Warning to Our Comrade Teachers in Oaxaca / Cuidado a nuestros profesores del camarada en Oaxaca

A Rouge Forum Broadside / Un Costado Del Foro Del Colorete

Cuidado a nuestros profesores del camarada en Oaxaca

Warning to Our Comrade Teachers in Oaxaca

Beware the Trojan Horse Filled with US Teacher Union Leaders
There are several Rouge Forum members and readers who are now involved in the struggles in Oaxaca. Some are indigenous people who became friends of Rouge Forum visitors to the region, and some are N. Americans who are now part of the struggle there.

The struggle in Oaxaca has always been more than the struggle of school workers for better teaching conditions, wages, and benefits. The lessons of Oaxaca can be learned everywhere.

It has been a community-wide battle against the connection of exploitation and the systematic ruin of education, against racism and sexism. In many instances, the Oaxaca struggles have pointed to the use of the Mexican government as a weapon of the rich, and to the secrets of capitalism itself, from the need to divide people along religious or other lines in order to use those divisions to demolish us, to the key secret: capitalism demands exploitation, injustice, inequality and war–and capital’s greatest fear: we can learn to live beyond capital, peacefully and free, equitably and democratically.

The struggle in Oaxaca has come under sharp, deadly, attack. Lives have been lost to further the battle to live in a better world. Even so, courageous people have stayed united, and have taken direct action, from seizing territory to seizing radio stations. Elites have used force, but so far in limited ways, because they fear the people’s response.

Now, however, the rich and powerful may be about to try another tactic; a Trojan Horse offered to Oaxacans through well-meaning, but completely uninformed, people, a Trojan Horse filled with bosses of the teacher unions in the United States. Some US professors are about to bring US labor leaders to Oaxaca, and introduce them as “allies.” That is wrong.

The leaders of the US teachers unions are reactionary dangerous people. They hold to an idea that they call “New Unionism.” What they mean is they support the unity of US union members, the US government, and US corporations, in the “national interest.” That is what they think is the main reason for having a union; not because working people and their bosses have little but contradiction in common, are on opposing sides, but because working people in the US will do better if working people outside the US do worse.

There is nothing new about their kind of unionism, though. It’s the same kind of idea that was the foundation of Mussolini’s Corporate State: fascism.

But “New Unionism,” is not just a bad, old, idea. In practice, it means that the leadership of the US teacher unions have been involved, for decades, with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), seeking to destroy workers’ movements all over the world.

The two major US teacher unions are the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the National Education Association (NEA). Leaders of both unions are deeply involved in this activity, but few of their own rank an file members know about it.

How does this work? Both NEA and AFT (and the umbrella organization of nearly all US unions, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations; AFL-CIO) operate through front groups like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD).

NED and AIFLD are funded by secret money from the CIA, the US State Department, and they are supported by funds and personnel from US unions, especially from NEA and AFT. Nearly one-half of the dues income the AFL-CIO receives is spent outside the USA, in conjunction with campaigns led by the CIA.

They use the same divide-and-conquer, reward-and-punish, befriend-and-betray methods that any elite might use to keep people in line.

For example, they identify and recruit local leaders, bring them to “training” sessions in the USA, bribe them, threaten them, and turn them back to be used to destroy the movements they once could have led.

They pay people off, and threaten others. They pretend to be allies, and work behind the workers’ backs to deceive us.

They use force. They have been involved in US attempts to overthrow governments, and massacre since even before the Allende days in Chile, right up to the recent attempts to overthrow the government of Venezuela. They do not play. These people are killers.
Why do they do this? US labor leaders live off the fruits of US imperialism. Leaders of the NEA and AFT, at the top, earn nearly $500,000 a year, about ten times the average wage of US teachers. It is a lot. In addition, they create the illusion of not only power for themselves, but they get to pretend they are being creative and patriotic, when in fact all they are is selfish and corrupt.

Over time, as US labor leaders separate more and more from the rank and file, their lives become like the bosses in the industries they represent, and unlike the workers. The union bosses shop and live in different places, play golf with the bosses, dine at fancy restaurants, and, at the end of the day, literally join the other side.

These labor mis-leaders know that their many privileges are rooted in the betrayal of, not only their own members, but workers all over the world. Their incomes depend largely on the success of US imperialism, the struggle of capitalists in the US to find cheap labor, raw materials, markets, and social control, all over the world. That is why nearly every major US union backs the failed oil wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Caspian region. US unions supported the wars on Vietnam as well.

Many US working people, including teachers, support the unions because they do not know what their own unions are doing, and because they find it hard to believe that their unions would turn around and deceive them, but that is what is happening. Many union members do not grasp that the unions are theirs, and not ours.

That does not make rank and file union members entirely innocent. While it is hard for many people to learn what goes on outside the US, it is easy to see that US unions are segregated unions. That is especially true of the teacher unions, which, taken together, are about 90 percent white.

These are apartheid unions and, wittingly or not, they work on the same basis that the AFT-NEA operate internationally, that is, the idea that white workers (teachers and other school workers) will do better, if school workers of color do worse. If entry into the job can be segregated, that means less people will compete for work, and, inside this theory, pay will go up.

