Heroic N.J. teacher was sacrificed for political cause in hidden video

[kpete]

Source: Star Ledger

Braun: Heroic N.J. teacher was sacrificed for political cause in hidden video
Published: Sunday, November 14, 2010, 7:30 AM Updated: Sunday, November 14, 2010, 7:35 AM
Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist



Alissa Ploshnick risked her life to save the lives of a dozen Passaic schoolchildren. She threw herself in front of a careening van to protect her students and landed in the hospital with broken ribs, a fractured wrist, a badly bruised pelvis and glass cuts in her eyes. She could have died.

The president of the United States, Bill Clinton then, sent her a letter. It read:

"I recently heard about your act of heroism and wanted to commend you for your selflessness. True heroes are rare in today’s world. And, all too often, those who are really making a difference in our communities go unnoticed and unrewarded. I am delighted to be able to give you the recognition you deserve. You are an example for all of us, and I applaud you for your sense of duty.’’

But that was then, in 1997. This is now.

Now, the veteran Passaic special education teacher has been smeared in a sneak attack video, punished by her school district and made a pawn in the relentless anti-union crusade of a governor who apparently wants to ride his Jersey tough guy image to the White House.

Read more: http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/11/braun_heroic_nj_teacher_was_sa.html

[Jakes Progress]

1. Crass politicians are taking the lead.

And it is shameful that some here at DU support the relentless anti-union crusade against teachers in the move to privatize schools and corporatize American education.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[madrchsod]

11. you noticed too...

i`m not letting them get away with union busting on a democratic website..

[Starry Messenger]

27. +100,000

Perhaps this lowlife move by an outright fascist will wake people up to the dangerous crap they are spouting about teachers and unions. I doubt it, but I can hope a little...

[Tansy_Gold]

38. + another 100,000

from someone who has a daughter and a son-in-law who are both proud UNION members in New Jersey PUBLIC school districts.




TG, NTY

[blondeatlast]

37. Damn straight. It makes me sick. nt

[No Elephants]

70. +1, but with one modification:

"And it is shameful that some here at DU support the relentless anti-union crusade against teachers in the move to privatize schools and corporatize American education."

I submit "And it is shameful some Democrats support....."

[Jakes Progress]

75. True that.

Once unions and education were sturdy planks of the Democratic platform. That platform is getting shaky and seems unsafe to stand on. But then again, the new party seems to not need it since, in the "new" party, we don't stand for anything.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Someone should follow James O'Keefe around and make a documentary.

[JDPriestly]

9. Great idea. no_hypocrisy

[Chan790]

58. I'm always open to ideas on how we can "sting" him the way he does others.

+1 bonus point if it'll provide an opportunity to see him arrested.

Suggestions? :shrug:

[ronnie624]

66. His day is coming.

It will be interesting and highly amusing to read of the deep secrets of his sexual inclinations.

I can't wait. :evilgrin:

[DBoon]

3. One of these day's O'Keefe is going to punk the wrong person

and he will end up very badly

[pattmarty]

5. We can only hope.

[shoreline]

26. Anxiously awaiting...

...that day.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Interesting. Is the O'Keefe video available online? nt

[Freetradesucks]

8. "teachers unions gone wild" on Youtube.

[sulphurdunn]

13. Yes.

I always thought it was illegal to record people without their consent. Silly me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdqQTIQhn5A

[Brickbat]

14. I could hardly watch that. But God knows middle managers, PR reps, sales people, bankers, defense

contractors, lobbyists and politicians NEVER EVER EVER drink, say stupid things, get down, blow off steam, and have stuff taken out of context. EVER. EVER, EVER.

[ronnie624]

77. There isn't much to it, really.

The video footage is edited to give the impression that something scandalous is going on, but if you examine the words being spoken in their actual context, instead of the fake context set up by the editing and narration, it's obvious there is absolutely nothing explosive or even revealing here.

