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?"
Then about 6 weeks down the road he will get an award.
In fact from the sounds of the tape he is the only one who was even thinking for himself in that classroom.
Well done and a big pat on the back to your daughter. She escaped the propaganda and brain washing that goes on today.
Amen.
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