Teachers Suspended Over Anti-War Signs

AP via Lycos.com ^ | 03/14/2003

[GeneD]

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) -- About 45 students walked out of class to protest the suspensions of two Rio Grande High School teachers who were removed after refusing to take down anti-war posters in their classrooms.

School police arrested four students when they refused to return to class Thursday.

Carmelita Roybal, a ninth-grade English teacher, was placed on leave with pay Wednesday after refusing to remove a black-and-white "No War Against Iraq" poster from her classroom. Art teacher Heather Duffy was asked to leave the school for the day Thursday, then suspended with pay, for refusing to remove a similar poster from her class.

Rigo Chavez, a spokesman for the Albuquerque school district, said such posters can be displayed if there is a class discussion about the issue, but "they're not supposed to promote one side or another of a controversial issue."

No listing could be found for either teacher Friday.

Principal Al Sanchez said he asked Roybal, who has taught at the high school for about 10 years, to take the poster down. He said she wanted it to remain one more day for a class lesson.

Sanchez said he gave her the day, but when he returned the next day, Roybal told him she was taking a stand and was not going to take down the poster. She was asked to leave.

"Those students should not be subject to seeing that every day because they have to be there," the principal said.

The 45 ninth-grade students walked out of class about 9 a.m. Thursday to protest Roybal's suspension and the war against Iraq. The students, who later returned to class, were videotaped by school officials and could be cited for truancy. School police arrested four students who refused to go to class about 10:30 a.m.

Vivian Doak, head of the Parent-Teacher Association, said she's concerned whether teachers are using classes to promote their views.

"We're not at school to make political statements," she said. "We're here to learn."

[Hodar]

Carmelita Roybal, a ninth-grade English teacher, was placed on leave with pay Wednesday after refusing to remove a black-and-white "No War Against Iraq" poster from her classroom. Art teacher Heather Duffy was asked to leave the school for the day Thursday, then suspended with pay, for refusing to remove a similar poster from her class.

Want a vacation, but just don't have the time/money to take off? Well, we have the cure for you. For a limited time only ... place a cheap paper sign in your place of work ... and you too can take time off, with full pay provided at taxpayer expense. Hurry, make your sign today!!

[Luke]

"We're not at school to make political statements," she said. "We're here to learn."

Too bad teachers don't understand this. Fire'em all that don't!

[bcoffey]

"The 45 ninth-grade students walked out of class about 9 a.m. Thursday"

Anything beats going to class when you're 14!

By the way, Rio Grande High School has a dropout rate of about 25% (no kidding), and stunts like these aren't going to improve the situation.

[realpatriot71]

Personally, IMHO I think the intimidation, boycotts, etc. are a dim-whitted meatheaded response to opposing political opinion especially in a country where we value the freedom of political speech. However, with that said, the classroom should be an apolitical place. Teachers should encourage students to form their own opinion, not suppliment their own. When I took American History in HS, my teacher, a very political minded guy, would never give us his personal opinion on anything - from current politics to historical theory - during class time, but would spend time talking to anyone who wanted after school. I'm not sure why this is such a hard policy to follow.

[NormsRevenge]

fire the teachers in question and expel the students.

[Pushi]

Part of ABQ is a hotbed of socialists.

[harpseal]

fire the teachers in question and expel the students.

Correct. These teachers are not paid to make a stand in the classroom. They are paid to tech not indoctrinate. The students involved would learn a valuable lesson by being expelled for at least a period of time. since one may impute that at least some of the students in the class did not share their views, this action by these teachers is depriving those students of their civil rights in the classroom.

[Station 51]

Rigo Chavez, a spokesman for the Albuquerque school district, said such posters can be displayed if there is a class discussion about the issue, but "they're not supposed to promote one side or another of a controversial issue."

According to the school district a teacher would encounter the same consequences if he had a "Liberate Iraq" sign in his room.

