Vermont Cop Story: AP's Bias or America's?

Rush Limbaugh ^ | May 6, 2003 | Rush Limbaugh

[.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.

[tsmith130]

Hmmmm....I'm curious what would have happened had the officer found sexually explicit posters displayed around the classroom....with duct tape replacing fig leaves!

[Copernicus]

Thanks for posting this.

I heard part of this on Limbaugh and couldn't sort it out.

What Rush doesn't seem to realize is both the janitor and the Police officer are in jeopardy here.

An officer in uniform even "on break" or "off duty" is essentially acting under color of law when he makes a request of employees to assist him in a way which would ordinarily be considered unusual.

A staff member who co-operates with a request from anyone without proper authority is considered to be violating the "confidentiality under hire" statutes of his state.

Your mileage may vary in your jurisdiction, but the concept is widely understood everywhere.

How would Rush like it if the janitor conducted studio tours of EIB after hours?

The Police Officer should have found some other way to achieve his goal.

A good reprimand will be had by all.

Best regards,

[mdmathis6]

How about if the cop had been a reporter(either liberal or conservative)....would it have been less wrong?

[CobaltBlue]

Let's cut to the chase.

The cop knew some parents had a beef with the teacher.

He decided to investigate, on his own time (he probably saw somebody do it in a movie).

He found some radical student poster artwork and took photos.

Now the teacher is a national cause celebre' and will never never never be fired.

Plus, he's a hero to the students.

Not at all a smart move on the cop's part, I'd say.

And, if you're a teacher, I assume you don't want strangers walking around the school unescorted. In my county (Fairfax) the cop would lose his job and possibly be prosecuted.

[Hank Kerchief]

Breaking the law is wrong.

So you believe the American Revolution was wrong.

Those who cannot distinguish between right and wrong as opposed to legal or illegal are morally bankrupt.

Hank

[TheOtherOne]

Many people here look at rogue cops with more distrust than rogue teachers. I certainly see that as the bigger concern in this story. Rogue cops and people like you who think they can just walk into any public building anytime they like. You would be sumarily arrested if you tried to enter a school after midnight without permission.

[Freedom4US]

This citizen is damn proud that this officer took the time to expose this so-called "teacher" and his propaganda. If only we had a million more just like him. All the weenies complaining are diverting the issue to his actions, rather than the execrable behaviour of individuals who are warping our children's minds. I know very well their strategies, follow their party line or risk your grades. I wouldn't put that guy in charge of latrine clean-up, and here he is spewing his filth to kids.

[longtermmemmory]

Regardless of the nitpicking, the officer is not charged with a crime. The school board can't because the tresspassing is a non-issue. The only way the intimidation becomes an issue if the picteres were to be a "fruit of the poisonous tree" in a court of law under the rules of evidence. This is not a court, this is a school board budget issue. Should this teachers budget be cut? This art will be considered.

[Yeti]

The photographed poster looks like something high school students would do, showing off how "radical" they are.

The Bumper stickers stuck to the door were not done by students.

The cop *was* let in. The trespassing issue is a red herring. The teacher in question wants to talk about anything EXCEPT the fact that he uses the classroom as his personal soapbox. When you do that on the taxpayers' dime you're a fraud.

MoneyRunner, of course FReepers are going to address the cop's staus and legal standing in doing what he did, since that's how the matter was framed in the first place.

But this isn't some sort of miranda or search-and-siezure issue where the results somehow don't count if they were improperly obtained.

The bumper stickers on the door are enough to tell anyone that this guy is NOT "giving all sides of the issues" to his students. I know the type, my daughter had an english teacher like this. They use the walls of the classroom AND their capacity as a teacher to incessantly foist their views on the kids, then they try to endear themselves and, by extention, their ideology to the kids by basically giving away grades.

I guarantee nobody has been failed by this guy recently. The english teacher in my daughter's school had peta stuff on the walls, vagina art, etc ... I got a look into her gradebook(she showed it to me to show me my daughter's grades) at open house and the lowest grade in the whole class was a 97. Needless to say, my daughter loved her.

What irks me more than anything else about this type is the fact that, irrespective of the philosophy they espouse, the kids are not getting properly educated in the class. They bomb next semester in the class that this one was supposed to prepare them for, but they never see that it was the easy-A teacher that betrayed them, they just hate the next one for being so "hard."