Really, this is just racism, and as a divide and rule tool, it works only for employers over time. Teachers who are isolated from kids and parents (now about 50% people of color), are much less powerful than teachers in an integrated movement. But rank and file teachers have allowed their union leaders to pile up restrictions that make it hard for people of color to become teachers. So the teachers’ unions are, indeed, isolated from the people who they need most, working class kids and parents.

Solidarity is key to winning any workers’ battles, and it is key to the fight going on in Oaxaca now. It is true that working people all over the world need to unite, to take direct action to change the way we all live, for democracy and equality. But we do not need to unite with those who pretend to be our friends, but who will betray us.

If a national “labor leader” from the US approaches our comrades in Oaxaca, it would be best to tell them to go home, get out of Mexico, and fix the racism inside their own unions.

Then, take pictures of them and paste them up everywhere, with the caption: Judas.

Rich Gibson for the Rouge Forum (www.rougeforum.org)

August 2006

Un Costado Del Foro Del Colorete

Cuidado a nuestros profesores del camarada en Oaxaca

Guárdese del Trojan Horse llenado de los líderes de la unión de profesor de los E.E.U.U.
Hay varios miembros y lectores del foro del colorete que ahora están implicados en las luchas en Oaxaca. Alguna es la gente indígena que hizo amigos de los visitantes del foro del colorete a la región, y algo es N. americans que ahora son parte de la lucha allí.

La lucha en Oaxaca ha sido siempre más que la lucha de los trabajadores de la escuela para condiciones, salarios, y ventajas de enseñanza mejores. Las lecciones de Oaxaca se pueden aprender por todas partes.

Ha sido una batalla a nivel comunitario contra la conexión de la explotación y la ruina sistemática de la educación, contra racismo y sexism. En muchos casos, las luchas de Oaxaca han señalado al uso del gobierno mexicano como arma de los ricos, y a los secretos del capitalismo sí mismo, de la necesidad de dividir a gente a lo largo de líneas religiosas u otras para utilizar esas divisiones para demolernos, al secreto dominante: el capitalismo exige la explotación, injusticia, desigualdad y guerra — y el miedo más grande del capital: podemos aprender vivir más allá de capital, pacífico y liberar, equitativo y democrático.

La lucha en Oaxaca ha venido debajo de agudo, mortal, ataque. Las vidas se han perdido a más futuro la batalla a vivir en un mundo mejor. Incluso así pues, la gente valerosa ha permanecido unida, y ha llevado la acción directa, de agarrar el territorio agarrar las estaciones de radio. Las élites han utilizado la fuerza, pero hasta ahora en maneras limitadas, porque temen la respuesta de la gente.

Ahora, sin embargo, el rico y el de gran alcance pueden estar a punto de intentar otra táctica; un Trojan Horse ofreció a Oaxacans con el bien-significado, pero totalmente mal informado, gente, un Trojan Horse llenó de los jefes de las uniones de profesor en los Estados Unidos. Los profesores de los algunos E.E.U.U. están a punto de traer a E.E.U.U. líderes de trabajo a Oaxaca, y los introducen como “aliados.” Eso es incorrecto.

Los líderes de las uniones de profesores de los E.E.U.U. son gente peligrosa reaccionaria. Sostienen a una idea que llaman “Unionism nuevo.” Qué él significa es apoya la unidad de los miembros de unión de los E.E.U.U., el gobierno de los E.E.U.U., y las corporaciones de los E.E.U.U., en el “interés nacional.” Eso es lo que piensan son la razón principal del tener una unión; no porque trabajan la gente y sus jefes tienen poco pero contradicción en campo común, esté en lados de oposición, pero porque la gente de trabajo en los E.E.U.U. hará mejor si la gente de trabajo fuera de los E.E.U.U. hace peor.

Hay nada nuevo sobre su clase de unionism, aunque. Es la misma clase de idea que era la fundación del estado corporativo de Mussolini: fascismo.

Pero “Unionism nuevo,” no es justo un malo, viejo, idea. En la práctica, significa que la dirección de las uniones de profesor de los E.E.U.U. ha estado implicada, por décadas, con la agencia de inteligencia central (Cia), intentando destruir los movimientos de trabajadores todo sobre el mundo.

Las dos uniones de profesor principales de los E.E.U.U. son la federación americana de profesores (A POPA), y la asociación de la educación nacional (NEA). Los líderes de ambas uniones están implicados profundamente en esta actividad, pero pocos sus el propios fila que los miembros de un archivo conocen sobre ella.

¿Cómo este trabajo? NEA y A POPA (y la organización de paraguas de casi todas las uniones de los E.E.U.U., la federación americana del Trabajar-Congreso de organizaciones industriales; AFL-CIO) funcionan a través de grupos delanteros como la dotación nacional para la democracia (NED) y el instituto americano para el desarrollo de trabajo libre (AIFLD).

NED y AIFLD son financiados por el dinero secreto de la Cia, el departamento del estado de los E.E.U.U., y son apoyados por los fondos y el personal de uniones de los E.E.U.U., especialmente de NEA y A POPA. Casi una mitad de la renta de las deudas que el AFL-CIO recibe está pasado fuera de los E.E.U.U., conjuntamente con las campañas conducidas por la Cia.

