An Overland High School geography teacher was put on leave Wednesday while Cherry Creek Schools investigates whether he violated district policy that requires balanced viewpoints in the classroom.
Jay Bennish, who teaches 10th grade world geography, is being investigated for making biased, anti-President Bush comments in class during a discussion of the State of the Union speech last month.
"These are serious allegations and we're very concerned about it," said Tustin Amole, spokeswoman for Cherry Creek Schools. "This does not reflect the type of teaching that we want to see in Cherry Creek school district."
Bennish could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
On Feb. 1, Bennish, who has been at Overland High School since the fall of 2000, had a discussion in his class about the State of the Union address.
Sean Allen, a student in the class, taped the discussion, in which Bennish made a number of unfavorable comments about Bush that upset Allen's father.
"He said that some people may compare (Bush) to Hitler," Amole said.
The school district did not learn about Bennish's lecture until last Wednesday, when it received an e-mail about it from an out-of-state person who had seen an online column on it written by Walter Williams on http://www.townhall.com, Amole said. That same day, Allen's father also called the principal of Overland High School to complain about the teacher, and the complaint was forwarded to the district, which began its investigation.
"After listening to the tape, it's evident the comments in the class were inappropriate," Amole said. "There were not adequate opportunities for opposing points of view."
Allen's father apparently gave a copy of the taped discussion to KOA radio host Mike Rosen, who did a show on the subject Wednesday.
You can listen to the entire 20 minute rant here.
Here's a taste:
Teacher Jay Bennish: Who is probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth?!
Unidentified brainwashed student interjects: We are.
Bennish: The United States of America!
You've really got to hear the whole thing. Michelle Malkin has more of his comments transcribed here.
What bothers me the most about all this is that the only apparent reason this teacher was suspended is because he didn't allow for adequate time for opposing view points.
What total crap.
He is a teacher and he is indoctrinating his students with communist, anti-American rhetoric. Maybe that sort of thing can fly in college, but not tax-funded high schools. This country was founded on capitalism. Individuals exchanging goods and services with one another. We did not grow to be a super power by embracing the ideas espoused by this jerk. If we want to see evidence of his ideas in practice one need look no further than the now-defunct Soviet Union. Or the thousands living in oppression in Cuba. Communism (not to mention socialism, which inevitably leads to communism) is the political ideology responsible for more death and destruction on this planet than any other in the history of the world. Not even Hitler's fascist policies in Germany can match the amount death wreaked by Stalin alone, not to mention Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, etc. Those men are some of the most prominent Communists in history, and what are the famous for? Death. Destruction. Oppression.
Meanwhile, who are some of the greatest capitalists in the world? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Sam Walton? Oh sure these guys are prone to greed and sleaze on occasion, but compare them to the foremost practitioners of socialism in the world and I think you'll see the difference.
I'll take sleazy corporate hacks over crippling, oppressive socialist bureaucracy every day of the week.
How about we teach these students about that?
If this teacher wants to disagree with the policies of the current political leadership in this country, great. Fine. I don't even mind if he talks about it a reasonable amount in class, but I draw the line at exposing our kids to his foolhardy commie propaganda.