Teacher Jay Bennish described capitalism as a system "at odds with human rights."
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.
I have listened to the tape. Not only did the teacher rant and rave, most of the rants were not factual. There is enough evidence on the tape to terminate the teacher immediately.
It is one thing to express an opinion. Quite another to have the historical facts totally wrong.
Exactly how we do it, too.
We don't have too many flaming liberals in the rural parts of Texas, but the curriculum still leans too far to the left for my tastes.
Ever since they started public school, I've covered the more classical aspects of education with my girls over the summer.
This puts them way ahead of their classmates, and prepares them to judge any 'facts' presented by the teachers or textbooks for themselves.
If they have any further questions on a subject I'm unable to answer, we dig up the information together and discuss what we've found.
Not only is it legal but some teachers insist that their lectures are recorded and reviewed later by their students.
A teacher in any public school has no expectation of privacy when it comes to their lessons, they can't just teach or preach whatever they want, and can be removed if they teach anything other then what they are supposed to i.e: racism, hate, religion, creation, etc, etc....
Why should Hate filled liberal propaganda be any different? It isn't part of the State's lesson plan, and the state writes the checks.
Did you ever read James Clavell's, The Children's Story?
It happens in Catholic elementary/middle schools, too.
Does anyone have more info on this aspect of what Mr. Morris said?
Some of the middle school teachers my son has are starting in a very liberal bent.
English giving writing on the Bay of Pigs "the worst miliary mistake in US history". Per my son's English teacher.
English assignment poems by Allen Ginsberg.
Health handing out cards for the "Runaway Hotline" and LI Crisis Center but not telling kids to talk to their parents.
Typical lib ping.
So did I, back in the early-to-mid 1980s, during the height of the Cold War. This very same teacher also taught that the American Revolution was simply a fight between rich white men over who would control the profits of an entire continent.
We called him Ol' Nellie, and for a hippie whose best years had passed him by, he was pretty smart. He challenged us to think for ourselves; unfortunately, when we did, most of us figured out that everything he preached was utter bravo sierra. But in my opinion, he did us a great service by teaching us that everything taught to you in school is not necessarily the gospel truth.
The recording is too nauseating to finish`. Someone needs to get to this moronic teacher and explain the facts of life before he offends again.
Funny, but some of the best teachers my kids had were the liberal ones!! They were usually some of the most demanding and did alot of enrichment. I didn't care what their political views were as long as they taught their subject matter well. How can you put a spin on math or chemistry?? lol
A liberal teacher in TX is quite funny! We lived in a well to do suburb of Dallas where the kids had EVERYTHING and when a lib teacher would preach things like energy efficient cars to kids with SUBURBANS they would just roll their eyes and laugh.
Good way to look at it.
He went on about how we have had troops for 30 years in columbia.
The instructor is a Geography teacher..... Is requiring a PUBLIC SCHOOL teacher to teach Geograpghy asking too much...? It's not a liberal/conservative issue...
Hello...anyone home?
Somehow I can imagine this so-called teacher dressing in all black and attending those (violent) anti-war protests.. frequently!
I had heard it was a math class this happened in so between 2+2=4 and pie are round, cake is square - he launched into this which seems out of place for a math class.
Drudge has audio...
The teacher basically blames Israel, labeling them the first terrorists for their founding of their country. The problem with that arguement is that Palestinians can live in Israel, but Jews cannot live in Palestine.
yeah, on Pacifica or Air America radio.
With all due respect, what the kid did was legal - barring any school policy that says otherwise regarding recording devices, as it was 'public speech', i.e.; in front of his whole class. As such it was not a private conversation and no expectations of privacy are attached.
As to Linda Tripp, that's completely different. That involved taping of a Telephone Conversation which is covered by the Communications Act (among other laws). The other party must be made aware the conversation is being taped. With a phone conversation between two people, the expectation of privacy does exist.
It's not illegal to tape conversations in public. In Colorado you only need one party consent to tape telephone conversations. This was not a telephone conversation.
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