Utilizan igual dividir-y-conquistan, recompensa-y-castigan, befriend-y-traicionan los métodos que cualquier élite pudo utilizar para mantener a gente línea.

Por ejemplo, identifican y reclutan a líderes locales, los traen a las sesiones del “entrenamiento” en los E.E.U.U., los sobornan, los amenazan, y les dan vuelta de nuevo a se utilicen destruir los movimientos que habrían podido conducir una vez.

Pagan a gente apagado, y amenazan otras. Fingen ser aliados, y trabajo detrás de las partes posterioras de los trabajadores para engañarnos.

Utilizan la fuerza. Han estado implicados en tentativas de los E.E.U.U. de derrocar gobiernos, y masacran desde uniforme antes de los días de Allende en Chile, hasta que las tentativas recientes de derrocar el gobierno de Venezuela. No juegan. Esta gente es asesinos.
¿Por qué ella hace esto? Los líderes de trabajo de los E.E.U.U. viven de las frutas del imperialismo de los E.E.U.U.. Los líderes del NEA y EN POPA, en la tapa, ganan casi $500.000 por año, cerca de diez veces el salario medio de los profesores de los E.E.U.U.. Están mucho. Además, crean la ilusión no solamente de la energía para sí mismos, pero consiguen fingirlos están siendo creativos y patriótico, cuando en el hecho todo están es egoísta y corrupto.

En un cierto plazo, como líderes de trabajo de los E.E.U.U. separe más y más de la tropa, sus vidas se convierten como los jefes en las industrias que representan, y desemejante de los trabajadores. Los jefes de la unión hacen compras y viven en diversos lugares, juegan golf con los jefes, cenan en los restaurantes de lujo, y, en el final del día, ensamblan literalmente el otro lado.

Estos mis-li’deres de trabajo saben que sus muchos privilegios están arraigados en la traición de, no solamente sus propios miembros, pero los trabajadores todo sobre el mundo. Sus rentas dependen en gran parte del éxito del imperialismo de los E.E.U.U., de la lucha de capitalistas en los E.E.U.U. para encontrar el trabajo barato, de las materias primas, mercados, y del control social, todo sobre el mundo. Ése es porqué casi cada unión importante de los E.E.U.U. mueve hacia atrás las guerras falladas del aceite en Iraq, Afganistán, y la región caspia. Las uniones de los E.E.U.U. apoyaron las guerras en Vietnam también.

Mucha gente de trabajo de los E.E.U.U., incluyendo profesores, apoya las uniones porque ella no sabe lo que están haciendo sus propias uniones, y porque ella encuentra duro creer que sus uniones darían vuelta alrededor y lo engañarían, solamente eso es qué está sucediendo. Muchos miembros de unión no agarran que las uniones son las suyas, y no el nuestros.

Eso no hace a miembros de unión de la tropa enteramente inocentes. Mientras que es duro que mucha gente aprenda qué va en fuera de los E.E.U.U., es fácil ver que las uniones de los E.E.U.U. son uniones segregadas. Eso es especialmente verdad de las uniones de profesor, que, tomadas juntas, son cerca de 90 por ciento de blanco.

Éstas son uniones del apartheid y, wittingly o no, trabajan sobre la misma base que los AFT-NEA funcionan internacionalmente, es decir, la idea que los trabajadores blancos (los profesores y otros trabajadores de la escuela) harán mejor, si los trabajadores de la escuela del color hacen peor. Si la entrada en el trabajo puede ser segregada, ese los medios menos gente competirán para el trabajo, y, dentro de esta teoría, la paga irá para arriba.

Realmente, éste es racismo justo, y como herramienta del dividir y de la regla, trabaja solamente para los patrones en un cierto plazo. Los profesores que se aíslan de cabritos y los padres (ahora personas del cerca de 50% de color), son mucho menos de gran alcance que profesores en un movimiento integrado. Pero los profesores de la tropa han permitido que sus líderes de la unión llenen encima de las restricciones que hacen duro para la gente del color sentir bien a profesores. Las uniones de profesores, se aíslan tan de hecho de la gente que necesitan la mayoría, de los cabritos de la clase obrera y de los padres.

La solidaridad es dominante a ganar las batallas de cualquier trabajador, y es dominante a la lucha que entra encendido en Oaxaca ahora. Es verdad que trabajando a gente todo sobre la necesidad del mundo de unir, a la acción directa de la toma para cambiar la manera todos vivimos, para la democracia y la igualdad. Pero no necesitamos unir con los que finjan ser nuestros amigos, pero quiénes nos traicionará.

Si un “líder de trabajo nacional” de los E.E.U.U. acerca a nuestros camaradas en Oaxaca, sería el mejor decirles ir a casa, sale de México, y fija el interior del racismo sus propias uniones.

Entonces, los cuadros de la toma de ellas y las pegan para arriba por todas partes, con el subtítulo: Judas.

