Posted on 11/08/2013 6:29:22 AM PST by Kaslin
Josh Barry, of Camp Hill, Penn., wants to know why the president of the local teacher’s union thinks he’s a neo-Nazi after he complained about a classroom assignment that he believed to be biased.
“I’m Jewish and my wife is half-black, half-white,” Barry told me in a telephone interview. “I am the furthest thing from a neo-Nazi.”
Last week, his daughter’s eighth grade American History class at East Pennsboro Middle School was asked to analyze a New York Times story about the recent government shutdown.
Barry, who said he is a registered independent, read the story and then read a list of questions his daughter was required to answer and he immediately determined the assignment was “grossly slanted.”
The worksheet included questions like “To what issue do House Republican leaders insist on tying the federal budget?” and “Whom do you hold most responsible for the government shutdown?”
Barry fired off letters complaining about the assignment to his daughter’s teacher as well as the school board. But a few days later, he was shocked to discover that the head of the local teacher’s union was making calls around town – asking if he was a neo-Nazi.
The story was first reported on the website Examiner.com.
“It is safe to say that I am less than pleased with your non-objective approach to education when it pertains to current political discussions in the classroom,” he wrote. “You have a duty to be objective and your information you provided my child was not only grossly slanted but it is incompetently incomplete.”
He pointed out the questions in the lesson were loaded with political ideology and “pre-loaded with incorrect premises.”
The teacher responded by explaining that the lesson was not about politics -- it was about literacy.
“The objective was not to promote any political agenda but to work on non-fiction reading skills,” the teacher wrote in an email obtained by Fox News.
Barry was not satisfied with the explanation.
“You will not indoctrinate my child,” he wrote. “If you are going to present articles with a slant to one side you are morally and ethically required to present the opposing views, to give an opportunity for the student, your captive audience, to come to their own conclusions.”
Barry also reached out to the principal, who defended the teacher’s assignment and allegedly told him The New York Times story was not slanted.
On Friday the story took a bizarre turn.
A friend of Barry’s received a telephone call that he says came from Cydnee Cohen, the president of the East Pennsboro Education Association. Barry’s friend was a mutual friend of Cohen’s.
“We’re having some problems with a parent in our school district,”Cohen allegedly told Barry’s friend. “I would like to know -- some of it seems like he’s a neo-Nazi.”
Barry’s friend, who he declined to name, sent Cohen a text message, refuting the charge.
“Just got your message,” the friend wrote. “Josh is the furthest thing from a neo-Nazi. He is JEWISH.”
Afterwards, the friend called Barry and alerted him to the neo-Nazi allegation.
Cohen did not return messages seeking comment.
Bruce Deveney, the superintendent of the school district, told me they are investigating the incident.
“A teacher that was not involved with the assignment took it upon themselves to address the issue that was made public by the parent,” Deveney said. “The teacher’s actions are not supported or sanctioned by the administration and school board of East Pennsboro Area School District.”
Deveny did not respond to questions about Cohen’s employment status in the school district.
“The district is looking further into this situation and will take appropriate actions,” he said.
Barry accused the union president of “embarking on a campaign to dig up dirt on me and to make me look like a neo-Nazi.”
“It’s a smear,” he told me. “Instead of dealing with the issue at hand in a logical, adult manner, she embarked on a campaign to smear me. That’s their union thuggery tactics.”
For the record, Barry said he is not a neo-Nazi. After he went public with Cohen’s accusation, his friend received a rather heated phone call from the union boss.
“She was swearing at her,” he said. “When my friend questioned (Cohen) about her motive - she said, ‘I’m a union officer. These are my teachers.’”
Barry said he wants the union president fired.
“Anything less than accepting her resignation or firing her is condoning her actions,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”
And he’s also got a message for the local teacher’s union: he’s not backing down.
“It’s going to be very difficult to intimidate me,” he said. “I’m not going to submit to their bullying tactics.”
Look dad, pull her out and home school
Teachers union going full gestapo.