[Smarmie Doofus]

23. I believe it IS... at least in NYS.

I think it's called "criminal eavesdropping". Someone I worked with ( school situation also; go figure) was accused of hiding a phone cam and videoing coworkers engaged in illegal/inappropriate behavior. He ( camera owner) got prosecuted by the school district. He thought he was a whistleblower.

POV is everything I guess.

He beat the rap... long story short.

But I'm pretty sure it's illegal.

Then again tv news does a lot of "hidden camera investigations". I'm guessing there's a legal distinction to be made there.

[Jackpine Radical]

28. You can do it in public.

Just not anywhere where you would have a reasonable expectation of privacy. (That's the general tenor of most state laws I'm aware of.)

[naaman fletcher]

31. It depends on the state.

In oklahoma for example, you can record as long as one person gives permission, and that permission can be yourself i.e. you can record any conversation that you are involved in.

[Jackpine Radical]

32. That is correct.

Wisconsin law is the same.

[AtheistCrusader]

63. Wrong state. Only one party has to know, in the case of that state.

And the guy doing the taping knew.

[sulphurdunn]

15. People should be able to gather privately,

have a few drinks, and run their mouths without Big Brother recording it. What some half gassed teachers said is not the issue here. The issue is the right to privacy and the personal freedom of assembly without having to worry about spies infiltrating your group of SWAT teams busting it in service to a political agenda. The latter will be the next escalation. Count on it.

[Blue_Tires]

7. Christie cheerleading this is just as disgusting....

[msanthrope]

10. Not unexpected, however.

It would be interesting to trace Christie and O'Keefe's relationship.

[blackspade]

12. Assholes.

This is some of the most crass bullshit I have read in a while.
Cristie is a total creep for taking advantage of this.

I'm not going to watch the video because it only increases the exposure of O'Keefe and his jerk squad.

[NuclearDem]

16. James O'Keefe is possibly one of the most disgusting people I've ever seen

"Journalism" my ass. The kid's gonna pull another stunt where he gets in legal trouble, and he's gonna go straight to prison.

I can only hope, at least.

[givemebackmycountry]

19. Fuck prison - he's gonna mess with the wrong person one day...

Let's just say for the sake of this post that I was the friend/significant other/husband (sorry don't know if she was married) of that female CNN reporter.
O'Keefe planned to lure her onto a boat with porn playing on video screens, and "toys" set out in the open, and this hand job was planning what?

To get her drunk and humiliate her on video?
To get her drunk, drug her and rape her?

Know this.
He would STILL be picking shards of aluminum baseball bat out of his brain.

[BrklynLiberal]

17. I think that NJ will regret very, very much having elected that pompous ass as their governor.

I don't even live in NJ and I regret their voting in Christie.

The fact that he did not immediately disavow ANYTHING with the O'Keefe named attached to it, just shows what a truly stench-filled piece of crap he is.

I hope hope hope that he ends up at the short of the stick...and soon!!!

[ramapo]

21. I live here and a lot of people LOVE him

They love his tough guy bully image. It doesn't really matter if his policies are right, wrong, logical, stupid, brilliant, or inane. Few people think that much about what he says.

Teachers are an easy mark, there is a lot of resentment of them amongst the general public so they LOVE Christie going after the union.

People mostly LOVE that he killed the tunnel. There was a lot wrong with the design but that is not why people LOVE him.

It is pretty sad but that is what it is like here in Bergen County.

[JHB]

29. Woim syndrome...

...the vicarious thrill some people get when a bully sticks it to someone else, especially a someone else they find annoying or have some sort of gripe with.

[boppers]

56. Woim?

Is that an acronym? A reference to... nvm, googled it. It's a neologism, a little rascals' reference, coined recently.

Since I've never seen a Little Rascals (video? show? movie?) I just have to guess....

[BrklynLiberal]

34. pres shit-for-brains had people who loved him too..and look where that got us...

This is such a disgusting situation.

[alp227]

36. UGH. Christie even PRAISED O'Keefe????

Christie recently praised O’Keefe’s secret taping of Ploshnick and others and said: "If you need an example of what I’ve been talking about for the last nine months — about how the teachers union leadership is out of touch with the people and out of control — go watch this video."