Gibson rico para el foro del colorete (www.rougeforum.org)

Agosto de 2006

Casero | El escribir de Gibson | El escribir por otros | Ninguna sangre para el aceite | Foro Del Colorete

War in Iraq and Across the Middle East! American Civil Liberties Under Siege! An Urgent Call for Nationwide Teach-Ins, October 17, 18, 19, 2006

From Historians Against the War:

War in Iraq and Across the Middle East!
American Civil Liberties Under Siege!
An Urgent Call for Nationwide Teach-Ins, October 17, 18, 19, 2006

As the violence in Iraq and across the Middle East intensifies, with
the accompanying attack on civil liberties here at home, the need for
an informed public debate is vitally important. However, since the
initial invasion of Iraq, too many of our schools and campuses have
been silent.

In the absence of a draft, the fighting abroad and the changes in our
constitutional order can seem remote. However, as historians we are
acutely aware that the transformations now occurring have far-reaching
implications for our current lives and for future generations.

With mid-term elections scheduled for November, we have the
opportunity to focus campus attention on the vital issues of war and
peace. Why is the United States still occupying Iraq? How and when
can we withdraw? How does the Iraqi occupation relate to the current
crisis in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon? And what are the prospects
for a new war in Iran or Syria? How is the Bush Administration
expanding the powers of the Executive Branch? And what are the
domestic effects of its commitment to a prolonged ?war on terrorism??

Historians Against the War is urging our colleagues across the country
to organize or participate in National Teach-In Days, October 17-19.

If you can help arrange an event at your school on any one of these
three days, please email us at teachin@historiansagainstwar.org so
that we can begin compiling a listing and assisting with resources.
If your organization can endorse this call, please contact us. We
will post this call and additional information on our Teach-In page on
our HAW website. http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/teachin/

While the exact format and themes will reflect the particular needs of
your institution, Historians Against the War will be lining up
speakers, preparing a web-page with helpful ideas, and establishing
connections with national organizations (such as Military Families
Speak Out, Gold Star Parents, Iraq Veterans Against the War!).

The tragedies now unfolding in Iraq and across the Middle East
underscore our responsibility as educators and citizens to enhance
public knowledge, to stimulate thoughtful inquiry, and to end the
American occupation of Iraq. We hope that you can join this urgent
effort!

Retaliation Alleged for Teaching on Iraq War

As schools turn into test prep centers and teachers’ professional autonomy is severely restricted in the scamble for test-scores, there is mounting evidence that critical thinking and analysis of social/political issues in social studies (and other) classrooms is under attack. Last year there was the high profile media spectacle around Jay Bennish, who expressed views critical of George W. Bush in his social studies class.

In the past few days, we’ve seen teachers sanctioned for using object lessons to teach about free speech and for hanging flags of foreign countries in their classrooms. Now, here’s an alleged case of a principal persecuting a social studies teacher for including multiple points-of-view on the U.S.’s imperialistic adventures in Iraq.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Alberto Gutierrez, a 33-year-old social studies teacher at San Fernando High School, “who is known on campus as a passionate educator with a left-wing tilt, says in a suit filed this week that after he ‘offered objective discussion … regarding the United States’ involvement in the war in Iraq to his students,’ then-Principal Jose Luis Rodriguez began filling Gutierrez’s personnel file with negative reviews and surreptitiously encouraging parents to complain about him.”

Los Angeles Times
Retaliation Alleged for Teaching on Iraq War
By Jessica Garrison
Times Staff Writer

August 26, 2006

Among the students at San Fernando High School, a sun-baked campus in a poor, mostly Latino area on the northern fringe of the San Fernando Valley, the issue of military recruiting looms large.

The school sends hundreds more students to college than it does into the military, but still, according to senior Erika Preciado, “more recruiters are here for the military than for colleges.”

The 17-year-old is co-editor of the school newspaper, El Tigre. In her journalism class this week, almost all of the students said they had been contacted by a military recruiter, and several said recruiters had been guest speakers in their classes or had talked to them at school events, such as one where recruiters brought a chin-up bar onto campus.

Seven of the 28 students said they knew someone who had died in Iraq while serving in the U.S. military.

The issue concerns the school librarian, Kitty Kroger, so much that she banned recruiters from placing their literature in the library and has waged a campaign to “make kids fully aware of what it would mean to be in the military.”

Now the issue figures in a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District by a San Fernando High teacher who says the principal retaliated against him because he urged students to think critically about the military and the war in Iraq.

Alberto Gutierrez, a 33-year-old social studies teacher who is known on campus as a passionate educator with a left-wing tilt, says in a suit filed this week that after he “offered objective discussion … regarding the United States’ involvement in the war in Iraq to his students,” then-Principal Jose Luis Rodriguez began filling Gutierrez’s personnel file with negative reviews and surreptitiously encouraging parents to complain about him.

The teacher says he received only glowing performance reviews until two years ago, after he began teaching about the war.

At the same time, according to the suit, Rodriguez didn’t object when another teacher required students to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, designed by the Department of Defense to measure aptitude for military service.

The suit contends that Rodriguez “strongly supports the United States’ involvement in the war and adamantly opposes any other opinions.”

Rodriguez, who has since been promoted to director of secondary services for one of Los Angeles Unified’s local district headquarters in the Valley, denied those claims. He said he limited military recruiters’ presence on campus to Wednesdays at lunch.

