As we all know, there are always (at least) two sides to the story. Eric passed along a statement from the South Brunswick Superintendent of Schools stating their side of the issue, which makes it look more reasonable and, if what they say is to be believed, almost like Ms. Pillai-Diaz is doing a little attention-whoring.
Ms. Pillai-Diaz is a new Language Arts teacher in the South Brunswick Schools. Recently, the school administration began receiving complaints from students and parents that Ms. Pillai-Diaz was using her position, classroom and teaching time to engage in partisan politics. Students reported that she had made statements which denigrated one party over the other. The conversations included Ms. Pillai-Diaz telling some students who offered opinions contrary to her statements, that she was “glad they were not old enough to vote.” Other comments to students, including such statements as, “you should be ashamed to be a Democrat” have been verified through student interviews.
A classroom bulletin board, normally intended for curriculum-related matters, was set up as what she herself described as a “personal bulletin board.” On the bulletin board she placed a picture of the President, the President’s dog, the Oval Office and several other Presidential artifacts. In addition, she placed a stuffed elephant on a classroom cabinet, which generated student reaction and discussion about partisan politics.
Following receipt of complaints from parents, the Assistant Principal met with Ms. Pillai-Diaz and cautioned her not to engage in partisan political discussions in her Language Arts classes. He did not initially ask her to remove the picture of the President. As the issue grew in intensity, the teacher herself chose to remove the stuffed elephant because of student comments.
In the ensuing days, parents expressed increasing concern about the teacher’s classroom behavior, the misuse of classroom instructional time and the personal bulletin board. The level of concern resulted in a classroom confrontation between some parents and Ms. Pillai-Diaz at the Back-to-School night program. It was at this point that the school administration decided to intervene again.
Read the entire statement here (PDF). The story is a bit less outrageous with that additional information. We’ll see how this progresses.
Others tracking this story:
Maureen-lipsett.net | Secure Liberty | Jeff Blogworthy | Diggers Realm | Weaselteeth.com
UPDATE: A local news channel’s take on the situation — very divergent view-points coming from Ms. Pillai-Diaz and from the School Board. I’d assume that the truth is somewhere in between.
UPDATE 2: NewsMax has the same old song and dance on the story, with one notable exception: the article quotes Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) as saying “I don’t see why [a picture] of the President of the United States can’t be displayed,” and relays a promise from him that he’ll help Pallai-Diaz if she calls his office.
UPDATE 3: It feels a little odd linking to myself, but several places are now referencing this post, so I’m going to direct them to also have a look at my most recent compiliation of facts on the issue.
Is the school board taking similar actions against teachers who are spouting off liberal propaganda?
Look… in middle school… I think the kids should know who their president is… and a little bit about the political process. I was in 7th grade in 1992 and we had a mock election complete with each of us doing some research on the candidates. That’s healthy. But they really should not be too worried about political parties at this point.
Just remember for every one like this… there are a hundred in academia (especially colleges) who are spewing liberal talking points. Both situations (this woman and other liberals) are wrong in my opinion.
What ever happened to learning the 3 R’s in school?
I think there is a difference between putting forth liberal or conservative ideology and actually talking about political parties as being “good” or “bad”. I’ve had teachers that clearly had liberal points of views and others that had conservative points of views.
Nearly everyone has some point of view, though. And when you’re talking about a subject such as political science or third world problems or economics, it’s natural for that point of view to come forward. A good teacher will talk about the other side and explain the merits that the proponents believe it has and why they believe so without condeming them out of hand – but no one who is well informed and passionate about a subject (as professors are, and should be) can put aside their beliefs entirley. To expect them to do so is rather unrealistic.
Making a statement such “you should be ashamed to be a democrat” is much different in my opinion. It has nothing to do with intelligent debate or discussion; it is ad hominen; it bears little relation to language arts; it is purposefully inciteful; it is entirely about politics instead of policy. In essense, it is an attempt to introduce political vitriol into a situation that need not have it, nor that can benefit from it. It is unrelated to an intelligent person merely talking about a subject, that he is being paid to talk about, in the way that comes naturally to him because he, like all people, has beliefs have been shaped by his years of experience in the subject.
The best teacher I had as far as all this is concerned was Dr. Wittkopf at LSU. I don’t know what his opinions are. He just grilled you no matter what you said and forced you to defend your position.
A middle school teacher arguably could not make any difference to the current Presidential race, or even the next, since the kids just aren’t old enough. But kids can be influenced greatly by their teachers. They are taught to listen to their teachers and accept from them that their word is truth. So, in future races, Ms. Pillai-Diaz may have made some contribution to the Republican cause (or more realistically away from the cause of the Democrats).
I think we should be worried about this, but I think we should be more worried that this sort of thing may go on all over the place, especially with even younger students. The younger they are, the more easily influenced they are and the more likely they will accept an adult’s viewpoint as fact for the rest of their lives.
I’m not saying that we should get rid of teaching values in schools, on the contrary. There’s a big difference in teaching values and teaching politics. It’s very possible for a Democrat to fit my values better than a Republican (although the nature of my values makes it unlikely). I’m just worried that all this fuss will lead to more investigations of grade-school teacher politics, and will start up a campaign against teaching students any values whatsoever.
You’re ignoring the role of the parent, Brandon… parents ALREADY indoctrinate their children, and I have a feeling that in the vast majority of cases, the parent is going to outweigh the teacher. Besides… does it really matter who a former child votes for if they’re just voting their parent’s or teacher’s party-line?
It will be interesting to see if the liberal NEA will defend one of its union members now. As a former meber for 30 years, I know the answer. The NEA iis a corrupt union that is far left and will hang out anyone who does not walk the party line.
Yes, I am ignoring the role of the parent in my discussion. A teacher won’t influence a child more than a parent if that parent is raising the child in a responsible manner. In other cases, this may be an issue.
I’m talking about the times when parents consider it OK not to teach their children values and let them find their own values as they grow up. While I absolutely think this is the wrong methodology, I can’t ignore that it does happen, and it happens so often as to be a problem.
If anyone has a right to indoctrinate a child, it is his or her parent. Of course, a child will be influenced by whomever pleases to do so. But that’s much easier done if the parent doesn’t own up to their responsibility to that child.
Even so, the child ultimately has the vote when it comes time, and hopefully the child will be able to discern between the (then) former President George W. Bush and the current Republican candidate.
I am a classroom teacher with 13 years service and by no stretch of the imagination a “friend of administration.” As any teacher will tell you, the first rule of administration is CYA and NEVER admit mistakes. Having said that, the waters are indeed very muddied. Ms. Diaz’s mistake was not complying with her Assistant Principal’s directive to remove the picture. Ultimately, her dismissal will be upheld on grounds of insubordination.
Link below is to the latest on this story. Apparently there was a lot more to it than the original tale by the teacher. Joe Gandelman has a ton of new material on it at The Moderate Voice. Joe and I were both supporting the teacher originally. Kind of muddled now.
You’re running with old news, Jazz — the press release has been out for days, and it doesn’t “prove” anything. It’s still he-said/she-said stuff… automatically beleiving the school board is no better than automatically beleiving the teacher.
I belIEve the person that has the least spelling probelms.
WORLD WIDE EXCLUSIVE: I Interviewed Ms. Pallai-Diaz via telephone earlier this evening. She discussed with me her plans, and let me know when she will be working next.
Oh yes, you can read about the interview on my site!