“The teacher’s actions are not supported or sanctioned by the administration and school board of East Pennsboro Area School District.” (Unquote).
“But let it be known that this is SOP, and will happen to any of you neo Nazi troublemakers”.
My daughter is a freshman at a public high school. I have been inoculating her against left-wing propaganda since she was in first grades.
Not all parents are able to home school. But parents who have kids in public school have a moral obligation to be aware of what their kids are being taught, and to make sure she gets the other side.
On her first day of first grade, I told my daughter: "Some of what they teach you in school is always true. Some of it is only true for now, and some of it is absolutely wrong. Your job is to learn to recognize the difference."
I am very proud of her.
that is awesome
Pantsuit fascism. Get the kid into private school or start homeschooling NOW.
Like to see Mr. Cohen’s house surrounded by ranting 200 pound lesbian chunkettes doing militant waddling.
While I am glad that he spoke up I flat out reject this implied notion that only Christian whites are racial/biased/haters or whatever.
We are teachers because we want to change the world and make a difference, not teach math. We will teach the children (not YOUR children) whatever we feel like teaching them.
FORWARD!
for some reason I like the way he says this, unlike everyone in the MSM, who refer to Obama as simply, black. It would have been a stronger argument if he would have simply said his wife is black, but he chose to acknowledge all of her.
On 9/11/01, I told my son who was then 14, ‘remember exactly what happened today. The history books will not necessarily give the true account’. I had talked to him about Liberal bias in the schools being taught as truth/history. One day he came home and told me they had watched a Walter Cronkhite special ‘year end wrap up’ of a year in the early 80’s. He said he couldn’t believe how biased it was. I told him ‘we didn’t realize it back then’. We must fight the sneaky indoctrination everywhere these days. Our nation’s future depends on it.
Like the homosexuals, the communists are fully out of the closet and blatantly in your face.
They will prompt you to fight hand to hand, and straight away have you arrested and imprisoned.
The Teachers’ Union?
WHY? Are they involved? Is their a job bargaining benefits issue at stake?
NO UNION GOON THUG BROWNSHIRTS!
WRONG! Stand and fight...if we all run away from this our country is lost. We need fighters! It’s time to man up.
I completely agree with you Lady L. Why should we run away from this by pulling our kids out of OUR schools? It’s time to stand up and fight this! Call them out on their bias and keep them on their toes! We won’t win this fight if we run away!
Leftists often equate any opposition to their politics as “right-wing,” or Fascism, showing their ignorance of history and American politics. The teacher obviously has no clue what a neo-Nazi is, or what Fascism is. That’s too bad, because we have an excellent example of Fascism in Obamacare, and without bias, the mechanics of Fascism could be demonstrated and contrasted with free market ideas, or Soviet style Marxism, giving students a look at how American politics differ from those of Europe, historically and presently. ...Students might learn that while America has a “left-wing” that is patterned after, and created by the European left, there is no American equivalent of a European right-wing, which historically was fascist-style socialism. The possibilities are ripe, but not for the students who have that teacher.
Stand and fight.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lady L,
While I agree with you that we should push back at government run programs that abuse citizens’ rights, fundamentally, the solution is the SHUT down the socialist programs, and restrict government to the most minimal functions possible.
At its **core** government schooling is a single-payer and socialist-entitlement abomination. It never was, ( nor can it be) religiously, politically, or culturally neutral. For those children forced to attend and for those forced to pay for it ( under police threat) it is a First Amendment and freedom of conscience abomination!
Do you work for the government schools? ( Just wondering)
by pulling our kids out of OUR schools?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
These schools are a single-payer and socialist entitlement. They are godless.
Parents have a responsibility for their **own** children’s welfare first. Children should not be used as foot soldiers in a political/cultural war.
Finally, government schooling can NOT be reformed because it is, at its core, a socialist/collectivist entitlement. It was never ( and can’t be) religiously, politically, and culturally neutral. They are a First Amendment and freedom of conscience abomination for all who are under police threat to attend and pay for it.
Disagree with the school? Begin the smear campaign!
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