And he said his concerns about the teacher “weren’t specific to the war in Iraq.” Rather, he said, he spoke to Gutierrez because of complaints from parents that the teacher had required students to visit a cafe in Sylmar to watch movies including “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Michael Moore’s 2004 antiwar film, and “Crash,” which won the Academy Award this year for best picture.

District policy requires that students have their parents’ permission to see such adult-oriented movies, Rodriguez said. He added that Gutierrez is a committed teacher and called it unfortunate that he had chosen to sue.

Gutierrez responded that he did not require students to visit Tia Chucha’s Cafe; he only offered them an extra-credit opportunity.

As for “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Gutierrez said, he showed it to students in his classroom in response to unannounced and uninvited visits from military recruiters.

“I had military recruiters walk into my class two times in one week,” he said. After those visits, he said, he decided to show the movie, which includes scenes of recruiters — one of whom was later killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq — before allowing recruiters to address his class. He also said Rodriguez placed limits on the recruiters only after Gutierrez and other teachers exerted pressure.

Gutierrez, who grew up in North Hills, said he was once affiliated with a gang but has dedicated himself to improving conditions in his community and at San Fernando High.

“As a teacher, my goal is to bring awareness and make the connection between the textbook and the real world,” he said.

Military recruiters’ visits to high schools have led to disputes around the country in the last few years, with some teachers and parents complaining that they use overly aggressive tactics and target schools with low-income and minority students.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act allows the Pentagon to gather the home addresses and telephone numbers of public school students.

An opt-out clause lets parents sign a form preventing information about their child from being released.

In addition, the law says any school that allows college recruiters must also allow military recruiters if it wants to keep its federal funding.

At San Fernando High, Kroger, the librarian and sponsor of the now-defunct Peace Club, said she was taken aback when some of her students talked of joining the military and bombing Middle Eastern countries.

“I think we should have separation of the school and the military,” she said. “It’s become much too enmeshed in the school.”

But Kroger said she blames the federal law that allows recruiters on campus — not the former principal.

“I personally haven’t seen any crackdown on dissent,” she said.

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times

Flag flap teacher remains suspended, will move to another school

4777b310-0abe-421a-0119-b08f34f16a11.jpgThis story still blows my mind. One would think that other teachers as well as parents would be outraged at the inanity of a a teacher being suspended for having flags of different countries in her or his classroom.

This instance illustrates not only the severe lack of commonsense amongst some school folks, but more importantly, it points up the lack of academic freedom for K-12 teachers.

View the video story from 9news.com here and note that at least one other metro Denver school has a huge display of foreign flags. Makes one wonder about the Jefferson County Public Schools’ claim that the Hamlin case is merely about “insubordination.”

Eric Hamlin was suspended after refusing to take down three foreign flags.
Flag flap teacher will move
By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News
August 26, 2006

Carmody Middle School geography teacher Eric Hamlin will be reassigned to another school, at his request, following a dispute over foreign flags in his classroom, Jefferson County school officials said Friday.

Hamlin has decided that his presence at Carmody would be divisive, the district said.

Hamlin, who taught seventh grade at the Lakewood school, was suspended with pay Wednesday after he refused to take down three foreign flags that he had hung in his room. The principal believed that Hamlin was in violation of a Colorado law barring the display of foreign flags in state buildings.

School district officials concluded that Hamlin’s display fell under an educational exception to the state foreign flag law. But Hamlin had hinted Thursday that he might not feel welcome at Carmody because some workers there resented the media attention he brought to the school.

Hamlin had been with the district for nine years, but was on his first day of a new assignment at Carmody when the flag issue arose. Hamlin could not be reached for comment Friday.

A statement by the district quoted him as saying, “I want to do what’s in the best interest of the Carmody family which includes the students and my fellow teachers. It is my hope that Carmody will move forward towards a successful school year, and put this incident behind them.”

The district will seek another assignment for Hamlin. Meanwhile, he remains on paid leave.

Jefferson County school district spokeswoman Lynn Setzer said a new assignment for Hamlin could open within a few days as administrators determine where more teachers are needed for the new semester.

The flap started when Carmody Principal John Schalk determined that Hamlin was violating the law. Schalk is not being reprimanded, Setzer said.

Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.

Church Fires Teacher for Being Female

20060821115909990007.gifOkay, what’s up with the news today. I had to check and see if the rapture had happened or if it was Friday the 13th, but there seems to be more IRRATIONALITY in the news today than I have seen in a long time.

The Associated Press has reported that a Watertown, NY Baptist church has fired a Sunday School teacher for being a woman.

The minister of a church dismissed Mary Lambert after she had taught Sunday School for over 50 years! Seems Rev. Timothy LaBouf’s church as decided that the Bible says women cannot teach men and should stay the hell out of church affairs.

LaBouf, who also serves on the Watertown City Council, issued a statement saying his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader in Watertown, where all five members of the council are men but the city manager who runs the city’s day-to-day operations is a woman.

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.

The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”

The Rev. Timothy LaBouf, who also serves on the Watertown City Council, issued a statement saying his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader in Watertown, where all five members of the council are men but the city manager who runs the city’s day-to-day operations is a woman.

“I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to” outside of the church, LaBouf wrote Saturday.

