Teacher: African-Americans Most Poorly Behaved Students

NBC4.tv ^ | October 22, 2002

[maxcygregg]

LOS ANGELES -- A high school science teacher in Pasadena is on paid administrative leave for claiming in a letter to teachers that African-American students are the most poorly behaved at the school.

Scott Phelps has taught at John Muir High School for 12 years. He was put on leave Monday by the Pasadena Unified School District for what board member Ed Honowitz calls a "disturbing" letter placed in teachers' mailboxes on Friday.

Phelps denies he is racist, saying he was trying to make a point that standardized test scores will go down next year at Muir because ninth- and 11th-grade classes are primarily low socio-economic African-Americans lacking academic focus.

"If you look at their scores and track them over the years you will see that they're horrible,' Phelps said. "I'm not singling out a group. I'm not saying that low test scores are caused by low socio-economic students, I'm saying that low scores and low socio-economic students are directly related."

"There are cultural behaviors... but once you talk about it racist," said Phelps.

District spokesman Erik Nasarenko would only say there was an investigation into allegations of misconduct.

"People found the material within the email to be offensive. That is what is under investigation right now," said Nasarenko.

If misconduct is found, Phelps could be terminated.

Phelps wrote that "overwhelmingly, the students whose behavior makes the hallways deafening, who yell out for the teacher and demand immediate attention in class, who cannot seem to stop chatting and are fascinated by each other and relationships but not with academics ... are African-American."

"You can't classify whole groups of kids based on stereotypes," Horowitz said. "In addition, we need to do a good job educating every kid in this district no matter what background they come from."

The Muir student body is about 47 percent African-American and 42 percent Hispanic.

[stboz]

Yes, I know, "chimpanzees." It was intentional.

You wanna eata bannana?

[deport]

My bad those were national numbers..... sorry I mis understood the discussion.....

The Florida numbers are:

---

				GORE	BUSH	BUCHANAN	NADER
	Are you:
	% of total		category	% of category
	73		White	40	57	0	2
	15		Black	93	7	0	0
	11		Hispanic/Latino	48	49	1	0
	1		Asian	0	0	0	0
	1		Other	0	0	0	0

[mafree]

All of the research from Thomas Sowell's "Ethnic America" backs up exactly what the teacher is saying. His assertion (meticulously documented) was that it is the minority culture of victim hood which is hurting Black people in America, and not racism. And that those minority groups who hold values like education and hard work as their core values (like the Japanese minority in California for example) continually out perform those that do not.

Bingo.

[Jason_b]

Intentional? Sure. I believe that.

Personally, I dread the prospect of posting typos.
I must proofread each of my posts 50 times just to avoid posting a typo.
And it still happens sometimes.

[Inkie]

those minority groups who hold values like education and hard work as their core values (like the Japanese minority in California for example) continually out perform those that do not.

Just like it works for white people (mirabile dictu!).

[martin gibson]

It will be entertaining, to say the least, to watch school officials squirm their way out of this one.

What makes you think for one short second the neo-Stalinist chairing the Pasadena Unified School District school board will 'squirm' in the least?

They will fire the teacher publicly and with great theatrical indignation as a warning to anyone else so inclined to similar 'thought crime'.

Then they will fire anyone else who even looks at them funny as a result of the first termination.

Any show of public support for Phelps will be dismissed as 'hate speech'. Any public review of Phelps' dismissal will be labeled 'racist'.

[john in missouri]

No, ya derned fool! That's Athens!

Dang. And here I thought Athens was in Texas.

[martin gibson]

OOOOOOOh, Dude, you are, like, such a racist with all your hate speech when you could, like, do a little interpretive dance in order to, uh, celebrate diversity, like, uh, with all the oppressed peoples and wemyn and stuff. Like, because of the Nazis. And stuff.

C-c-c-can't we all j-j-j-just get along?

[Inkie]

Phelps is a Cal Tech graduate who has dedicated his life to teaching in a deprived area high school. He could have had a very lucrative career with his qualifications, or at the very least, he could have had his pick of elite schools. But no. He chose to help those who really needed his gifts. What fools they will be to throw that away.

[Wolfstar]

What are "black issues?" How do conservatives go out there and REALLY FIGHT for the black vote?

[MistrX]

In PC America, the patently obvious must be scrupulously ignored.

[Jeff Chandler]

Dude... you could, like, do a little interpretive dance...

I'm afraid that is not possible, for, you see, all the rhythm has been bred out of my people.