Free Republic

Ga. Tech defends gay-inclusive policies Lawsuit among rising tide of challenges to so-called ‘speech codes’ By DYANA BAGBY Friday, May 12, 2006 Responding this week to a federal lawsuit filed by two students against the Georgia Institute of Technology, state attorneys said the public university’s policies do not limit the free speech rights of those who oppose gay rights. Tech does not "prohibit or restrict expressive speech or activity by students or their organizations. Students, faculty and friends of Tech have the right to make statements as they please in the public areas without fear of reprisals," Assistant Attorney General...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Three students and their parents sued their school district in federal court, claiming their free-speech rights are being denied by a ban on the Confederate battle flag at the students' high school. The William Blount High School students, Derek Barr, Chris Nicole White and Roger Craig White, said they were threatened with suspension if they refused to cover or turn inside out shirts bearing the Confederate emblem. The students complied but they and their parents sued, seeking a preliminary injunction to lift the ban. "Out of all the T-shirts that are worn to school every day,...

Teacher Escorted From Class After Student Broadcast Student Producers Say Message Is ImportantPOSTED: 12:10 pm EST March 1, 2006 ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. -- A St. Clair Shores teacher was escorted from her classroom Tuesday because of a controversial segment warning students about the dangers of a popular Web site, Local 4 reported. Lakeview High School students produced a newscast showing some controversial content from MySpace.com during a broadcast class, Local 4 reported. The student report showed clips and images from MySpace.com, but were edited and blurred out, Local 4 reported. "A lot of people are saying it is the...

Some Littleton High School students are planning a protest after two students were suspended for postings on the popular Web site MySpace.com, a site where teens create personal pages to keep in touch and make friends. Each teen can have their own page, with photos and blogs and musings -- basically whatever they want. But two students from Littleton High School typed postings that the school administration found out about and didn't like, and now there's a question of whether the school is imposing on the student's first amendment rights to free expression. The ACLU has also been contacted and...

For months, 17-year-old Andrew Saraf had been troubled by stories he was hearing about a Peace Studies course offered at his Bethesda high school. Last Saturday, he decided to act. He sat down at his computer and typed out his thoughts on why the course should be banned . "I know I'm not the first to bring this up but why has there been no concerted effort to remove Peace Studies from among the B-CC courses?" he wrote in his post to the school's group e-mail list. "The 'class' is headed by an individual with a political agenda, who wants...

In the new millennium, articles describing the intellectual differences between the genders have been altogether too commonplace. As a result, it wasn’t difficult to presage from the cover of Newsweek’s most recent issue where the editors were going with a headline like “The Boy Crisis.” In fact, once inside, the featured piece, “The Trouble With Boys,” turned into just another in a long line of “exposes” depicting girls as being smarter than boys. After a pleasant introduction, author Peg Tyre began her laundry list of male deficiencies:

Jan. 16, 2006 issue - The surest, quickest way to add quality to primary and secondary education would be addition by subtraction: Close all the schools of education. Consider The Chronicle of Higher Education's recent report concerning the schools that certify America's teachers. Many education schools discourage, even disqualify, prospective teachers who lack the correct "disposition," meaning those who do not embrace today's "progressive" political catechism. Karen Siegfried had a 3.75 grade-point average at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, but after voicing conservative views, she was told by her education professors that she lacked the "professional disposition" teachers need. She...

In the 1990s, I taught for six years at a small liberal arts college in Spokane, Wash. In my third year, I started noticing something that was happening right in front of me. There were more young women in my classes than young men, and on average, they were getting better grades than the guys. Many of the young men stared blankly at me as I lectured. They didn't take notes as well as the young women. They didn't seem to care as much about what I taught -- literature, writing and psychology. They were bright kids, but many of...

Profs get warned of freedoms By MENSAH M. DEAN deanm@phillynews.com Words such as "McCarthyism" and "chill" buzzed through a group of Temple University professors and students who gathered on campus yesterday to discuss a state legislative committee's investigation of political diversity at state-run colleges. The "teach-in," sponsored by the Temple Association of University Professionals, drew an audience overwhelmingly convinced that the committee's very existence is a threat to academic freedom. "I think that there is a concern that people are going to start coming in and say, 'You can do this, but you can't do this.' If we are teaching...