Mayor Jeffrey Graham, however, was bothered by the reasons given Lambert’s dismissal.

“If what’s said in that letter reflects the councilman’s views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age,” Graham said. “Maybe they wouldn’t have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now.”

Lambert has publicly criticized the decision, but the church did not publicly address the matter until Saturday, a day after its board met.

In a statement, the board said other issues were behind Lambert’s dismissal, but it did not say what they were.

Social studies teacher suspended for hanging foreign flags in classroom (I’m NOT KIDDING!)

0824flags_o.jpgOkay, picture in your mind that old social studies classroom. What’s on the walls?

Pictures of lots of old, dead, white guys (mostly US presidents)…maps, yes, usually lot’s of maps. And fairly often there’ll be poster of the flags of the world, or in some classrooms (or school hallways) small flags of every country hanging along the top of the walls.

Suddenly, if you’re a teacher in Colorado (remember Jay Bennish?) you can only hang the Stars and Stripes in your classroom. (And, if you’re working in Red River Elementary in Coushatta, LA you can probably hang Old Glory and the Stars and Bars too).

Today’s Rocky Mountain News has the story of seventh-grade social studies teacher Eric Hamlin who was suspended from Carmody Middle School in Lakewood after refusing to remove the flags of Mexico, China and the United Nations, which were displayed in his classroom along with the American flag. Jefferson County school administrators said Hamlin’s principal believed the teacher was violating a state law that bars the display of foreign flags on public property.
Rocky Mountain News
URL: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/education/article/0,1299,DRMN_957_4940787,00.html

Teacher in trouble over flag displays
Geography instructor refused to take down foreign banners at school
By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News
August 24, 2006

A seventh-grade geography teacher at Carmody Middle School in Lakewood was suspended with pay Wednesday after he refused to take down foreign flags displayed in his classroom.

Eric Hamlin, 36, said the flags of China, Mexico and the United Nations were relevant to the unit on the fundamentals of geography he teaches in the first six weeks of the semester.

He’s used the same display for most of the nine years he’s taught in Jefferson County, Hamlin said.

“Since flags are symbols of a nation and the people who live in that nation, if a flag of a foreign nation in a geography class can’t be displayed, and only the U.S. flag can be displayed, we’re sending the message that America is number one, everything else is below that,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin received a written reprimand Tuesday. Principal John Schalk escorted Hamlin from the building when the flags were still up on Wednesday morning.

Schalk referred questions to Jefferson County Schools spokeswoman Lynn Setzer.

Setzer said Schalk believed Hamlin was in violation of a state law barring display of foreign flags on public property.

Schalk interprets the law as allowing display of a specific lesson, but not for the duration of a six-week unit, Setzer said.

Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said Hamlin could have removed the flags, then appealed the principal’s decision to higher administrators. By refusing to remove the flags, Hamlin was insubordinate, Stevenson said.

“He defied a direct, reasonable request from a principal. That’s what’s at issue here,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson said it’s possible Hamlin and the district could work out an agreement short of firing Hamlin.

Hamlin said, “There’s no question I was insubordinate . . . I did directly tell my principal that I would not follow what he told me that I had to do.

“It’s the background, the basis of what he told me to do that I disagree with,” he said.

Whether Hamlin was actually in violation of a state law is another matter.

The 2002 law bars the display of foreign flags on state buildings. Among the exceptions are foreign flags used as “part of a temporary display of any instructional or historical materials not permanently affixed or attached to any part of the buildings or grounds . . ..”

Mark Silverstein, the legal director of the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that exception would appear to cover Hamlin’s display.

Hamlin said he’s begun drafting a written request for ACLU representation.

“We’ll read the letter and d , to take,” Silverstein said.

Hamlin has more than 50 flags that he uses during the course of the year.

Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.

Ohio needs FSMism missionaries, NOW!

Akron Beacon Journal: State school board race evolves into debate over whether religion should be part of the science curriculum

State school board races rarely generate much interest. But this year’s race in the Akron area is drawing national attention.

The issue heating up this race is the teaching of evolution.

The nonpartisan race for the District 7 school board seat includes two prominent names: former Congressman and former Akron Mayor Tom Sawyer and incumbent Deborah Owens Fink, a University of Akron marketing professor.

Owens Fink was a leader in the effort to adopt a controversial science curriculum standard and lesson plan calling for a critical analysis of evolution, Charles Darwin’s theory that life on Earth evolved over millions of years from common ancestors.

Sawyer was drafted to run by the newly formed Help Ohio Public Education. The group’s founders, Case Western Reserve University professors Patricia Princehouse and Lawrence Krauss, say the curriculum changes promoted intelligent design and were an effort to insert religion into the science curriculum.

In February, the state board rescinded the curriculum changes. The vote came after a federal judge in Pennsylvania rejected the teaching of intelligent design there, saying it is religion masquerading as science.Princehouse said a HOPE Web site endorsing Sawyer is drawing viewers from across the country and a reporter from the New York Times recently interviewed Krauss.

“People perceive the Ohio race as having the potential for real positive change for addressing root causes in poor science education,” Princehouse said.

Princehouse said that Owens Fink consistently thumbs “her nose at education experts, science experts and parents.”

