Cop takes 'midnight photos' of teacher's classroom

Times Argus ^ | David Delcore

[hirn_man]

Schools should teach reading, writing, and math. Everytime they try to teach kids to "think" they get into trouble. If less "thinking" were taught and more reading, writing, and math maybe we wouldn't have a bunch of functional illiterates running around.

[FreedomCalls]

“My goal in that class is to get kids to think and be critical of everything they read and hear and see,” he said.

Especially in a NEA-controlled classroom!

[hedgetrimmer]

Town or county? I am really curious.

[dirtboy]

How can a cop be trespassing in a public building

I'll try this example again, since you ignored it . Under you guidelines here, a cop could enter the mayor's office after hours, open a locked file cabinet and copy official papers without a warrant if he knows the custodian. Do you think THAT would be legal and NOT an abuse of his police powers?

[ValerieUSA]

An overblown analogy, and you know it!

[Trace21230]

"Personally, I don't leave anything at work that I wouldn't want handed to my boss or police. I pretty much figure my employer has the right to anything there."

Wise on your part, 4th amendment protections have been slowly eroding for many years, ever since the Terry stop started things rolling. (1966?). If you leave things at work, your employer can look at it. Same goes for computer use. (Which should scare everyone on here that works & posts.)

I'm not sure if this erosion is good or bad, but I doubt that the police officer in this case would be in violation of the 4th amendment under today's Supreme Court jurisprudence.

Trace

[grapeape]

Some.....my points. Wonder all you want. I don't want to waste my time with your fantasies. Here you go again you spend three paragraphs trying to build me up to some kind of realization that allowing a cop to photograph a classroom will end up in some kind of total “breakdown in civil liberties?” I have to extrapolate that from your “engage in fishing expedition” with “rationalizations that people make in defense of the state.” I will not believe the stream of logic that you make up. There is nothing wrong in any way of anyone photographing the layout of a class room, much less a cop.

[longtermmemmory]

where are the no tresspassing signs. (don't give the he was a cop excuse) If you are going to hold him to the same rules then he gets the same rules. The custodian could EASILY have not let him in. But he did, once in he was an invitee and the presence was valid. (see also bowers vs. hardwick where a deputy was let into an apartment to serve a subpeana and was unfortunate to walk in on an illegal act.)

[ValerieUSA]

a cop could enter the mayor's office after hours, open a locked file cabinet and copy official papers without a warrant if he knows the custodian.

Mott dot NOT go into the principal's office and break into a cabinet and photocopy confidential personnel records. Nice try.
He went into the public classroom and took pictures of projects on DISPLAY.

[RonF]

Oh my god what are you people talking about?!?!? This is a police officer. This is a public building! He can go anywhere in the public domain. That is his job.

No, it's not. His job is not "to go anywhere in the public domain.", investigating anything that offends him. His job is to enforce the law. This teacher's activities are apparently offensive, but there is no allegation here that this teacher broke the law. So, the policeman had no legitimate reason to use his publicly granted position and authority for this purpose. This is an abuse of police powers.

Political activity and spying has a long and sordid history in America, including here in the Chicago area. It is a pernicious way for "political correctness" to be enforced. It should be condemned by any true conservative who is looking to limit the powers of government.

And no, I don't support this teacher's activities. I do support legal ways of exposing it and condemning it.

[MineralMan]

"Our high school has several known communists teaching history. They do not teach the Constitution is an ideal. They do not teach the kids how to think, only to regurgitate offensive remarks about America. The class spends _weeks_ discussing lynching and the japanese internment. The kids are not taught about the American Revolution at all-- they skip it."

Known Communists? Are they members of the Communist Party? How do you know what they teach on a day to day basis. Lynching happened in this country. We did intern citizens of Japanese ancestry. So those things are taught as part of our history. I doubt seriously if they're taught for the whole semester.

I do not believe that children in your school are not taught about the American Revolution. I do not believe that at all. It is part of the curriculum.

However, if what you say is true, then it's time to get your friends together, go to the school board meetings and demand an explanation. If the school board doesn't listen, then recall them. It's easy to do, you know.

Do you realize how few votes are needed to elect a school board in most communities?

I hear what you're saying, but complaining about it does no good. Take action. We have a wonderful system here in California that enables us to throw out the school board and replace them at any time. Many districts have done so.

But...before you start, make sure you're right. You're making statements that aren't supportable. Yes, I'm sure that the Japanese internment and lynchings are taught about, but I'm equally sure that does not constitute all the subjects that are taught. Unless you can demonstrate that these things did not happen, then you have no case.

Get your _facts_ together and do something. You have that right. If you don't exercise it, you're just complaining, and that's useless.

I've already told you that we've already done that stuff in my community. Now the schools are outstanding. You can do the same, but you will have do do something more than whine.

[dirtboy]

An overblown analogy, and you know it!

No. The poster is claiming that a cop can go into any public space because he is a cop. The mayor's office is a public space. Therefore, under the poster's guidelines, a cop should be able to go into the mayors office after hours and search it at will if he disagrees with the mayor's politics.

The fact that the cop was out of his jurisdiction just makes the poster's claim even more absurd. This would be like a cop from Camden driving over to Philly during his shift and searching John Street's locked office...

[Eva]

When you were a kid, you never got the custodian to let you in the school to get a book that you forgot? I did, lot's of times. Of course, I lived almost across the street from the school.

[FreedomCalls]

Rosa Parks violated the law too when she sat in the front of that bus in Montgomery in 1955.

The students from Lane College broke the law when they sat at the lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro in 1960.

Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.

"A single spark can start a prairie fire."

[MineralMan]

"Town or county? I am really curious."

County.

[RonF]

In my school district, teachers always keep their rooms locked so that kids are not in their rooms in the morning until an adult is there to supervise them. Schools are often used for Scout and other community meetings. By keeping the rooms locked, there's no problems with vandalism, etc.

[f.Christian]

Do you go along with this ...

and with what is being taught in public schools ? ?

The fr pat henry ... self appointed mind and lives guardian // czar --- of other people's children via govt money -- schools --- very strange -- weird !

ph ...

So why should biologists worry about creationists? It's precisesly for the reason you say -- to prevent irrationality and bogus "science" from being rammed into (and thus ruining) the still-forming minds of innocent children.

271 posted on 05/01/2003 8:03 AM PDT by PatrickHenry (Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)

[dirtboy]

Mott dot NOT go into the principal's office and break into a cabinet and photocopy confidential personnel records. Nice try. He went into the public classroom and took pictures of projects on DISPLAY.

First of all, I was responding to the poster's claim that a cop can enter any public space. You and I would agree that such a claim is absurd.

Second, the cop entered a locked space outside his jurisdiction while on duty and entered that space without the permission of the school board or the school administrators. As a cop, he was either aware he was abusing his powers or was unaware. Both are bad indicators of his suitability to wear the badge, as well as the fact that he was wasting taxpayer money while on duty in pursuit of his own political agenda.

[Freedom2specul8]

Our internet keeps going out cuz of the storm..sorry it takes so long to get back to ya. (we use cable)

Thanks for clarifying..My point is, that one does not need a uniform to get the pictures.. If I can do it..anyone can do it.

[dirtboy]

Do you go along with this ... and with what is being taught in public schools ? ?

No, and I have already said that. I just don't think that the end justifies the means here. And I find it extremely ironic that so many posters on this thread who are bemoaning the communistic leanings of this teacher ... are willing to accept the means of abuse of power to justify this particular end.