Maybe Governor Christie should read the Wikipedia entry about James O'Keefe.

[BrklynLiberal]

51. or perhaps this tells us ALOT about the type of person Christie is...

[tabbycat31]

40. I do live in NJ and am embarassed by his every move.

I am glad that we had some sanity two weeks ago and I am not represented by Anna Little.

[BrklynLiberal]

50. Any pics of your sweet kitty??? you must be taking VERY good care of her.

[tabbycat31]

52. There's a few on my Facebook

my parents have him now because I left the state for 3 months to go work on a campaign. I'm going to try and get him back next weekend.

[BrklynLiberal]

55. Good luck to you on your campaign. Like your blog.

[tabbycat31]

59. my blog is badly neglected

I should do a campaign recap on it. We'll see what campaign I end up on next. My guess is a state senate one in 2011 and hopefully I'll be an RFD by 12.

[roxiejules]

18. Seeing Gold

The super rich will not be happy until unions are destroyed, the public schools privatized and handed to Wall Street on a silver (or in this case a GOLDMAN) platter.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lisc-goldman-sachs-partner-on-charter-school-financing-facility-2010-11-09?utm_campaign=US+Education+-+Google+News&utm_medium=Twitter&reflink=MW_news_stmp&utm_source=SNSanalytics

[stevedeshazer]

20. James O'Keefe is dog shit.

Like the dog shit that you'd scrape off your heel on the curb.

[Quantess]

22. James O'Keefe.

enough said.

[TheeHazelnut]

24. O'Keefe is a public figure -- can he be legally stalked by paparazzi?

If a "paparazzi"/documentarian followed him around everywhere he went his ability to do these smear jobs would go out the window -- he could no longer effectively disguise himself. Perhaps a worthy goal.

[PatrynXX]

25. I have no idea what that prick isn't facing life in prison.

Dems get attacked for being sexist for going against Sarah Palin, yet this Sexist Rapist pig is out there. Who I have no doubt will go to hell for most of his crimes. Is his ass hot yet?? He needs a fucking straightjacket and a padded room.

[MadBadger]

30. I wouldnt help Christie him if he got hit by a van

[Scruffy1]

33. It's time to wake up and realize we are at war

Maybe not in the violent way that some would like it but warfare none the less. Every conversation, every phone call every act you perform may be used against you. I'm probably more aware of this because of my long time involvement in some movements and activities that the powers that be don't like. So they pick on naive teachers. First she didn't recognize him which I find somewhat disconcerting since I think a wanted poster of him should be hung in every chat room in the country if not the PO. O'keefe style journalism is exactly what the feds often use against people by taking statements out of context and editing to suit their needs. This is why any lawyer will tell you if questioned to not answer without a lawyer present. Unfortunately we live in a society that has no privacy so you need to act accordingly.

[Danger Mouse]

35. O'Keefe is a piece of dog shit. My apologies to any dogs out there.

[Tansy_Gold]

41. there is no animal so low it wouldn't be offended to have its fecal matter

compared to this little rotten turd.

[tomg]

39. O'Keefe is a rotten little

fucker, and Christie is no better. If we on the left don't give as good as we get, then we deserve to get our asses kicked. And this is bipartisanship? I say we go for the rights
( fill in the genitalia of your choice).

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. Well let's hope he gets busted for violating his probation

Zegas said O’Keefe and others showed up at her apartment in Lincoln Park twice after she was secretly taped. He said he is investigating the possibility of bringing stalking and harassment charges. A violation of probation could put O’Keefe in jail.

[Dave From Canada]

43. Nobody forced her to say what she said. What she said was pretty disgusting.

[proud2BlibKansan]

45. She was quoting what someone else said

How is that disgusting?