Owens Fink, a Bath Township Republican, said she’s not running on the “evolution issue,” but rather the “broad base that I have brought to the table, most specifically this issue of really increasing the rigor in the curriculum” and aligning it with “what students should know and be able to do.”

During her tenure on the Ohio school board, she said, scores on state-mandated tests have improved “because we were really focusing on being very clear about what students should know.”

Owens Fink calls Princehouse, Krauss and other scientists supportive of Sawyer “members of the dogmatic scientific community” who want to stifle discussion about “the strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory.”

Sawyer rejected Owens Fink’s suggestion that his campaign is narrowly focused on the debate over teaching evolution.

Sawyer, an Akron Democrat, said his platform embraces the “broad range of the curriculum — the building blocks that comprise a thorough efficient education… Science education is an important part of that.”

He said he will also campaign about addressing school funding woes and a “stronger role for the state board of education.”

Owens Fink and Sawyer agree that more money will be spent on this race than usual.

“I’m going to do what it takes…. I’ve not had a major competitor before,” Owens Fink said. “This is new territory.”

Also filing for the District 7 school board election on Nov. 7 were Dave Kovacs, a philosophy student at the University of Akron, and John Jones, an employee of Ohio Edison Co. The filing deadline was Thursday.

Kovacs is making an aggressive run at the seat.

He developed a campaign Web site about six months ago in which he outlines his issues, including closing the achievement gap for minorities, disparities in school funding and corporate advertising in schools.

On Thursday, he criticized Owens Fink’s support of the controversial science standard, as well as charter schools. He’d like to see state-mandated testing de-emphasized and a return to a focus on a traditional curriculum.

“My issue is teach children to think for themselves,” he said.

Competitor Jones said simply: “I’m a common man and I want practical change.”

Bush Administration Opposes Integration Plans

The Bush administration is attacking voluntary integration plans in Seattle and Louisville, which are two the last places in the US where schools remain relatively racially balanced.

As the Harvard Civil Rights Project has illustrated how the repeal of court ordered integration is resegregating schools and creating a growing number of apartheid schools in the US.

Apparently the Bush administration won’t be satified until all US schools follow the apartheid model.

Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-na-scotus25aug25,1,1067156.story?coll=la-news-learning

The solicitor general urges the Supreme Court to scrap schools’ voluntary programs that exclude some students because of their race.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has urged the Supreme Court to strike down voluntary school integration programs across the nation that exclude some students because of their race.

Administration lawyers filed briefs this week in pending cases from Seattle and Louisville, Ky., on the side of white parents who are challenging “racial balancing” programs as unconstitutional.

The parents say the integration guidelines amount to racial discrimination and violate the Constitution’s guarantee of the equal protection of the laws. They lost in the lower courts, but the Supreme Court will hear their appeals in the fall.
In the briefs, U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement urged the justices to rule that “the use of a racial classification to achieve a desired racial balance in public schools” is just as unconstitutional as old-fashioned racial segregation.

Louisville, which had a history of segregated schools, adopted integration guidelines in 2001 that said the black enrollment in each elementary school should be at least 15% but no more than 50%. In Meredith vs. Jefferson County, Crystal Meredith, a white parent, sued when her son was prohibited from attending the elementary school nearest to his home.

The Seattle school board adopted integration guidelines for its high schools, beginning with the 1998-99 school year. Officials said they hoped to preserve racial diversity in the schools and prevent segregation that mirrored the racially segregated housing patterns in the city.

In the case of Parents Involved in Community Schools vs. Seattle schools, a group of parents sued to challenge the guidelines after their children were denied enrollment in their first choice of a high school because of their race or ethnicity.

As many as 1,000 school districts nationwide — including the Los Angeles Unified School District — are integrating some of their schools by using race or ethnicity as a factor for enrollment, according to Sharon L. Browne, a lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento. That organization filed suit in October against the Los Angeles district in state court, contending that it had violated Proposition 209, the 1996 statewide initiative that prohibits public programs from using racial preferences.

Next month, lawyers for the Louisville and Seattle school districts, as well as civil rights advocates will file briefs defending the integration guidelines. The justices are expected to hear oral arguments in December.

In the briefs filed this week, Clement urged the high court to resolve a lingering dispute over the meaning of the court’s landmark decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. That 1954 ruling struck down racial segregation laws that prevailed in the South and parts of the Midwest and declared that segregated schools are “inherently unequal.”

For decades afterward, school districts across the nation adopted policies to bring about racial integration: Some set enrollment guidelines that prevented schools from becoming nearly all black or all white, while others have used magnet programs that consider a student’s race. Many of those policies remain in effect.

Los Angeles Unified considers race as one of the factors for enrollment in its 162 magnet programs, which use specialized curricula to draw a racially and ethnically diverse student body from across the city. When the program was created almost three decades ago, nearly 40% of the district’s students were white, about one-third Latino and one-quarter black.

Today, fewer than one in 10 Los Angeles Unified students is white, and 30% to 40% of magnet seats are reserved for white children.

Clement, the Bush administration’s chief lawyer before the high court, said such programs should be struck down whenever they involve the use of a “racial classification” to decide who may enroll.

