"Commie" Teacher Banned For Illegal School Trips To Cuba

Fidel Castro, in a Cuban government released photo, last Friday

Time to flashback to 2007, when a history teacher at the Beacon School was in hot water for arranging a class trip to Cuba. See, there are travel restrictions to Cuba and the kids were detained by customs agents from their way back to New York. Now, showing how slowly bureaucracy moves, the Department of Education finally released its report on the incident and decided to ban teacher Nathan Turner from the school system.

Among the highlights of the DOE investigator's report (PDF): How Turner was told to cancel the trip by the DOE and his principal, Ruth Lacey, but he still went with the kids; parents were aware of the trip and knew the school didn't sponsor it (though it was listed on the school's website); and Turner telling Lacy that he's a Communist and had to visit Cuba "to see Castro one more time before he died." The school had trips to Cuba since 2000 (even Governor David Paterson's stepdaughter went on one!), but in 2007, Lacey claimed to worry that Castro's declining health might prompt "instability" in the country.

Turner, who parents said was popular with students (and why not—he was taking them to Cuba!), quit in 2008, but the decision to ban him was made with the release of the report. DOE Investigations Commissioner Richard Condon told the Daily News, "He put these students in some jeopardy of suffering either civil or criminal penalties..If he were not a teacher he would not have had access to those students. and we don't think he should have made the trip." Condon also said to the Post that the principal acted appropriately, "I don’t think [Lacey] could have done anything more to stop the trip except stand at the border with a gun in her hands."

Last week, the DOE fired a teacher for taking her students on a field trip to Long Beach, where a student drowned as no lifeguards were on duty; the school's assistant principal was demoted and the principal was disciplined.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on July 21, 2010 9:45 AM

Comments [rss]

Sharese

I went to Beacon. Ms. Lacey is a liar. We had bake sales for it and it was advertised on our website and classroom. Thanks for letting Mr. Turner take one for the team. I regret not going with him.

John L

Who paid for this trip?

NannyState

Maybe instead he could've taken his class to Colombia to make ammo runs for the FARC rebels.

YourMother99

Gotham's loss - an excellent teacher.

nik13

You don't want to visit Cuba, period. Nostalgia for communism & Che thing notwithstanding. You have to exchange money at rate they dictate you, there's absolutely nothing to spend it on & you cannot change it back to original currency upon leaving. Those who dared to go there as tourists, never return. If you're Che worshipper, that's a different story though.

potsmoker

"Those who dared to go there as tourists, never return"

can you document this somewhere???

haha, cuba is a beatiful country, the people are great and they love and use american dollars everywhere.

never return, hahhaa.

right yeah good work...hahaha

napalm

Sshhhhhh. Don't you know that it is so unAmerican and unpatriotic to not think the way our innocent government wants you to think?

How dare you "not" be brainwashed!!!!

jpeditor

Yeah, you better go to support Castro who puts artists in jail.

http://www.therealcuba.com/

potsmoker

i dont care what the state dept says, no way in hell are they stopping me from visiting my latin people or my commie friends.

VIVA FIDEL!

jpeditor

Did you know that Fidel Casto is predicted to die on a major holiday?

THATS BECAUSE WHENEVER FIDEL DIES IT WILL BE A MAJOR HOLIDAY!

Death to tyrants!

ides_of_march

Why the scare quotes around "commie" ? He flat out said he was a communist.

jpeditor

No freedom of the press, no real elections for decades, gays, poets and artists imprisoned for decades.

WHAT A PARADISE. OUR STUDENTS MUST BE SHOWN HOW WONDERFUL CUBA IS!

/sarcasm off

thefacts

You seem to know so much about Cuba.

Why don't you educate us on how pleasant it was under Fulgencio, Batista, Myer Lansky and Mafia prior to Fidel's Revolution.

At least Fidel doesn't stick in hypodermic needles into political prisoners' eyeballs and extract the synovial fluid as means to preserve "democracy" on the island, as Batista did.

jpeditor

Here you go, commie-arse licker:

http://www.cubaverdad.net/torture_in_cuba.htm

nik13

They just shoot them since la revolucion. Thefacts are Che himself emptied prisons by killing all detained, whatever reasons for their detention were. Cuba cannot feed itself. They need 9.6B of food imports to survive. Under Batista it was a major food exporter. Castro brothers are thought to have 960M in foreign accounts. Some years ago Fidel had an idea to provide miniature cows so all Cuban families had access to fresh milk on daily bases. Reason? No electricity to run family refrigerators with milk bought in stores. Google, if you need proof.

jpeditor

Shhh, you're confusing the commies with facts.

Kojak

Whatever. Cuba doesn't care. They want Americans to visit and spend cash. Its time to lift this ridiculous embargo. I envy those students.

Jen S

Someone told me recently that it's open for visiting again, but he was dead wrong. Bastard, I was excited for a hot minute.

Kojak

You COULD visit, via Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, etc. And chances are you won't be caught. But if the gov't does find out you'll be fined a hefty amount, but theres usually no jail time.

That's what I was thinking HCE. Maybe some permission slips that said "School trip to CUBA".