[SemperEadem]

48. considering the man she was talking to was someone she's never seen or talked to before in life

her "quoting" someone else is non sequitur.

its' rather interesting that she is so free with the use of the "n-word", but yet, she didn't use the term "n-word": she said "nigger".
To me, there was some level of comfort in her allowing that to roll off her tongue so easily in front of a stranger--she certainly was comfortable in being that blunt with someone she's never seen before in life and that's what is appalling about this whole thing to me.

it's a shame that she had no idea who this moron-boy is, considering the amount of press he's been given through his antics.

the fact that that fat-fuck, christie, is showing his ass once again just puts the cherry on top of this sordid sundae.

[proud2BlibKansan]

49. Some of us teachers hear kids call each other niggers all the time

If I told you that, would that make me a bad person for using the N word?

That's all that happened here. She was repeating what someone else said. That doesn't mean she would ever use that word to describe an African American. I would not yet I used it to tell you that I have heard kids say it many times. And no I don't get any level of comfort from saying it. That's ridiculous.

[joshcryer]

62. Yeah? Have you ever bragged about the difficulty of being fired, even if you called a kid...

..."nigger"?

Because she was bragging. She wasn't the least bit appalled. She used it as an acceptable example.

[proud2BlibKansan]

85. No I never have done that

[SemperEadem]

83. I wasn't discussing "kids". I was discussing an adult.

nice try, though... drive through.

[proud2BlibKansan]

86. And I gave an example of repeating what someone else said

which was all she was doing.

How hard is this to understand?

[masshole]

69. "rather interesting" my ass

She's in a bar, he's buying her drinks. He's setting up the conversation ("You're a teacher? So what's all this Tenure stuff anyway? Teachers can't be fired?"). She takes the bait. It's been awhile personally, but I seem to remember alcohol consumption tends to cloud the normal decision-making process, I think some researchers once figured out that's why intoxicated people do STUPID things. Oh, and unfortunately she's actually interested in this guy, which would further lower her usual social-barriers. But I guess this is what you call her "level of comfort".

Yeah, and it wasn't O'Keefe who was hitting on her in the bar and recording the conversation, it was one of his lackeys. It's a shame all right, a shame you missed that little fact in the article.

You really shine though with your "fat-fuck Christie" comment. The fact that there was some level of comfort in you allowing that to roll off your keyboard so easily in front of strangers on the internet - that's the appalling thing to me.

It forces me wonder if Ms. Ploshnick's weight has affected your opinion in the same way Mr. Christie's weight apparently has.

[SemperEadem]

82. whatever

[masshole]

88. forgive me, I didn't realize you were on the debate team at school

Damn, you pulled out the "WHATEVER" pretty quick, you don't mess around!

[Dave From Canada]

84. That wasn't all she said.

[proud2BlibKansan]

87. She said lots of things but nothing that warrants the attack by O'Keefe

[Smarmie Doofus]

44. I just watched the Okeefe video. Basically....

Ploshnick agreed on tape with the school reform meme that it was extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher.

As an example... she described a teacher who had been "demoted" ( I'd like to know what that means; I've never heard of a teacher being demoted to the position of "teacher." ) but not fired for calling a student the N-word.

Plus in describing the incident she quoted the teacher verbatim... as in, "You n------."


Is there more than this? Am I missing something? What I see here is something short of a capital crime. In fact, it's not a crime at all.

( BTW, I'll betcha, that..... like the NJ school reformers..... she's exaggerating the difficulty of firing incompetent/malfeasant teachers.)

[proud2BlibKansan]

53. The teacher she is talking about was demoted

But I guess since he wasn't put in front of a firing squad the haters are not satisfied.

[msanthrope]

76. I don't think you should be 'demoted' for calling a student the n-word. You should be fired.

You shouldn't be working with kids.


That said, O'keefe is still a utter piece of worthless scum.

[Smarmie Doofus]

79. Point is: she (Ploshnick) did not call any student ANYTHING.

Let's be clear about that. I myself thought that's what was on the tape until I actually watched it.

Far as the issue she was talking about.. I'd be inclined to agree with you. But we don't have good info about it. Perhaps there was context. ( e.g. both student and teacher were AA.) . Perhaps it was said tongue in cheek.

