Subject: ED: Punishing Teachers who don't Conform




Here's a Washington Post article which reveals the intimidation and
harassment of teachers by union officials and fellow members.  A teacher
who had been a contract negotiator was threatened that he would be "purged"
from the union if he didn't step back in line and apologize to members for
stating his opinion publicly.  The president of the local sent a letter to
the ENTIRE MEMBERSHIP berating the teacher for exercising his free speech.
Last three paragraphs of the story make up a powerful example of the
union's practice of threats and control of the work environment.

This is especially disconcerting since the teachers' union is seeking
control of the teacher certification process, curriculum, school budgets,
and assessments.  In Spokane School District (Washington state) teachers
must sign "charters" which state the teacher will go along with the
majority decisions of the site (which come about through union
facilitation).  If they do not sign the charters, they lose their classroom
assignment and are forced into substitute status.

Cindy
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-11/14/013l-111498-idx.html

Bible Lessons

By Nat Hentoff

Saturday, November 14, 1998; Page A23

   In 1996, Grace Oliva, a first-grade teacher at the Haines Public School
in Medford, N.J., allowed students who had reached a certain level of
reading proficiency to read a story of their own choosing to the class.

Zachary Hood, then 6 years old, picked a story out of the Beginner's Bible.
From the Book of Genesis, it is called "The Big Family," and it told of the
reconciliation of two brothers, Jacob and Esau, who had once quarreled
bitterly. This is the story in full:

"Jacob traveled far away to his uncle's house. He worked for his uncle,
taking care of sheep. While he was there, Jacob got married. He had 12
sons. Jacob's big family lived on his uncle's land for many years. But
Jacob wanted to go back home.

"One day, Jacob packed up all his animals and his family and everything he
had. They traveled all the way back to where Esau lived. Now Jacob was
afraid that Esau might still be angry at him. So he sent presents to Esau.
He sent servants who said, 'Please don't be angry any more.' But Esau
wasn't angry. He ran to Jacob. He hugged and kissed him. He was happy to
see his brother again."

It was to be the first time Zachary had read to the class, but the teacher
said he could not read that story because it was religious. Humiliated, the
boy came home, his eyes red from crying, and told his parents.

His mother, Carol, complained and, she says, the teacher explained: "It's a
public school, and the Bible is not allowed." Carol Hood later told the
Rutherford Institute -- which initially brought the case to court -- that
the principal, Dr. Gail Pratt, then said the story was "prayer" and prayer
is not allowed in the public schools. She suggested to the mother that the
boy should be put in private school and added -- Carol Hood told her lawyer
-- "I have enough trouble with Jews." Michael Reilly, a teacher in the
district, told me that Carol Hood repeated to him the principal's reference
to Jews. The principal denies she said that.

Federal District Court Judge Joseph Rodriguez ruled against Zachary Hood.
The other kids, the judge said, might have thought the teacher was
endorsing the Bible.

The judge may have been unaware of the U.S. Department of Education's
guidelines on religious expression in the public schools, which state:

"Students may express their beliefs about religion in the form of homework,
artwork, and other written and oral assignments -- free of discrimination
based on the religious contents of their submissions."

Nonetheless, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals -- without hearing oral
arguments -- affirmed the lower court's decision that Zachary Hood should
have been silenced.

In a remarkable amicus brief to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals
supporting the school, the Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress gravely
charged: "Zachary Hood alleges a deprivation of what amounts to a
constitutional right to proselytize his classmates in class regardless of
the teacher's considered judgment that the selection was educationally
inappropriate" (emphasis added).

There are times, and this is one of them, that certain institutions
zealously intent on keeping public schools religion-free become mirror
images of Pat Robertson's insistence that this is a Christian nation.

There is no mention of God or miracles in the story that Zachary wanted to
read. And there is not even a mite of proselytization in that story.

Zachary is now represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. If the
Supreme Court takes the case, I hope it reminds the nation of what Justice
William Brennan -- a firm adherent of the Establishment Clause -- said in
his concurring decision in a school case, Abington School District v.
Schempp (1963):

"Not every involvement of religion in public life is unconstitutional."

Michael Reilly has been a teacher for 28 years in Zachary Hood's school
district. Last summer, he was the union's chief negotiator for the new
contract. Reilly wrote to local papers saying Zachary should have been able
to read his story because it was about a universal theme -- forgiveness.

The president of the local teachers' union sent a letter to the entire
membership saying he was "appalled" at Reilly's decision to "go public" and
"not be supportive of one of his fellow members."

And teachers from Zachary's school told Reilly he would be purged from the
union if he does not recant and apologize. Reily tells me he will not
comply. "I thought," he said, "the issue was religious censorship. Now I
realize it is free speech itself that is fundamentally under attack."

© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company

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