-old sophomore Sean Allen the day after the president's speech. The recording has raised questions about what level of academic freedom is acceptable for high school teachers. It also has generated discussions about Bennish on dozens of websites.
Sean, who appeared on Rosen's show Wednesday morning, said in an interview he had been disturbed by the "political rants" he heard in Bennish's class. He added that he wanted to tape the session for his father, who later shared it with the media.
Sean, who described himself as a political independent, said the comments seemed inappropriate for a geography class.
"If he wants to give an opinion in class, I'm perfectly OK with that," he said. "But he has to give both sides of the story."
James McGrath Morris, an author who has written about academic freedom issues, said Bennish's comments are acceptable for an adult audience, but they are hard to defend in a high school classroom.
In a number of legal cases, courts have ruled that "up until the age of majority, children are easily influenced ... in a way that they don't have the faculties to sort out rights from wrongs," Morris said.
The socialist educrats are just a metaphysic step shy of being adult Predators. No wonder Democrats wish to lower the age of "sexual consent".
And the teachers unions & their liberal minions march on indoctrinating our future generations with more garbage.
In an adult audience (of his "geography" class), he wouldn't have gotten away with his trash talk.
Nothing different here than what Kennedy/Kerry/Gore/Clinton/Dean says everyday.
Shoulder length blond hair - late 20s. Tried to post his picture but wasn't able to.
If we are the most dangerous country - he should go teach in Iran. They would keep him safe.....
This crap happens on every high school and college campus in the country. That is a fact.
And the unions prevent the discharging of such human waste... pathetic!
I would casually drop his comments to my parents at the dinner table just to watch them get enraged. My mother actually did something about it and it stopped, but that teacher never liked me after that.
Fortunately, this teacher never really influenced me. I had good parents who taught me common sense from an early age and saw his comments as BS even when I had a young skull full of mush.
That teacher's defeat really came when I voted for Reagan in 1980. And kept voting like that ever after. ;-)
Here we have an example of "American Wahibism", as this goes on at various degrees throughout our public education system.
If one is still searching for a reason for school vouchers, this is it.
I had a ninth grade Spanish teacher constantly tell us how great Castro was. The FUnnie thing was that she was Cuban. Anyway, she actually did move to Cuba like an IDIOT. Guess what happened to her? She was tossed in jail in Cuba. And that was the last we heard of her.
I bet the n.e.a. makes this guy a high ranking union official soon.
Just why should I need a reason? Gimme the d@%# voucher and I'
ll figure out what to do with my childs education.
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