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.
Rarely do we seen the party leaders acting to defund this organization. Remember that until the 1980s that the Republican party was the pro-choice party.
And what state might that be??
And while I do that, I suggest you study the REST of the history of education in the USA.
You seem to be of the opinion that what you experienced and have seen is all there is. All I can say is that there are different situations in these United States.
Read the next sentence in that post, dumbass.
I'm getting really tired of your "johnny-one-note" song and dance. You don't appear to be interested in understanding....just pushing your particular ax-grinding.
I **do** understand that our nation's system of government K-12 schooling is the very definition of a program that is a socialist-entitlement, single-payer, godless, compulsory police enforced attendance and funded, monopoly price-fixed cartel.
Any of the above is highly resistant to reform.
1) One’s own children should be immediately rescued.
2) Encourage others to do the same.
3) Work toward complete privatization of all K-12 schooling with generous private charity funding to educate the poor.
that this humble woman, who was so poor she had to hunt frantically for a lost coin,
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Where in the scriptures is the “Lost Coin” woman identified as Mary?
And....It seems to me that Mary and Joseph were middle class. He was a carpenter. Mary’s family was able to afford a trip for her to visit her cousin. That Mary gave birth in a stable was not due to their being homeless. They were sent on this dangerous trek to Bethlehem by the government so taxes could be collected.
through Mary to Jesus.
Now I know all about it, butit was explained to me that just like if you love a person, you want to know all about everyone around them too, you don’t say, I only love you and couldn’t care less about your mom, dad, brothers or friends.
There are several that are reasonable to discuss issues with but then there are others that are well....you know......
Senator Rand Paul introduced his 2014 budget plan yesterday...it calls for the elimination of the Department of Education, among others...wouldn’t it be wonderful?
Malarkey. All of society participated in it in one fashion or another. Early tribes all had "coming-of-age" ceremonies for both male and female youth, who left their homes and entered into training for their adult roles, the girls typically on "woman tasks" and the boys on "man tasks", often with elaborate ceremonies. "Age of maturity" usually coincided with development of adult sexual characteristics, menses for girls, erections for boys. Of course, earliest training was done within the family group.
As society became more complex and divisions of labor developed, educational forms changed, with instruction moving into the guilds and similar organizations, or with individual/master apprenticeships.
You seem to think that "school" consists only of getting a group together within the "students-instructor-classroom" model, which, until recently was a miniscule portion of the societal educational experience, and which, IMO is destined to disappear or at least shrink drastically.
People should realize that organization like Planned Parenthood are outside of objective law, even though various government decrees protect them.
Hurt them when you can, however you can, and don’t get caught.
Hannity, that genial Irish establishment Republicrat, is always having his favorites on his show: Carl Rove, Newtie Gingrich, et al.
Well,”middle class” is an anachronism. Joseph was a techne, which puts him into the working class. But in a non-money economy, a silver coin was not to be despised. Yes, I think Jesus was describing something he had seen.
Good point. Da Vinci and Michaelangelo went to school in a shop, learning all the tricks of the trade, and finding very early on, that they excelled. One of the worse features of our educational system is the neglect of vocational training, especially in those jobs involving working with hands.
The Lost Coin is a parable. There is no evidence that Jesus was referring to Mary specifically any more than lost sheep referred to her.
Luke 15:8-10
Re: Mary, Joseph, and Jesus being poor
While Mary was indeed humble we do not know if she was poor. She was betrothed to a respectable man with a respected occupation that required training and likely apprenticeship. ( Was a dowry needed in those times? ) She did travel to see her cousin. Presumably when the went to the inn to find shelter, they were likely prepared to **pay** for their night's stay in the inn. They were able to travel to the temple with Jesus when he was an infant and as a boy and I assume that they had the provisions to do this safely. They had the means to flee to Egypt and to stay there a long time. So? Should we conclude that they were poor by that day's standards? Personally, my conclusion is that they had enough wealth to provide for a reasonably secure working ( middle) class life.
Re: Working Class
The middle classes work but I will not quibble with you over working class or middle class. If you wish to call the family of Jesus a working class family that is completely fine with me.
It surely would be.
1) I agree with you that the Prussian-model is likely to disappear. I seriously hope that this is the case. The Internet is blossoming with opportunities. Homeschoolers are walking and living examples that parents can take charge of their children education. What is need now are privately administered and fully certifiable qualifying exams and employers ( and traditional schools) willing to fully accept the results of these exams.
2) Having read many ofSt_Thomas_Aquinas's post, I doubt that he believes this.
I suggest you take a look at what remains of the village of Capernaum. And why are you so adamant that he was NOT thinking about an event in his life? Do you think he just plucked the image out of thin air?
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