“The promise of this court’s landmark Brown [decision] was to ‘effectuate a transition to a racially non-discriminatory school system,’ ” he wrote. “The United States remains deeply committed to that objective. But once the effects of past de jure [legal] segregation have been remedied, the path forward does not involve new instances of de jure discrimination.”

His argument is likely to get a favorable hearing from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and his conservative colleagues.

“It’s a sordid business, this divvying us up by race,” Roberts commented in June when the court ruled on a voting-rights dispute from Texas. The court majority said Texas had violated the Voting Rights Act by shifting Latino voters out of a congressional district where they were nearing a majority, but Roberts expressed his dismay with the law’s focus on the race and ethnicity of the voters.

In the past, Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy have regularly voted to strike down contracting set-asides or affirmative-action programs that give preferences to minorities.

Three years ago, they dissented when the high court, in a 5-4 decision, upheld the affirmative-action policy at the University of Michigan law school. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the majority opinion.

The replacement of O’Connor, who retired last year, with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. could tip the court’s balance on affirmation action as well as on voluntary school integration. During his days as a Reagan administration lawyer, Alito said he was especially proud of his work on cases that challenged “racial quotas.”

The solicitor general defends federal agencies and federal laws when they come under challenge in the high court. He also may intervene in cases, even if no federal law is at issue, to express the views of the administration. In the school integration cases, the solicitor general could have intervened on the side of the school districts or on the parents’ side.

Clement argued that the government, including public schools, may use “race-based measures” only to “eliminate the vestiges of past discrimination.”

Since neither Seattle nor Louisville defend their policies as a remedy for past discrimination, they may not use “race-based assignments” simply to achieve integration, he said.

His brief sidesteps the issue of affirmative action in higher education. Referring to the University of Michigan case, he said the court had permitted “the limited consideration of race to attain a genuinely diverse student body, including a critical mass of minority students, at universities and graduate schools. That interest is not implicated here,” he wrote.

Louisana: Black students ordered to give up seats to whites

Seems the Red River Elementary school in Coushatta, LA is all over the Bush administration’s push to resegregate US schools.

Check out the story at the The Shreveport Times. Also, read the “readers comments” at the end of the article.

The Shreveport Times: Black students ordered to give up seats to whites

COUSHATTA — Nine black children attending Red River Elementary School were directed last week to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children.

The situation has outraged relatives of the black children who have filed a complaint with school officials.

Superintendent Kay Easley will meet with the family members in her office this morning.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also is considering filing a formal charge with the U.S. Department of Justice. NAACP District Vice President James Panell, of Shreveport, said he would apprise Justice attorneys of the situation this week. He’s considering asking for an investigation into the bus incident and other aspects of the school system’s operations, including pupil-teacher ratio as it relates to the numbers of white and black children, along with a breakdown of the numbers of black and white teachers employed.

“If the smoke is there, then there’s probably fire somewhere else,” Panell said in a phone interview from New Orleans. “At this point, it is extremely alarming. We fought that battle 50 years ago, and we won. Why is this happening again?”

Easley would not comment much on the allegations Wednesday, saying it is a personnel issue. She acknowledged that she has investigated the claim. And she confirmed that the bus driver did not run her route Wednesday, nor would she today.

Asked if the driver would work for the rest of the year, Easley said, “I’m not going to answer the questions. “» You’re getting all that you’re going to get from me. I’m sorry.”

Red River Elementary School Principal Jamie Lawrence tried to rectify the seating situation when it was brought to her attention. But it was ultimately handled at the Central Office, Patricia Sessoms said.

Sessoms aunt, Iva Richmond, is the mother of two of the children, ages 14 and 15, and foster parent to three others, ages 5, 6 and 10. Janice Williams, who is the mother of the other four children, is Richmond’s neighbor. All nine children catch the bus at a stop on Ashland Road.

Sessoms will join Richmond and Williams in their meeting with Easley today. Sessoms said they would ask for bus driver Delores Davis’ immediate termination. Davis, who originates her bus route in Martin, has called Richmond to apologize, Sessoms said. A message left on Davis’ answering machine late Wednesday afternoon was not immediately returned.

After Richmond and Williams filed complaints with the School Board, Transportation Supervisor Jerry Carlisle asked Davis to make seat assignments for her passengers, Sessoms said.

“But she still assigned the black children to the back of the bus,” she added.

And the nine children had to share only two seats, meaning the older children had to hold the younger ones in their laps.

A new solution reached Monday by School Board officials has a black bus driver driving across town to pick up the nine black children.

“I think the whole school system needs to be reviewed in Red River Parish,” Sessoms said.

Sessoms, who has two children at Red River Elementary, said she has no problems with her bus driver. “I have a wonderful bus driver,” she added. Sessoms’ request to have her young children sit near the front because of their ages was granted.

School Board member Gene Longino said Wednesday evening that he had not heard about the situation involving the nine children.

“I don’t know anything about that. “» Until something formally comes to the School Board members through the superintendent, we don’t know the details,” Longino said.

School Board President Ricky Cannon was at work Wednesday evening and unavailable for comment. Board member J.B. McElwee also was not at home. Calls to the homes of Cleve Miller, Kassandria Wells White, Karen Womack and Jessie Webber were not answered.