"The teacher is permitted to hang foreign flags if it is related to curriculum he is actually teaching. Let me repeat that: the teacher IS permitted to hang foreign flags IF it is related to curriculum he is actually teaching"
Sorry, I wasn't aware that you possessed such background knowledge of this case that you knew this "idiot teacher" was hanging flags which did not relate to teaching geography.
"So, this sacred "right" you are so lathered about, consists of the "right" of the teacher, who is hired to perform duties in accordance with the policies set forth by the school administrators and the lawful governing authorities of Colorado, to hang foreign flags in his classroom when it is unrelated to his teaching lessons disobeying a specific state law."
I'm making comments, as are many others, in an attempt to have a dialogue regarding an issue. I'm not "lathered" about this case. OTOH, having worked in public education for the past 12 years I an quite aware that classroom teachers are ALLOWED to place in their classrooms any device which assists their teaching of curricula. I am also aware that there is no prohibition on when or how long such devices may be displayed. Considering the nature of this teacher's subject, I'd say display of the flags of other nations is pertinent throughout the entire school year. There must have been something about the way he went about displaying the flags which cause the problem (as stated before I do not have those facts at hand).
"This idiot teacher is wasting taxpayer resources and school administrators' time disciplining his stupid ass for this political stunt."
This is as opposed to the waste of taxpayer money and the time of the administrators for disciplining someone for what may amount to a nothing violation?
"The "civil right" of this school employee to hang foreign flags in a classroom belonging to the school when the flags are unrelated to his teaching lessons, is somehow on a par with acts of civil disobedience by blacks objecting to racial segregation in the 1960s?"
So then, you'd like to see classroom teachers completely stiffled in their methods of teaching so as to comply with some inane and useless law some bureacrat decided was a good idea. As you mentioned before, teachers are faced with a multitude of societal problems. If his students are making progress through his method of using visual aids, then what is the problem. For all you, or I, know, he teaches a classroom full of students who belong to a group that had been denied access to appropriate public education during the past century. Hyperbole? Do you wish to deny children an appropriate education because some idiot bureacrat made such an inane law?
No, I'd say you've won the Hyperboly award.
Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said Hamlin could have removed the flags, then appealed the principal's decision to higher administrators. By refusing to remove the flags, Hamlin was insubordinate, Stevenson said."He defied a direct, reasonable request from a principal. That's what's at issue here," Stevenson said.
Hamlin said, "There's no question I was insubordinate . . . I did directly tell my principal that I would not follow what he told me that I had to do.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_4940787,00.html
According to the article at the link, the teacher has about 50 flags and displays particular flags at various times when relevant to a specific lesson.
However, he was displaying three flags: the United Nations, China (PRC) and Mexico, on an everyday basis.
The principal interpreted that the permanent display of the three flags was over the line.
If I were the principal, maybe I would have had a different interpretation. If you were the principla, maybe you would have decided differently. But I am not the principal, you are not the principal, and this teacher is not the principal.
As long as the principal was acting in good faith, it's his decision to make.
A red flag here is the fact that the teacher HAD AN ADMINISTRATIVE APPEAL open to him, but CHOSE NOT to use it. That tells me this was a publicity stunt.
Your position seems to be that every school employee may ignore whatever laws and policies they don't personally feel like following if they somehow feel "stifled" by the rules.
