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Weeks after the Department of Education sent a memo around to principals trying to get them to crack down on teachers expressing their political views in the classroom, the teachers' union has responded with a lawsuit saying the rule demanding they maintain neutrality in front of students violates their First Amendment rights. The suit comes on the heels of one teacher being asked to remove political buttons they were wearing and another having the Obama poster they had put up on a union bulletin board taken down. Before the recent enforcement of the rule, teachers say that the Department had turned a blind eye to it and wearing political buttons--as recently as this year's primaries--was second nature. Randi Weingarten, the union president, said to the Times, “Students can only benefit from being exposed to and engaged in a dialogue about current events.”
Teachers Sue Over Endorsing in the Classroom
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The Department of Education in this town really needs to redirect their efforts on getting other problems taken care of instead of causing new ones. If a teacher wants to wear their political views then who the hell cares so long as they are doing a good job giving children an education.
Students aren't supposed to be held captive by the radical left until college.
Those kids aren't adults yet and they haven't formed their own opinions on politics. They should have their teachers imposing their political leanings on the students.
*shouldn't
Ah yes, Randi Weingarten that shining beacon of wanting what is best for her union and not the kids spinning away. She sounds like someone who is running for office.
If you don't see how a teacher "expressing" their personal political views upon their students is problematic, you must never have had any decent teachers yourself.
Granted there are other issues the DOE needs to solve, but I don't see how that has any bearing on this matter.
And the defense that the rule was not enforced before is hardly acceptable. Instead of being happy to get away with it for this long, you are complaining that you are now being made to follow the rules?
Problem is, if a teacher defies the rules and promotes a candidate anyway, there's not much that can really be done to them now, is there?
A public school classroom is not the place for a teacher to endorse a particular candidate or another one. He or she has a responsibility to develop a child's civic engagement skills, which can only come from nurturing their own critical thinking and information gathering abilities.
Now if a civics teacher were to have a class where the students had to learn the positions of all the candidates on foreign policy, the economy, the environment and medicaire, then that's a totally different story.
But I don't want my gym teacher telling kids how to vote. Even if I might agree with him.
Half those students can not read the shirts or buttons anyway.
Endorsing a political view and imposing it on students are two different things. What the hell is wrong with expressing ideas and opinions?
Just like you can't recite the pledge of allegiance in class you can't wear political buttons. If other kids can't wear hitler t-shirts then why can teachers wear mcCain/obama shirts? this is totally wrong. plus those kids can't vote anyway. If I know public school students then anything their old fart teachers endorse they will be against so it's not really good for their candidate of choice.
My immediate knee-jerk reaction to this suit is BS. Teachers have no "First amendment right" to express their personal, political leanings in a classroom. Students have been sent home to many times for wearing clothing that expressed what they felt was their "1stAR." Politics like religion ought remain out of the classroom so as not to distract from the course material at hand.
If the election process was the theme of the class I still do not believe teachers need unduly influence their pupils. That is the purview of parents and the media. Teacher are there for reading, writing and arithmetic.
Stop indoctrinating these kids and start educating them! It's utterely unacceptable to have these teachers forcing their politics down their students' throats. Randi Weingarten is a marxist whore.
How would they like it if the NRA, military recruiters or John Birch Society came into the schools to give presentations?
If a conservative minded teacher started expressing his/her views in the class, there'd be hell to pay.
Oh, Please. "Pull My Finger" is right, but I'll say more than half of those kids can't even read at grade level much less form political opinions. So long as they can sneak their precious cell phone into the school their world view only encompass who they can have sex with and wonder when their face is going to clear up.
i think that teacher's should keep political opinions to themselves aka hint subtlety
This is a place to WORK. Not a place to make (shape?) political statements.
A sharp kid, if there's still such a thing, could see their teacher's political views and then game the system by slanting their work towards that teacher's POV and get a higher grade. A not-so-smart kid might get agitated or distracted by a polarizing message T. I mean, for god's sake, half the teachers out there are so terrified about overplaying their gender in the classroom but it's ok to lay on the politics? Who hires these people?
I had a teacher in middle school who put a "Choose Life" bumper sticker on the door of our class room. (In Massachusetts no less.) It was up for maybe a one period and then we had a substitute for the rest of the week. My poor mother had to then explain to an 11 year old what abortion is. That teacher should have been arrested for pulling such a stunt.
Just saying that if we allow for politics in the classroom it could open a flood gate of political agendas- like abotion, gay marriage, etc. that probably serve no purpose but to distract students from the real purppose of being in school- which is to learn.
Yea, because God knows they'll definitely learn nothing valuable about abortion, being gay or politics while in school and serves no purpose whatsoever. That's why we have such critical thinkers in society today. God bless America!
schadenfreudian mensch, I'm not talking about sex ed or enlightened teachers who did things like mock - votes. I'm talkinng about PUSHING A PERSONAL AGENDA.