Friday, February 05, 2010

Ohio High School Promotes Obama Agenda in Classroom

And still no apparent action against the propagandist. It was just a silly mistake, apparently. What would have happened if the material promoted Sarah Palin? Not hard to guess

An Ohio high school teacher's giving students job applications for a Democratic organization that included suggested radical reading material has raising concerns of indoctrination in the classroom. The government teacher at Perry High School in Massillon, Ohio, handed out forms recruiting students to intern for Organizing for America, a grassroots organization with direct ties to the Democratic National Committee and the successor organization for Obama for America. Included on the forms was a suggested reading list that included Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" and Organizing for America's mission to build on the "movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda of change."

No Republican equivalent was offered to the students, according to Perry schools' Superintendent John Richard. In an interview with FoxNews.com on Wednesday, Richard acknowledged that distribution of the forms violated school policy and said they were never submitted to school administrators for approval, but the teacher remains on the job. "We don't take sides politically, nor should we, and we certainly would not support students being indoctrinated politically or religiously or anything along those lines," he said.

Richard said the social studies teacher, whom he did not name, had no intent of proselytizing his students and was "given the material by another person." Richard said he "addressed" the issue with the teacher, though he declined to say what disciplinary action, if any, had been taken. "The teacher should have looked through this material," Richard said.

Reaction to the forms, first posted on the conservative blog site, Atlas Shrugs, has sparked national outrage, particularly in the blogosphere. Some bloggers called it a "sick intrusion" and said it was nothing more than an attempt to indoctrinate students, while another, Elliott Cook, wrote: "This is all voluntary!!! No one is forcing anyone to do anything they don't want to do."

One blogger claiming to be the parent of a girl in the class, wrote that students were given no option of signing up for a Republican internship. "The only handout was this one," blogger Gracenearing wrote. "My daughter even asked if there was anything else."

The school also has been bombarded with e-mails calling for Richard to be fired, along with Perry High School principal Don Gregoire. "I've been told to go apply in Cuba for a job," Richard said, adding that angry e-mailers have labeled him a communist.

In a Feb. 1, 2010, letter obtained by FoxNews.com, Gregoire apologized to parents, saying the incident was "not acceptable." "We apologize that your son or daughter was given this information without approval," Gregoire wrote. "This error in following Board Policy has been addressed and has been clearly communicated to staff."

SOURCE






NYC: School creep's detention haul

Easy money for millionaire exile

A Queens teacher who collects a $100,000 salary for doing nothing spends time in a Department of Education "rubber room" working on his law practice and managing 12 real-estate properties worth an estimated $7.8 million, The Post found.

Alan Rosenfeld hasn't set foot in a classroom for nearly a decade since he was accused in 2001 of making lewd comments to junior-high girls and "staring at their butts," yet the department still pays him handsomely for sitting on his own butt seven hours a day. In 2001, six eighth-graders at IS 347 in Queens accused Rosenfeld, a typing teacher who filled in for an absent dean, of making comments like "You have a sexy body," asking one whether she had a boyfriend and making others feel uncomfortable with creepy leers.

Because the Department of Education could not produce all the students as witnesses, he was found guilty in only one case. A girl testified that Rosenfeld stopped at her locker, where she was standing with a friend, and "said I love him because I talk to him so much." A DOE hearing officer gave him a slap on the wrist -- a week off without pay -- for "conduct unbecoming a teacher." He was cleared to return to teaching.

Instead, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has kept the scruffy 64-year-old in a Brooklyn rubber room, deeming him too dangerous to be near kids, officials said.

The DOE can't fire him. "We have to abide by the union contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said. So Rosenfeld simply collects his $100,049 salary -- top scale for teachers -- plus full health benefits and the promise of a fat pension, about $82,000 a year if he were to retire today. His pension will grow by $1,700 each year he remains. He could have retired at age 62, but he stays. He has also accumulated about 435 unused sick days -- and will get paid for half of them when he retires. With city teachers trying to negotiate a 4 percent pay hike, Rosenfeld stands to get the raise.

All this largesse comes as Mayor Bloomberg threatens to cut 2,500 teachers to help close a $4 billion budget gap. Meanwhile, the multimillionaire Rosenfeld lords over the rubber room, where he is the oldest and most veteran of 100 teachers. He reports promptly at 7:30 a.m. to the cavernous "reassignment center" on Chapel Street and spreads out at a table cluttered with used paper cups, plastic utensils, bags of food, news clippings and files.

He "smells like he hasn't taken a shower in months," an insider said.

SOURCE






'Bully' British deputy head teacher is fired after death of bulimia victim

Thus closing the barn door after the horse had escaped. Brilliant!

A deputy headmistress has been sacked over allegations that she bullied a colleague who died at school of bulimia. Moira Ogilvie, 39, was suspended from her job at a junior school after the death of fellow teacher Britt Pilton. The 29-year-old was found collapsed on a toilet floor last February and died despite attempts to resuscitate her. Miss Pilton had the eating disorder bulimia and had been prescribed anti- depressants. She died from health problems caused by her illness.

On the day of her death she was said to have been 'in a panic' over teaching notes that had gone missing from a photocopier. She believed the teacher who had been bullying her was responsible. The teacher accused of bullying Miss Pilton at High Greave Junior School, Rotherham, was not identified at the inquest into her death last June. But Kelly Parkin, a colleague and friend of Miss Pilton, told the hearing: 'The teacher involved would go round and bully a different teacher until they left and Britt felt she was the next one. 'Two or three other teachers left as a result of the bullying.'

The local education authority has since investigated and yesterday revealed that the teacher had been dismissed. A close friend of Miss Pilton confirmed Miss Ogilvie was the teacher sacked.

Miss Pilton's inquest heard her bulimia may have been made worse because of the levels of anxiety she experienced. A pathologist said she died of bulimia syndrome associated with lack of blood flow to the gut. Dr Len Harvey said: 'People with bulimia literally can just die for no apparent reason.'

Miss Pilton, from Woodlaithes, Rotherham, had complained to the National Union of Teachers about the bullying but the teacher she blamed found out and confronted her, a colleague told the inquest. She was engaged and had been planning to marry last summer. Those plans and her love of teaching meant she felt unable to leave her post, the hearing was told.

Her father Trevor, a retired deputy headmaster, said her stress at work was 'almost the sole topic of conversation'.

Teaching assistant Rachel Green told the hearing of Miss Pilton's panic over the missing notes: 'She was sure with events going on at the time that a certain person had taken them to spite her, to go and see the headteacher about the standard of her lessons.'

Rotherham Coroner Nicola Munday recorded a narrative verdict, saying Miss Pilton had faced 'additional pressures in her working environment which led to considerable levels of anxiety over a period of months'.

A spokesman for Rotherham Council said: 'This case has now been resolved and the teacher involved has been dismissed. 'The result of this case will now be passed on to the General Teaching Council to consider.' The GTC is the profession's official body and if it finds a teacher guilty of breaching standards they can be permanently struck off.

The school refused to comment and Miss Ogilvie was unavailable for comment. Miss Pilton's fiancé James French refused to comment, but confirmed Miss Ogilvie was the teacher involved.

SOURCE

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