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.
No, they are simply the drug addicted libertarians who put their own selfish desires first.
That is silly. The door was open.
They do in my town and will admit just about anyone that is a resident.
You might want to reveiw the difference between public and private property.
Each town and/or school will establish its own regulations regarding access to school and school grounds. The mere fact that this was off school hours in no way indicates that the school was supposed to be closed to the public. The fact the door was opened and the janitor allowed him in and their were no other signs warning against entry then the presumption would be that the public would be allowed access. Unlike private property where the presumption is you should not have access unless invited even if the door is open.
What will really be entertaining is your response when the parents get together to force this marxist punk into early retirement.
Its you thats mistaken if you don't think this is possible(or even likely).
Yes, of course. If it were otherwise the door would be locked or a sign would be posted and the janitor would have instructed him to leave.
Try going to a public school - one where you don't have any kids. Ask to see a classroom. They'll politely ask you to leave. If you refuse, they'll call the cops who will assist you in leaving.
Just because a facility is owned by the government, it doesn't mean you can access it whenever you want. The cop in question was on duty in another jurisdiction, but took it upon himself to go to a school where he had no official business and that was out of his jurisdiction to pursue his own personal political agenda. That is wrong and an abuse of power and ethical guidelines.
If you wanna go after this jerk teacher through the school board and/or the ballot box, go for it. I'll be behind the effort 100 percent - I think what he is doing is reprehensible. However, I'm not going to fight a commie by adapting the commie philosophy that the end justifies the means - I cannot condone what this individual did.
Suffice it to say you and I have a radically different view of what are a teacher's "rights" with my kids.
Uh, since the parents knew about it, it already was exposed. The next step would be to take it to the school board. If they refuse to act, the next step is to work to toss out the school board - and, from what I have heard, the community is predominently conservative, so that shouldn't be a problem.
The answer is not to have a cop on duty go outside his jurisdiction to enter a school building after hours. In the end, it depends what the actual school after-hours access policy is to determine how in the wrong the cop was.
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