[MineralMan]

Political and religious views of teachers have no place in the classrooms of our public schools. The job of the schools is to teach academic subjects. Let the teachers promote their politics and religion outside of the classroom.

[finnman69]

they should use these signs

[Red Dog #1]

It must take a insecure person to force their veiws on our young people in a controled envirment. Are these poeple really that cowardly?

I remeber one of my favorite teachers when I was a young red dog pup who told me his job was to teach me to read, write and reason so I could make up my own mind. Of course he was very conservative but I only found that out many years latter after finishing school.

[VeniVidiVici]

When I took American History in HS, my teacher, a very political minded guy, would never give us his personal opinion on anything - from current politics to historical theory - during class time, but would spend time talking to anyone who wanted after school.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that my son's World History teacher does this. My son said that he is pretty much apolitical in class, though he does lean toward showing disdain for the faux anti-war crowd because it's obvious they're just anti-Bush/anti-capitalism, but get him in private and his conservative stripes come out in full-force :-)

[NewMexLurker]

Rio Grande High School is in Albuquerque Public Schools District 1. Rio Grande is the only high school in district 1, but there are 20 other schools (elementary, junior high, and mid high). 16 of those 21 schools are on probationary status by the State Board of Education, for sub-par performance (as of January 2003). Rio Grande HS itself is the only high school in the system on probationary status. It has the lowest scores for reading and language skills of any high school in Albuquerque, and the highest dropout rate. They are currently trying to run under some experimental setup with four (count 'em, four) principals. This is easily the worst excuse for a high school in Albuquerque (in my opinion). With teachers like these two, it's easy to see why. I feel sorry for the kids there.

[pepsionice]

If 25 percent drop-out rate is true...then I've got problems with the leadership of the school and the learning atmosphere. Obviously, a number of folks need to leave and find other occupations. Any drop-out rate over 5 percent is serious in my book and totally unacceptable. I don't care what the teachers say or the school district...somebody needs to take people by the hand and lead them to the future. This high rate means that in 30 years...an awful lot of the local population are not going to know how to vote (Florida style) or be able to balance a checkbook.

There are thousands of teachers like these...across America and they truely believe they are there to shape the entire mind of the student. They never understand...if they are the art teacher...then they are there to teach art. If they were hired to teach math...then teach math.

As for any students who walk out of school....they better run right home and tell momma...otherwise, they are on a bogus mission and can't be trusted in the future. This local principal needs to dish out extra work for these kids.

[realpatriot71]

My history teacher was more liberal leaning, but you'd never guess from the classroom. I used to like discussing politics with him after class, and what always amazed me was that even though he was liberal leaning, he was an "honest liberal". He was the most influencial teacher of my HS days.

[bcoffey]

"If 25 percent drop-out rate is true..."

It depends on statistics and who you count as a "drop out." The lowest number I've ever seen quoted is 17%, from an article in the "Albuquerque Journal" a year ago.

The high school dropout rate for Albuquerque Public Schools increased to 8.24 percent last year, while Rio Grande High School soared to 17.14 percent. The numbers reflect 2,185 APS high school students who dropped out in the 2000-2001 school year and did not re-enroll in the current school year. That compares with an annual dropout rate of 7.01 percent in the 1999-2000 school year and 9.21 percent in 1998-99.

The article is on the paper's subscription site, otherwise I'd have posted the URL here.

[Paul Atreides]

Just think what would have happened if those two had put up posters speaking against abortion! Not only would they not receive any suspension WITH pay, but they would have been fired on the spot.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

I know that dropout rate is high....but there are so many schools around the nation that wished their dropout rate was that low.....

If thats Al-querque's worst dropout rate....its a lot better than many cities in this country

[bcoffey]

"If thats Al-querque's worst dropout rate....its a lot better than many cities in this country."

I don't doubt it. On the other hand, these are figures from the school administrators, and they don't take into account a lot of things.

For instance, the graduation rate is much worse than one might conclude from these figures. I think that number is about 60%.