Teacher barred from teaching about non-Christian civilizations sues

[G_j]

Maine teacher sues district over curriculum restrictions

By The Associated Press
12.06.03

BANGOR, Maine - A seventh-grade social studies teacher in Presque Isle who said he was barred from teaching about non-Christian civilizations has sued his school district for allegedly violating his First Amendment right of free expression

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=12320

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. Not to mention barred from fulfilling his obligation

to provide children with a decent education.

[acmavm]

2. Do these idiots think if people of other faiths are just ignored, they

will not exist? The incredible stupidity of some people's kids never ceases to amaze me.

[LeftistGorilla]

3. how stupid...

and sad....

[donco6]

4. How is he meeting the social studies standards?

They do require some knowledge of other civs. Though in 7th grade, it ain't much.

[G_j]

5. reminds me of times

when one was persecuted if they said the earth was not the center of the solar system.

the new dark ages... :-(

[HawkerHurricane]

6. In other words..

He can't talk about the Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, or Isrealites(!)...
Most of Roman history...
China, both ancient and modern...
The Moorish civilizations...
Aztecs and Incas...

My apologies to any I left out.

[G_j]

10. Or like living in St. Louis

and telling your kids that Chicago does not exist.
Well.... every analogy I can come up with sounds just plain dumb.

[HawkerHurricane]

11. How about this...

He can talk about the French who founded the trading post that would become St. Louis BUT cannot talk about the Native Americans they traded with!

[The Original Shroom]

7. Hmmmmm

The article states...

Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said Dec. 2 that he had not seen the lawsuit but noted that the curriculum has been “developed by teachers across the district and adopted by the SAD 1 School Committee.”

“Teachers are expected to follow the curriculum,” he added.

Cole’s suit alleges that the curriculum infringes on “his students’ First Amendment rights to the free flow of information within the classroom” and that it “constitutes an illegal establishment of religion in violation of the First Amendment.”

Greif said that when Cole has gone outside the prescribed curriculum he has been reprimanded and given warnings that he could lose his job.




So he isn't following the curriculum as approved by the school board. Seems to me that if he wants to teach his ideas, he needs to find a school that allows the teachers to decide what they will or will not teach.

[G_j]

9. we are talking about PUBLIC schools! n/t

[ithacan]

8. Theocracy = dumbing down

http://www.theocracywatch.org/