Posted on 03/23/2013 5:35:52 AM PDT by IbJensen
March 22, 2013 (American Life League) - An exemplary math and computer science teacher has been unjustly escorted out of Benson High School by police following a protracted battle with school officials about Planned Parenthood’s presence in the school and its association with his students.
(Bill Diss)
Bill Diss was notified on Tuesday after the last student left his class that he was being placed immediately on administrative leave “pending a recommendation to the superintendent that you be dismissed from your employment with Portland public schools for reasons that have been discussed with you.” The mild-mannered Mr. Diss told STOPP that he was given only a few minutes to gather his belongings before police escorted him out. He was ordered not to return to the Portland, Oregon, school where he has taught for 11 years.
Mr. Diss is an outstanding teacher, who recently was awarded certification and recognition as the only teacher in Oregon who is qualified to teach college level computer science to high school students for dual credit. He has taught at the college and high school level for a total of 18 years.
Planned Parenthood has been in pursuit of Mr. Diss since 2007 when he began organizing efforts to stop Planned Parenthood. A STOPP press release from February of 2009 noted that Planned Parenthood of Columbia Willamette wanted Bill Diss’ teaching license revoked. The press release quoted American Life League’s Jim Sedlak: “Bill has organized one of the most effective efforts against Planned Parenthood in the country. It’s no surprise Planned Parenthood will resort to anything—even going after his teaching license—in order to silence him.”
Bill was opposing, on his own time, outside of any school activities, the construction of a Planned Parenthood killing center in an African American neighborhood in Portland. The Planned Parenthood business was eventually built, and today targets minority women for abortions.
Planned Parenthood was unsuccessful in its revocation bid but, incredibly, a decree came from the school district that Bill could not indicate that he was a teacher at Benson or that he taught for the Portland schools when he was giving talks outside the school.
Things really started heating up again at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year when Planned Parenthood of Columbia Willamette began to push its Teen Outreach Program (TOP) in partnership with Benson High School. The program is fueled by a multi-million dollar Obamacare teen pregnancy prevention grant, funneled through a coalition of Planned Parenthood affiliates. Benson High is located in the inner city, where sixty-two percent of the students qualify for free or reduced price lunches.
On September 17, 2012, Planned Parenthood operatives entered Mr. Diss’ classroom where he was tutoring students in basic math skills and other subjects. They expected to be given the floor to recruit students for the Teen Outreach Program. Because Mr. Diss had been notified that TOP representatives were coming to speak to the class and they produced ID showing they were from Planned Parenthood rather than TOP, Mr. Diss asked them to leave his classroom. They left, and a few moments later the principal and vice principal came to remove Mr. Diss from class.
The next day he was forced to sit through a Planned Parenthood presentation. “They were extremely aggressive in obtaining the children’s signatures by promising them all sorts of gifts and cash,” Bill said. Planned Parenthood filed a formal complaint against Mr. Diss with the school. You can read STOPP’s coverage about the events of that day and the TOP permission forms here.
Mr. Diss later discovered that the TOP permission form that was sent home the first day of school to Vietnamese-speaking parents used his name in a way that made it seem that he approved of the program. Mr. Diss’ attorney sent a notice to Planned Parenthood and Portland Public Schools complaining of defamation and demanding a retraction of information they sent to parents that indicated he approved of Planned Parenthood and the TOP program. He also noted harassment, emotional distress, and civil rights violations by the school in persecuting him and his Christian faith—all of which have been ongoing since the beginning of the school year. The school never issued a retraction.
Since then, Mr. Diss has received biweekly letters from the school, in effect nit-picking his teaching skills and accusing him of things like too much repetition in his mathematics classes, where he was told he could not teach the multiplication tables to math deficient students and could not review factoring. Students were allowed to withdraw from his classes because they did not want to do the extra work required to bring them up to speed in math. He has been through a dozen administrative hearings this year. Two weeks ago he was informed that his contract will not be renewed next year. When he was booted from the school on Tuesday, the only reason given was “for reasons already discussed.”
It is outrageous that Mr. Diss—an outstanding, well-loved teacher—has been totally trampled by this school district at the behest of Planned Parenthood because he cares deeply about the welfare of his students, and for exercising his First Amendment rights to speak out about the injustice of having Planned Parenthood in the community and in the classrooms. The TOP program he objects to even allows students to leave the campus after hours with Planned Parenthood employees.
