Members of the party that, just four years ago, was complaining about those poor, disenfranchised Floridian voters and chanting “Let every vote count” have forced a teacher in New Jersey to take down a picture of the sitting President and first lady. Instead of complying, she’s walked out of her job at Crossroads Middle School (Phone Number: 732-329-4633).
A middle school teacher walked out on her job after being asked to remove a picture of the president from her classroom, she said.
Though she says he has not resigned, the teacher’s situation at Crossroads Middle School South is not yet resolved.
Shiba Pillai-Diaz’s walkout involved the local police, left school officials mum and appalled the local Republican Party.
Pillai-Diaz, 33, a volunteer with the Bush campaign and an English teacher, has had a publicity picture of the First Couple hanging in her classroom since the start of the school year, she said.
The photo became an issue last week.
Parents e-mailed an assistant principal accusing Pillai-Diaz of suppressing free speech because the teacher refused to talk to pupils about why the color photo hung in the room.
“Students said, ‘You like George Bush? He’s killed people,’ ” Pillai-Diaz said. “As a rule I don’t talk about my politics in the classroom.”
According to Pillai-Diaz, Assistant Principal Mark Daniels said he had no problem with the photo, which hung next to posters of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. But Daniels told the teacher she should address questions that arose because of the photo.
This, my friends, is absolutely absurd. Completely ridiculous. Asinine to the Nth degree. Would there even be a discussion if it was a picture of Bill and Hillary Clinton? (Who, might I add, are no longer president?)
At what point in time did it stop being acceptable to honor our elected officials? Maybe more correctly, when did it stop being acceptable to honor our elected REPUBLICAN officials?
The Democrats, they whose mouth-pieces often gripe and whine and bitch and moan about George W. Bush or John Ashcroft (personally) stifling their “dissent” have now railroaded a teacher into removing a PICTURE of the current President of the United States from a classroom funded by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. It’s not even political speech… it’s a picture.
The Assistant Principal said that she should “address questions that arose because of the photo.” Can you IMAGINE if she had? The outrage if she had politely informed the students that George W. Bush has not, in fact, killed anyone? That he has freed millions of Iraqis from a torturous dictator? I’m sure this teacher, a Republican volunteer, could probably go on and on and on about why George W. Bush is a good president. She could probably also point out some places where he could improve. But she’s not. Why? Because she knows that it’s not her job to indoctrinate the students in her classroom. Probably also because she knows that their parents would throw gigantic temper tantrums that she was inflicting her politics upon their children. (The horror of the children hearing anything but the “liberal truth” would probably send these parents into shock)
The bottom line here is that this is absurd and stupid. The hypocrisy of these folks is remarkable and the double standards need to stop.
I’m in the process of hunting down some email addresses. If you’re REALLY feeling ballsy, you could give the school a call tomorrow morning.
UPDATE: South Brunswick Public Schools website can be found here. From that site, here is some pertinent contact information:
Dr. Gary P. McCartney
Superintendent of Schools
Gary.McCartney@sbschools.org
Mrs. Joanne Kerekes
Ass’t Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction
Joanne.Kerekes@sbschools.org
Crossroads Middle School
Principal, Dr. Jim Warfel
Assistant Principal, Ray Tucholski
Assistant Principal, Mark Daniels
Assistant Principal, Sondra Hinson
Members of the Board of Education:
ROBERT F. LONG, PRESIDENT
732-422-4819
Robert.Long@sbschools.org
BRYAN J. LAURITA,VICE PRESIDENT
732-422-7460
Bryan.Laurita@sbschools.org
MARTIN ABSCHUTZ
732-631-5644
Martin.Abschutz@sbschools.org
HARRY J. DELGADO
732-329-3453
Harry.Delgado@sbschools.org
DR. MICHAEL MAHAN
732-398-1186
Michael.Mahan@sbschools.org
BARRY NATHANSON
732-329-2618
Barry.Nathanson@sbschools.org
DR. MATTHEW SPEESLER
732-422-4167
Matthew.Speesler@sbschools.org
ANNA TUPE
732-355-1219
Anna.Tupe@sbschools.org
DR. DANIEL WATTS
732-274-3420
Daniel.Watts@sbschools.org
So, I guess separation of church and state wasn’t enough… now we’re coming down to separation of President and state? They sound exactly the same to me… somebody wants everything to be completely fair (for them). So no, of course they would never use the freedoms they have and the rights given them by our country and our God. Rather, they’re so lazy and feel it best to take away the rights of everyone else.
This has become a huge issue in NJ. There is currently a movement to protest on the school. Don’t be too suprised though, this is typical for liberal NJ. The dems have been running like crazy since Bush has closed the gap to 2 points behind Kerry, when it was 22 points almost 2 months ago. Look for more bs coming shortly
a friend of mine’s wife is a school teacher. their son is serving overseas right now and she has a picture of him in uniform on her filing cabinet in her classroom. she had to SIGN a promise not to talk about him in class just to keep the picture up.