[TankerKC]

Apparently there were "rumors" about this teacher's curriculum, so this officer investigated.

Was the officer "investigating" or was he on a break outside his jurisdiction?

I think the taxpayers in this town have every right to know what is going on in their public schools. If I were a taxpayer or parent of a student there, I’d do all that I could to get rid of this moronic teacher.

So, where is the rest of the story. Why did this cop have to go to the school in the middle of the night? Has there been an effort to keep parents from seeing what is going on in the class? I’d like to no more.

[longtermmemmory]

Its not tresspassing. The janitor let him in. The officer lacked criminal intent.

Since there appears to be no signs posted at this building, the only way to be advised to get off the property is by the authorized agent, the janitor.

BTW if a student showed up at 1:30 to go to a locker because they forgot a book in a locker, the janitor or security would allow them in. Real life experience says this is reasonable.

No criminal case = no tresspassing

You should also consider how this plays on OTHER teachers.

[TankerKC]

Do you have a link for the previous post on this topic? I can't find it.

[truthchaser]

The email address of this teacher is posted for the public at the following address:
http://www.vita-learn.org/shs/depots/ssh-depot.html

I wasn't able to find one for the Principal or School Board Members. It's not clear to me who actually produced these "expressions", students or teacher, but they cross a line (even for Vermont) and are another example of the rampant socio-political leftist proselytizing that is allowed to go on in our schools.

Can you imagine a few years ago, how long a little montage of Clinton with stained dress, cigar and dropped trousers would have stayed up on the wall? Or how about today... would the co-Principals of this school allow a poster of themselves with duct-taped mouth and "liar" and "coward" headlines to stay up in the school cafeteria as precious example of youth "development" and "healthy skepticism"?

No, call 'em out on this. If the parents of these children won't engage, then maybe they could all use a little Freep treatment.

[John O]

First of all you cannot tresspass on a public building. As a taxpayer you OWN the building.

Now you could be guilty of breaking and entering if you had to jimmy a lock or some such, however the officer walked in through an open (unlocked) door. Exactly as if he had entered the court house during the lunch hour. If the door is open on a public building then all are welcome inside.

He also did not break and enter the classroom as the janitor unlocked it for him.

The Officer was 100% correct in all his actions.

Someone previously mentioned that people would get upset about someone going through the mayors desk. The same rules apply. The mayor is a public employee, his desk is public property, the contents of his desk are public property and he has (or should have) no delusions of any privacy in his office. Public officials offices should never have doors.

The teacher in this case should be tried for sedition. That is against the law. Especially during wartime.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks ! bttt . . .

[MeekOneGOP]

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[Tamzee]

Apparently parents had complained already to the school. The bumper stickers on the door, extreme projects, etc, show that the school was failing to do anything about the problem. This needed to be exposed.

A student would face potential grade problems or hassle from the teacher if one of them tried to take the pictures him/herself to expose what was happening. School officials can prevent parents from doing the same, especially if the parents are seen in "conflict" with the school or teacher already.

While the cop's actions were pushing the envelope a bit, he was NOT trespassing as he had permission from a school employee to enter. I applaud his taking action like this and wish more citizens of all occupations would do the same.

[sergeantdave]

The school is a public building open to the public. Nothing wrong with a cop looking around a public building. End of story.

This teacher, with his "goddess bless the world" poster, is a neo-fascist blood and soil cultist. Parents are now alerted that a fascist nature worshipper espousing a nature cult religion has infiltrated their school. Allowing this poster on the door is a clear violation of the separation of church and state. He should be fired.

The cop should get a medal for exposing this dangerous cultist. The cop should run for governor.

[doubtfullyhopefull]

Why doesn't some parent of a student in that class sue the school for breaching the the freedom from religion rule the ACLU and public schools are so big on?
Oh, I forgot, the religion of the "mother goddess" is PC because it has no rules on moral conduct, unlike any Judeo-Christian beliefs which will not be tolerated!

"THE MOTHER GODDESS BLESS THE EARTH"

[VRWC_minion]

Why was it necessary for him to enter the class room at 1:30 AM?

Why not ? The public should be able to access it anytime. It is public property.