Let us not forget, Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette is the same organization that is behind the disgusting video website Take Care Down There that features skits with such titles as “Horse Penis Virus,” “Bring your sister,” “I didn’t spew,” “Hot & heavy,” “Let me do me,” “Threesome,” and the “Down There Song.”
This is the influence that Mr. Diss is fighting. And this is what he has been harassed, and summarily dismissed, for fighting. If you are an Oregon resident who is concerned about this huge injustice, contact your state legislators and the state board of education and pass this information along to them, asking that they help right this horrible wrong. In addition, please pass this information along to other residents of Oregon and ask them to take action.
I seriously doubt that such a situation is true in more than a very SMALL minority of counties. Saying "many, many, many" says precisely nothing advancing your case. I grew up in a dirt poor farming county (though they call'em parishes in Louisiana). It had a WELL-attended Catholic school, and when "desegregation" hit, several secular private schools were started, most of which are still around, and still viable today.
And unfortunately for your position, that "price-fixed monopoly" is rapidly pricing itself out of the market wrt private schools. I would lay a small wager that even in your "county", a private or religious school, properly run, would succeed.
And, of course, there is always home-schooling, which is evolving rapidly into "network schooling" in collaboration with "internet schooling".
The "price-fixed monopoly" more serious attack today than it ever has been. It is a dinosaur, and soon to die.
Eventually, the tax-payers will revolt. Here in Washington, the majority of the people has passed a two-thirds vote requirement to raise taxes multiple times. The courts keep invalidating it.......but judges up here are elected too. I eventually think that there will be active campaigns against certain judges specifically targeting their votes to keep or rescind that two-thirds requirement.
And "the internet" is making possible a low-cost (almost free) educational option that bypasses the centralized schools completely. See "Kahn Academy".
All of which is true....TODAY.....but centralized "factory" schools are, in reality, a bunch of dinosaurs who haven't noticed the approaching comet. VERY shortly, it will be possible to get the absolute best education for minimal outlay. Given modern internet communication, that outcome is as inevitable as the demise of the dinosaurs was.
Eventually, I suspect the sole role of government will be as an accrediting entity, verifying the level of educational accomplishment based solely on results of standardized testing. Though even that may not last, given the existing private standards-verifying organizations for various technologies as an example to build from.
Fighting Planned Parenthood Ping!
Full support??
I don’t think so.
BAH-loney. "Schooling" as a human activity goes back thousands of years. With a handle like "St. Thomas Aquinas", you're going to tell me that even Catholic schooling is "bad".
"See my post #57, and especially the book mentioned at the end."
See my post 63 for the coming revolution that will make your arguments "toast". And which addresses your specific comment about "Microsoft Office".
"The model of schooling that was forced upon the American people, and later adopted by private schools, was the invention of humanist utopians and behavioral psychologists, from the very beginning.
Your sentence above is missing one word...."CURRENT" just before "model". In that sense your statement is true. But over the longer time interval, it is false. "Schooling" as an organized human activity FAR predates "humanist utopians", "behavioral psychologists" and all their ilk, which are solely artifacts of the very modern age. And that modern model is rapidly killing itself off with ever more ridiculous additions to the curriculum.
Not only is my county completely without a private school but so are the surrounding counties.
I did a search for our state and counties ( especially in rural areas) without private school alternatives predominate.
Please educate yourself regarding Prussian-model schooling.
Just checked out the book you recommended:
Underground History of American Education by Gatto
Read the Introduction and was very impressed by the research behind it. He is correct in every aspect and draws the proper conclusions. Ordered 2 copies and will keep one copy on my computer desk to humiliate the occasional idiot who wanders into FR. Thanks.
I would like to keep bringing up the fact that Margaret Sanger wanted to use abortion to rid the country of ‘undesirable’ population. She was an evil racist.
And...As for today's Catholic schools, BEWARE! All Catholic schools are not created equal. My daughter taught in a Texas Catholic school and every teacher and the principal ( except my daughter) voted for Obama ( a man who voted three times to deny medical treatment to infants born alive after an abortion). He class was the **only** class in the school that did not watch Obama’s botched inauguration oath.
