Teachers May Not Advocate for a Party or Candidate
Obama T-shirt earns middle school teacher a trip to principal’s office
A local middle school history teacher who wore a Barack Obama T-shirt to school after the election has been cited by his principal for engaging in unethical political activity.
Dennis Yuzenas, an American history teacher at Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, has refused to sign a memorandum that his principal, Elizabeth Kennedy, handed him last week, in what has become a showdown between one of the school’s most popular teachers and its relatively new principal.
“Last Friday, November 7, you wore a T-shirt that clearly showed which candidate you supported during the recent Presidential Election and appeared with students on the in-school news broadcast sharing your positive view regarding the outcome of the election,” the memo read.
“As per the Code of Ethics and the above state School Board policy, students may not know your political view,” it continued. “This could be construed as using your position to influence others. It is my expectation, that in the future as you teach students to clarify and express their own political views, you will remain neutral.”
Yuzenas was flabbergasted. He said he did his best to remain apolitical during the campaign.
Quite right! Teachers have a position of influence and power over their students, they should not be allowed to express their political or religious views while in the classroom or on school grounds. If this teacher knew the school policy, some suspension should have followed that would send a clear message to other teachers that publicly funded (taxes) schools are not partisan, political or religious indoctrination centers.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/11/18/a1b_bino_1119.html?imw=Y
