Teacher loses job, home because she talked to her students about peace

[linazelle]

Heard this from Mike Papantonio on AAR's Ring of Fire this PM.

What a sad country we are living in. This is heartbreaking on so many levels.

[Selatius]

1. I'd like to know more. There's no context and details n/t

[demgurl]

2. Where did you hear this?

I would also like a link. Thanks and peace!

[linazelle]

7. As stated in the original post, heard on AAR Ring of Fire

I found this on Google: http://www.counterpunch.org/white12172005.html


No Peace in Southern Indiana
Teacher Fired for Talking About Peace?
By JEFF WHITE

On a winter day two months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, two-dozen children, 10 to 12 years of age, sat in Deb Mayer's classroom at Clear Creek Elementary in Monroe County, Indiana, near Bloomington, thinking about war as they discussed a then-recent issue of Time for Kids (TFK). The magazine is a version of Time magazine written for school-age children and was a regular part of the lesson plan...One student's attention was drawn to an article on opponents of the war, a "peace march" in Washington, D.C. "The student asked me if I would ever be in a peace march," says Mayer. By Mayer's account, she informed the class that demonstrations for peace were being held all over the country, including Bloomington. She said she often drove past picketers gathered on the Courthouse Square with signs inviting drivers to "honk for peace." Mayer told the children she honked when she saw the signs...the discussion ended there, and the conflict began.

* * *

A sixth-grader, both sides concur, told her parents... The student's father requested a meeting with Clear Creek Principal Victoria Rogers and Mayer...on Jan. 13, 2003..."He said I had an agenda," Mayer says. "I said I didn't have an agenda. He said they were teaching their daughter to support the president and that I was confusing her. The mother and principal were trying to calm him. We were sitting at an elementary school table and he kept rising up out of his chair and pointing his finger in my face. "He asked me what I would do if I had a child in the service," Mayer says. "I said, 'I do.' He was accusing me of being unpatriotic. I said, 'My son and I believe you can be for peace and be patriotic.' That made him furious." ..."According to principal Rogers, Ms. Mayer completely mishandled the meeting and she felt that Ms. Mayer and 'were going to come to blows.'" By Mayer's account, the girl's father "demanded not mention peace in her class" and principal Rogers promised Mayer would comply. Both sides concur that immediately following the meeting, principal Rogers authored and disseminated a memorandum to staff headed "From the Principal" and "Peace at Clear Creek." The memo acknowledged the school's annual sponsorship of its "Peace Month" in January and the school's support for "the peaceful solution of problems through mediation." "We absolutely do not, as a school, promote any particular view on foreign policy related to the situation with Iraq," Rogers' memo states. "That is not our business. Individuals in a democracy have personal beliefs, but a public school acknowledges various points of view and those might be discussed related current events and the news." When issuing the memo, Rogers, without explanation to staff, cancelled "Peace Month" for January 2003.

* * *

As she awaits the trial in U.S. District Court, presided over by Reagan-appointed Justice Sarah Evans Barker, the now-former teacher works office temp positions. She has spent about $30,000--nearly her life's savings--on legal fees. Expressing her opinion also has cost Mayer her independence. She's been living in Madison, Wis., for the past year with her son, a doctor. ..Mayer, 55, says her 22-year teaching career may be over..this is preventing her from being hired for another teaching position...may have cost her a second teaching job in early 2004.

[demgurl]

9. I am so tired I missed that.

We have not had a real snow all winter and so I took my kids on a car trip to the mountains today. They got to see real snow and even see it falling. They had a ball but the downside is how tired I am. Thank you for your research.

[seabeyond]

3. need way more than this s=too be outraged. would like to know the

story.......because i am really good at outrage

[Justpat]

4. She should apply for a job at a Friends School.

They would probably value her.

[RC]

5. Teacher Fired for Talking About Peace?

By JEFF WHITE

On a winter day two months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, two-dozen children, 10 to 12 years of age, sat in Deb Mayer's classroom at Clear Creek Elementary in Monroe County, Indiana, near Bloomington, thinking about war as they discussed a then-recent issue of Time for Kids (TFK). The magazine is a version of Time magazine written for school-age children and was a regular part of the lesson plan.

The December 13, 2002, issue of TFK focused on the conflict between the United States and Iraq, with reports on attempts by the United Nations to find--or not--evidence of weapons of mass destruction in the country ruled by Saddam Hussein.

One student's attention was drawn to an article on opponents of the war, a "peace march" in Washington, D.C.

"The student asked me if I would ever be in a peace march," says Mayer.

By Mayer's account, she informed the class that demonstrations for peace were being held all over the country, including Bloomington. She said she often drove past picketers gathered on the Courthouse Square with signs inviting drivers to "honk for peace." Mayer told the children she honked when she saw the signs.

"I explained to the children that I thought we should seek peaceful solutions before going to war," says Mayer.

Mayer recalls she then talked about a program at Clear Creek through which kids trained as mediators intervene in conflicts on the playground to help other children solve problems peacefully.

According to Mayer, the discussion ended there, and the conflict began.

<MORE>

http://www.counterpunch.org/white12172005.html

[mzteris]

6. story link

http://www.counterpunch.org/white12172005.html

No Peace in Southern Indiana
Teacher Fired for Talking About Peace?
By JEFF WHITE

On a winter day two months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, two-dozen children, 10 to 12 years of age, sat in Deb Mayer's classroom at Clear Creek Elementary in Monroe County, Indiana, near Bloomington, thinking about war as they discussed a then-recent issue of Time for Kids (TFK). The magazine is a version of Time magazine written for school-age children and was a regular part of the lesson plan.

The December 13, 2002, issue of TFK focused on the conflict between the United States and Iraq, with reports on attempts by the United Nations to find--or not--evidence of weapons of mass destruction in the country ruled by Saddam Hussein.

One student's attention was drawn to an article on opponents of the war, a "peace march" in Washington, D.C.

"The student asked me if I would ever be in a peace march," says Mayer.

-more -

http://www.counterpunch.org/white12172005.html

[Lindacooks]

8. The teacher should sue that asshole parent

who's obviously a rabid right wing shill. Sounds like he was threatening her.