As for Catholic schooling, faithful Catholics would be wise to join with other parents, hire a teacher, and run their own one room school.
Eventually, I suspect the sole role of government will be as an accrediting entity, verifying the level of educational accomplishment based solely on results of standardized testing.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Why have that? For example, the SAT exams are privately administered and widely accepted as valid. Many professional licensing exams are privately administered and fully accepted as valid by state licensing agencies.
Fabulous! That was the point of my posting.
It took him ten years to write the book, and then he put it on-line for people to read for free. Great man.
You can search youtube for his video interviews. I think I’ve heard them all.
His speaking and writing is meandering and discursive, but as you say, he draws the right conclusions. On the plus side, it’s a style that’s easy to read, because it’s chock full of memorable anecdotes.
I don’t remember who it was, but a FReeper had a fantastic homepage with info about Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood.
I was going to copy it and put it on my home page, but didn’t at the moment — probably thought I was too busy.
Our loss.
The schools in China are government-run and Godless. Yet the students are learning advanced math and science. So government-run and atheistic are not the only problems. The problem is that our society does not value genuine education. Entertainment and sexual libertinism are the core of Western values at this time in history. In China and India, you will find strict discipline in the classroom much like we in America once had but thought was to harsh and strict for our poor, repressed kiddies. Add to that that China is a pretty homogenous society and not overrun with subcultures that have no regard for education.
Thank you for answering my question. Your answer is thorough and well written. I will have to spend some time thinking it through.
I have another question Is Mary referred to as the Queen of Heaven by the Catholic Church?
Teachers are rewarded/punished for their work. They are rewarded or punished for doing/not doing what they are told by their superiors. In terms of law, a teacher is a “mere employee.” He or she is no more nor no less secure in his/her job than any other worker. This varies from place to place, of course. A teacher who is a federal employee has more statutory rights than a teacher in most states. Union contracts increase those rights. But by and large, teachers who do what the boss demands, more or less, have the most security.
If Christ is king, the Mary is Queen(Mother) of heaven. In the Bible, we read that in the kingdom of Judah, the queen mother has considerable influence, as in the case of Bethsheba, the mother of Solomon. And why not? He owed his throne to her. As for Mary, God’s little joke on the mighty is that this humble woman, who was so poor she had to hunt frantically for a lost coin, ranks above them all. So we imagine her dressed up in this royal finery.
And its role in human life was insignificant, in terms of time and treasure. Few people were interested in it.
The ancient Greek schools were very informal, with students coming and going at will. Teaching was Socratic, i.e., in the form of question and answer. Socrates even rejected the professionalization of teaching, since he who pays the piper calls the tune.
Certainly, formal schooling existed within the Church, but it was largely for the formation of priests. The students were volunteers, and very small in number.
Until modern times, few rulers attempted compulsory schooling, because it was almost always resisted by wary parents.
With a handle like "St. Thomas Aquinas", you're going to tell me that even Catholic schooling is "bad".
The methodology of Catholic schooling today is bad. It is the methodology of nineteenth century schooling, the purpose of which "was to instill loyalty to the Crown and to train young men for the military and the bureaucracy," in accord with Fichte's dictum.
"If you want to influence [the student] at all, you must do more than merely talk to him; you must fashion him, and fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will."The methodology is the message. Not the chalkboard lessons. It's easy to see why these schools quickly adopted the methodology of the behaviorists. Teacher colleges, including leading teacher colleges like Columbia, are the province of behaviorists to this day.
Sadly, Catholics adopted this model of schooling in response to several important societal movements in the nineteenth century.
Irish immigrants, who flooded the northeast following the potato famine, were regarded as a societal pestilence. To get the children of these immigrants off the streets, and to diminish the spread of Catholicism, many states implemented compulsory school attendance laws.
Because the existing schools were effectively Protestant, Catholics resisted. Bishops ordered the construction of schools for Catholic children, which mirrored the existing Protestant/Unitarian government schools.
To prevent tax dollars going to the support of these schools, many states attached Blaine amendments to their state constitutions, prohibiting the tax funding of private, i.e., Catholic, schools.
The methodology of compulsory schooling has remained largely unchanged since then, except for the elimination of every last vestige of Christianity.
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