Perhaps the person who uttered the word wasn't a teacher at all, but an admin. ( Hence "demoted" to a teacher would then make sense.)

Anyway, that's not at issue right now. Ploshnick didn't call anyone anything, and didn't *approve* of anyone calling anyone anything.

[msanthrope]

81. I didn't say she did.

However, use of that word, in a public setting, in the manner she did isn't indicative of some one with good judgment.

That's not a crime. But that she is facing public censure is unsurprising.

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. Here's the video

Sorry I don't see how this makes anyone but the filmmakers look bad. :shrug:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/video_released_by_conservative.html

[laughingliberal]

47. K & R nt

[Dyler Turden]

54. O'Keefe. I should have known.

I'm looking forward to karma catching up with his skinny ass.

[name not needed]

68. Agreed.

I go to Rutgers, which O'Keefe graduated from in 2006. Some of my friends actually know the guy. Not one of them had anything good to say.

[patrice]

57. Unions have many enemies on both sides of the poltical divide, because their potential powerisfeared

[The Wizard]

60. When are people going to

take down James O'Keefe?
If Christie thinks aligning himself with lying scumbags is good, he's mistaken. Then again, Karl Rove is pulling his strings.

[radhika]

61. Found a way to mix his politics with his fetishes...

Seems he and his pals are REAL into tricking women with hidden cameras - like Mary Landrieu, the CNN reporter, and now this teacher. This is one sick puppy on a lot of levels - the political kink just gives him some plausible facade of public purpose, and a way to make $$$.

Personally, I'd like to see what else he has captured. You know, before Breitbart started givig him assignments.

[timo]

64. I dont get it???

If she called a child the N word then she needs to be punished accordingly...you cant let that go without beeing dealt with...regardless of her past record...if she said it she should be called out for it.

[TheeHazelnut]

67. she didn't

read the story

[janet118]

65. Why is this guy still on the streets? What if he were filming right-wingers?

James O'Keefe ARRESTED In Mary Landrieu Phone Scheme, 3 Others Also Charged


Fake pimp from ACORN videos tries to 'punk' CNN correspondent

The right wing stands by its most odious advocates. They have no shame or ethical limits when it comes to their own. Most of the media goes along for the ride. FoxNews drives the bus.

[No Elephants]

71. Shocking story.

O'Keefe is on probatiion? Whose idea was that? Christie supports a confessed criminal? Oprah Winfrey is a "fan" of Christie?

[drm604]

72. If the tape was edited to misrepresent what she said maybe she should consider a defamation claim.

Also, since O’Keefe showed up twice at her home after the taping, apparently with malicious intent, they may be able to charge him with harassment or stalking.

O'Keefe is on probation. I don't know what the conditions of that probation are but between this and the recent nonsense involving a planned seduction attempt aimed at CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau, it's very possible he's violated those conditions and should be in prison.

[mod mom]

73. I wish karma would be served to that puny POS, O'Keefe.

O'Keefe must have been bullied because of his appearance. He looks like Timothy McVie with a huge nose. His misfortune isn't an excuse for his thuglican pursuits, however. I hope he gets what he deserves!

[mod mom]

80. Huff Po picks up the story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/15/teachers-unions-gone-wild-james-okeefe-alissa-ploshnick_n_783416.html#comments

[Uncle Joe]

74. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[vanbean]

78. Thanks, Kpete. O'Keefe seems to think that journalism is candid camera.

I have heard him defend his actions by saying that all journalists do it, referring to using hidden cameras. We haven't heard the last of James O'Keefe. He will keep it up, until he hits rock bottom. Remember how he sat there on Fox and Friends and let them falsely claim that the pimp outfit "was exactly what he was wearing" when he was the the ACORN offices? Remember the look on his face? He was savoring the moment, and, of course he knew the truth, but didn't care that it was a lie, and didn't care that he had edited the videos. He has a problem. He will keep it up until something worse happens. He's dangerous, to himself and to society.