Posted on 05/07/2003 4:13:42 AM PDT by .30Carbine
Vermont Cop Story: AP's Bias or America's?
May 6, 2003
I spent Tuesday's Hour One discussing this story about Vermont police officer John Mott. While off duty at 1:30 AM, Mott entered a high school through an open service door. He then asked a janitor to unlock a classroom so he could take pictures of displays by "passionate pacifist" teacher Tom Treece to present to an attorney.
The Associated Press headlines this story: "Vt. Cop Photographed Class Projects," pointing a finger at the cop as the villain. We had to go to a local paper, the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, to find the classroom details. But this is not a media bias story. I held off giving my opinion on these events just to see what my audience's reaction would be, as you'll see below. More:
The officer reports taking pictures of "a poster of President Bush with duct tape over his mouth and a large papier-mâché combat boot with the American flag stuffed inside stepping on a doll, along with pictures of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his co-thug reactionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. They aren't "pacifists"! Besides, the whole so-called peace movement was organized around defending and protecting Saddam Hussein! The slogan: "All hail the idiot boy king" was posted next to a picture of President Bush as, Treece claimed, "a reason to reject the high school budget."
If Mr. Treece posted pictures of me and Ronald Reagan on the wall, this cop would be a hero and the teacher would be on his way out. Apparently there were "rumors" about this teacher's curriculum, so this officer investigated. It's reported that there's a "backlash" against Officer Mott, but not that there was any sort of backlash against the class content. Why does it take a cop, taking pictures at 1:30 AM on his own time, to find out what's going on in this class? Where are the parents?
Is this not a public school? Our legal division doesn't see any constitutional issue on the officer entering the classroom in his private or public capacity; there's no expectation of privacy in a public school. We had a police officer call us up and say that Mott was off duty and out of his jurisdiction, so he shouldn't have entered the school or asked to be let into the locked classroom. You can hear such calls below along with my lengthily reporting of the details. I dedicated more than an hour to this story, and here's why:
After 70 minutes of discussion, all my e-mails and calls similarly focused on the cop - just like AP did. "So what, Rush?" So we hear education this and education that all the time in this country. Everybody claims to care about teaching "the children." But if we really cared about education, 90% of the garbage going on inside classrooms wouldn't be permitted. We would have parents involved in their children's education that know every word on the chalkboard and in the books. A police officer - who from this story doesn't seem to have any kids in the school much less in Treece's class - wouldn't have to enter through a service door and then ask a janitor to unlock the classroom for him. The parents would have expressed their outrage; instead, there wasn't a peep.
In my opinion - nothing. Both practice indoctrination, not education. They are both teaching children to hate - and in both cases it's to hate America and virtually all of the values that made us strong and free.
If we have one priority after the war on terrorism - fixing this problem is it. Starting at the NEA would be a good place.
Hey, then contact the moderators. Show them my violations of the forum guidelines. Actually, show ME the forum guidelines that a thread must stay on one rigid part of a topic and YOU get to be the arbiter of that topic, especially when the title of the thread conflicts with what you think the direction of the thread should be. This ought to be interesting.
If the title won't do it for you then try reading the last paragraph of the article. At least.
After 70 minutes of discussion, all my e-mails and calls similarly focused on the cop - just like AP did. "So what, Rush?" So we hear education this and education that all the time in this country. Everybody claims to care about teaching "the children." But if we really cared about education, 90% of the garbage going on inside classrooms wouldn't be permitted. We would have parents involved in their children's education that know every word on the chalkboard and in the books. A police officer - who from this story doesn't seem to have any kids in the school much less in Treece's class - wouldn't have to enter through a service door and then ask a janitor to unlock the classroom for him. The parents would have expressed their outrage; instead, there wasn't a peep.
There! Now do you have a clue as to the focus of this thread?
Your kidding right ? There have been a number of national stories about teachers who went overboard on the anti-war anti-bush politics. Someone could help me here but they include the professor in NY, the teacher in FL who lost his job, etc.
These stories made national news all by themselves without the aid of a police officer.
Again, there is no story here unless it were the teacher who hijacked a classroom for his politics. If he had paintings and vases it wouldn't even have made the local paper.
Mickey D's is open 24 hours, and you can get a hamburger at the drive-thru window. The school, however, is closed for business at that time. No prejudice involved, although I find it hilarious that you would try to make a point this way.
Interesting that the Super never raised the issue as being improper, illegal or against school rules but you do.
From the link in post #137.
Superintendent Dorothy Anderson says she's concerned that Mott used his uniform to gain access to a locked classroom after hours without supervision.
"I find this behavior, at the very least, in violation of our policy for visitors at the school," she wrote in a letter to the police chief.
Please do try to keep up here. And go ahead and put up another strawman for me.
I think the school should have a general policy regarding politics in the classroom and adhere to it in both directions. If they allow completely open political positions by the teachers and allow the teachers to incorporate those positions, then both sides can vent. If they restrict it, then both sides are restricted. I think what I've seen on the teacher's door and in his classroom goes too far for someone on the public dime. But that's just my opinion.
Let's just review the bidding, shall we?
At post #53, you said "I think it's far more likely that most of the students love him, and the school will be proud to stand up for his rights."
Then, at #64, you posted positive quotes from Treece's students, taken from a Times Argus article.
At #69 you claimed Treece was "teaching them to think for themselves."
At #72 you opined that Treece's students "must be having a lot of fun, and learning a lot, too."
Then, at #126, you suddenly remembered calling the school earlier in the morning -- something you hadn't thought to mention during all the previous posts in which you praised the excellent qualities of Treece. Also noteworthy is your use of terms like "far more likely" and "must be having" -- indicating that you had no personal knowledge of the situation at that time.
I see little reason to believe you ever spoke with a student, or for that matter, to believe anything else you have to say.
I never said that. Both are engaging in political activities, IMO, while on the public's dime, and I don't approve of either doin that, independent of their respective political views. If the cop did this on this own time, I would only have a problem with how he got into the school, which appears to be a violation of the school's public access guidelines.
Then why charachterize his actions as "slinking" if your not prejudice against a third shifter. Or is it that you want to create the impression of his wrong doing when he entered an open door and requeste access.
From the link in post #137.
Superintendent Dorothy Anderson says she's concerned that Mott used his uniform to gain access to a locked classroom after hours without supervision.
Which actually indicates the Super didn';t think anything he did was wrong or he would have claimed it was. All he said was "she's concerned" (sound familiar)
"I find this behavior, at the very least, in violation of our policy for visitors at the school," she wrote in a letter to the police chief. That is new information for me and I think she is stretching. They actually have a policy for after hours visits ? What they most likely have is a policy for visitors to check in at the office. When the school is closed its obvious the policy would not apply and I bet their are plenty of events where this doesn't work, ie after hours games in the gym, plays etc.
Your kidding right ? There have been a number of national stories about teachers who went overboard on the anti-war anti-bush politics. Someone could help me here but they include the professor in NY, the teacher in FL who lost his job, etc.
And there are probably far more who we never hear about nationally.
These stories made national news all by themselves without the aid of a police officer.
However, Rush made this particular story into a big deal because of the criticism of the police officer's actions. Therefore, the cop's actions are a key element of the story, if not THE key element here.
Again, there is no story here unless it were the teacher who hijacked a classroom for his politics. If he had paintings and vases it wouldn't even have made the local paper.
Another quality strawman courtesy of VRWC_minion.
Hardly. Your claiming that if the cop came up empty handed with no pictures of anything but spelling contest results this would have made his show or his web site ?
Its inconceivable you don't know what strawman means.
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