Posted on 03/10/2006 1:01:32 AM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish could be back in the classroom Monday, his attorney predicted Thursday after a 90-minute meeting with school district administrators and attorneys.
Whether that comes to pass will be decided today, when Bennish and his attorney, David Lane, sit down one final time with Cherry Creek Schools administrators to learn whether any action will be taken against the teacher for a Feb. 1 classroom lecture.
In that lecture, Bennish compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler, questioned U.S. foreign and drug policy and suggested that capitalism was "at odds" with human compassion.
"I'm guaranteeing you that if they fire him, or suspend him, or take a paycheck from him, that will very likely result in a trial in federal court where the whole issue at the trial would be, did they fire him for the content of his speech or did they fire him based on a policy violation?" Lane said.
School district administrators declined to comment after the meeting.
Lane said that Bennish would not apologize.
"Jay has said to the administration here that if he could do it all over again, what he needs to do in the future is be giving both sides more contemporaneously," Lane said. "When he gives the yin, give the yang right then and there - don't wait a day, don't wait an hour, don't wait a week. Put it all out at the same time."
Bennish, 28, has been under scrutiny for more than a week, ever since student Sean Allen made public a 21-minute, 40-second recording of part of the teacher's lecture the day after Bush's State of the Union speech. After hearing the recording, school district officials concluded that Bennish's comments appeared to be inappropriate and that he may have violated a district policy requiring teachers to present balanced viewpoints when teaching controversial subjects.
After Bennish appeared on national television Tuesday, the school district received several new calls detailing unspecified complaints. That led administrators to extend their investigation.
Bennish and Lane arrived at the district's administration building, 4700 S. Yosemite St., a little before 2 p.m. Thursday.
Bennish smiled at a throng of reporters and photographers, said he wished people would respect his privacy, and entered the building without commenting.
Inside, they met with Superintendent Monte Moses, assistant superintendents Mary Chesley and Steve McGrath, and district lawyers Richard Banta and Amanda Hesterman.
When he and Lane emerged a little after 3:30 p.m., Bennish again declined to comment, except to thank those who have offered him support.
Lane, however, said the meeting had gone well. He said Bennish was asked about fewer than a dozen new complaints that "were of such a minor nature as to be almost laughable."
For example, one parent complained that Bennish had once played a song by Spearhead that included obscenities, and that he had played an R-rated movie in class called Black Robe about colonialism.
"There were fewer, literally, than a dozen issues like this," Lane said.
According to Lane, Bennish reiterated his commitment to school district policies and outlined for administrators the ways he has brought balance to his classroom.
For example, he said, Bennish presented the cartoons that have caused such an uproar in the Muslim world.
One day, Lane said, Bennish touched on the Islamic perspective. The next day, Bennish "put out the basic Western liberal line about, you know, this is a free society, everything is fair game, why would you have a religion that is based on peace and love going out and killing people over some cartoons?"
Deport the SOB as a COMMIE.
Anyone thats sends a kid to PUBIC(sic) school now, gets what they deserve....DUmmie, Marxist indoctrination.
Keep in mind, the first target of the Communist is the school. It is what they first subjugated in Cuba, and now what they are doing in the US, via the NEA.
In all my educational experience through Grad School, I never heard any teacher talk the kind of trash some of these animals do today.
I should add...
It may take a century to tear down the moral convictions
that are the norm in a country, but it takes only a few years to corrupt a young mind full of mush.
The entire education system in the US has been taken over by the Marxist.
You can trace it all back to this (it's #17 on the list), which is actually from the Congressional Record and read on the floor of the House in 1963.
Thanks for the link...It should be required reading for all Americans, but never expect it to be shown in any schools.
When the NEA gets its way, we can expect the US to "fall like an over ripe fruit".
What I find disturbing on that tape along with "what" he said was "how" he said it. If I had been a 16 year old in that class that day I would have been seriously intimidated and frightened. It sounded more like a hellfire and brimstone sermon than a school lecture.
I wouldn't have wanted to be exposed to that even if the subject was Clinton and the Clinton admin. I don't think I would have felt that way if it was college, but not a sophomore class in high school.
This happens when the public schools become only a jobs program.
Why don't the students go on strike for a change. Demand teachers who will teach the subject they were hired to teach. Better yet - let's hope more parents decide to home-school.
Long haired white man speak with forked tongue.
"Jay has said to the administration here that if he could do it all over again, what he needs to do in the future is be giving both sides more contemporaneously," Lane said. "When he gives the yin, give the yang right then and there - don't wait a day, don't wait an hour, don't wait a week. Put it all out at the same time."
Anybody out there sending there kids to school for the yin and the yang?
"There were fewer, literally, than a dozen issues like this," Lane said.
Literally? How many would there have been "figuratively?" A dozen issues? How many issues does a normal teacher have? I have family and friends in teaching and they don't have complaints rolling in like this. Issues? It sounds like he's got the whole subscription.
If I were in charge, I'd be disinclined to fire him based on what he said. I'd fire him for failing to perform his job (teaching geography) adequately. What I'd really want to fire him for is being an idiot, but that's probably not grounds.
He seems to be advocating for drugs and if he is like many, that would mean he's using and not taking great pains to hide it. With a little effort, the local cops could probably get him on drug charges.
PUBIC school...that's about right. One parent told me that all they teach in the local high school is football and condoms.
The problem is he can't articulate the other side because he doesn't know it. Nor does it appear he can articulate his side clearly.
Excuse me. But, has anyone asked what the hell this idiot's rant had to do with geography?
WARNING, PARENTS: Jay Bennish wants to 'give the yang' to your children.
What is controversial about the subject of World Geography? Whether to include Israel as a nation?? Seems he didn't touch on that.
Yeah, he sure sounds contrite.
The reason the liberals and the ACLU are so fearful right now is because they realize that if he is fired, thousands upon thousands of teachers across the nation who practice this indoctrination on a daily basis are at risk of being held accountable.
The Left cannot let that happen.
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