Little Stevens Creek Elementary under right-wing hate attack

[Career Prole]

The school which gained unwanted notoriety before Thanksgiving because of a lawsuit filed by an "orthodox christian" teacher who claimed he was barred from teaching the Declaration of Independence because it mentions God is under a vicious hate-mail attack from the rabid right now.

Check this out, it's guaranteed to disgust you...

A little misinformation can stir a lynch mob
When I rolled into work the next Monday, however, the story was taking on a whole new dimension, one that is hardly funny and has given me a lot of pause about what a small bit of uninvestigated information and certain buzz words in today's world can do.

<snip>

She said the school was being pounded by faxes, emails and telephone calls of the most obscene language she'd ever heard. The school staff was shocked and felt betrayed and embarrassed. She said that she was a Christian—Episcopalian—and had never been barred from using the Declaration of Independence in class. She said, in fact, that the entire document is printed in the textbook.

By then we had a copy of the court document filed by Williams' lawyers. Now we knew more. According to the documents, Williams is claiming that the principal discriminated against him because he is an "orthodox" Christian. Included in the material we now had, were copies of the handouts, including the first three paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, Williams used to supplement his lessons. The handouts focus heavily on prayer and religion in history.

So there might be more to the story than extreme political correctness. But the other side was getting no press, and of course, all issues have more than one side...

That was the Cupertino Courier editorial.

The Courier also has an article on it:
Local school deluged with messages of anger, hate
<snip>
Sarah Beetem, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek Elementary, said by Dec. 1 the school had received some "3,000 nasty, obscene faxes, telephone messages and emails." She said they included personal attacks, hate mail and obscene messages and that callers have also left angry messages on individual teachers' voice mail.

"It's shocking to a lot of us here at school," Beetem said. "You can only read so many of those faxes and emails without becoming upset."

<snip>

"I can assure you," she said in response to the charges in Williams' lawsuit, "the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and other documents are taught verbatim."

Beetem said she uses the documents in her curriculum, bringing in religion in a historical context. For example, she said "We talk about the pilgrims and why they left England." she said. "The full text of the Declaration of Independence is in the textbook."

Seems these poor folks could use more of the supportive type of communication.

[WildClarySage]

1. I wish they'd stop calling themselves

Christians. People who really do follow Christ's teachings don't send foul emails and faxes filled with loathing and bad language to buildings full of children.

[Erika]

2. Agreed.

Bush Christians are identical to Hitler fascists. They need to start knowing that's how many of us see them.