A Closer Look at the 'Five Stooges' Investigating Ward Churchill by Jim Paine from Dictionary.com: stooge (stj)n. The partner in a comedy team who feeds lines to the other comedian; a straight man. One who allows oneself to be used for another's profit or advantage; a puppet. One would think that with all the public attention on the actions of CU's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct (SCRM) vis á vis its treatment of the Ward Churchill investigation, SCRM would approach the task of selecting the final investigating committee members with care, nay, with great fear and trembling. One would think SCRM...

It is no longer a secret that many public and private universities are populated by professors who use their classrooms to recruit students to their political agendas. But while the politicization of the universities is now common knowledge, an even more distressing instance of this abuse is to be found in the nation’s K-12 schools. I have that on good authority. I have been a teacher in Los Angeles-area elementary and middle schools and have witnessed first hand how students who are younger and more impressionable are being regularly indoctrinated by leftwing teachers. Having worked in a number of different...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Leftist leaders at the University of California, Santa Barbara have begun distributing a profanity-sprinkled "Disorientation Guide" that calls for a return to the activist spirit of the 1960s. The guide, which came out last week, features interviews with the college's "most politically active" professors, a directory of local liberal organizations and commentaries on subjects including feminism, corporate media, proper "queer" terminology and the value of blogs.It also chronicles the history of UCSB activism, including the infamous 1970 burning of the Bank of America in Isla Vista."A lot of people have passion for certain issues, but never...

College campuses can be political hotbeds. And that has some members of Congress thinking they should get involved. Some Republicans are pushing a measure through the House of Representatives meant to ensure that students hear "dissenting viewpoints" in class and are protected from retaliation because of their politics or religion. Colleges say the measure isn't needed, but with Congress providing billions of dollars to higher education, they are worried. The measure's chief promoter, Marxist-turned-conservative activist David Horowitz, says an academic bill of rights will protect students from possible political "hectoring" and discrimination by their professors.... The federal government provides loans...

Government teacher Nareg Keshishian never expected a parent to complain when he advised his Advanced Placement class he planned to show a documentary on media bias in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But a parent did, telling the principal of Glendale's Hoover High School that the documentary "Outfoxed," which alleges right-wing bias at Fox News, was one-sided and that Keshishian wasn't presenting the "facts" about the attacks in a fair and balanced way. "When they come up with a documentary showing the bias in CNN, I will happily air it. I want to bring to the students'...

A Brooklyn College professor says Ebonics is superior to the tongue of White Devils --Assistant Professor of Adolescence Education at Brooklyn College --Teaches that rap music is an effective tool for teaching English literacy to schoolchildren, and that proper English is language of white "oppressors" --Required students to view Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 Priya Parmar is an Assistant Professor of Adolescence Education at Brooklyn College's School of Education in New York, where she teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses to aspiring teachers. Of special interest to Parmar, whose doctoral dissertation is titled "KRS-One Going Against the Grain: A Critical Study...

For certain enlightened liberals on university faculties, the lesser intellectual stature of Christians and conservatives is so much taken for granted that they do not hesitate to write about them in terms dripping with condescension and contempt. An example I encountered this week is especially odious, and I am happy to bring it to the attention of a wider, non-academic audience. The authors are four political scientists at the University of Pittsburgh - Barry Ames, David Barker, Chris Bonneau and Christopher Carman. Their paper is a critique of a study, published earlier this year, examining the statistical evidence that not...

Imagine for a moment that your next paycheck is short $53. You call your employer for an explanation and are told that the money is being used to fight for your employee rights and provide you with job protection. Sounds like a good deal, right? Not so fast. Mandatory union dues make this hypothetical scenario a reality for public-school teachers across the country. As employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, we are required to pay a monthly fee to United Teachers Los Angeles, regardless of whether or not we want to become members of the union....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These are your teachers? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 14, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com The National Education Association recently concluded its annual meeting in Los Angeles - and you might be surprised what the largest teachers' union in America talked about and decided. I mean, let's face it. The state of public education in American today is not exactly state of the art. You might think falling test scores, higher drop-out rates, and functional illiteracy of graduates - despite ever increasing taxpayer commitments - would be causes for concern and debate at a forum like this. You would...

Why Nevada education is not about to improve Steven Miller July 11, 2005 Here in Nevada the political class endlessly professes its dedication to getting our public schools out of their seemingly interminable rut. It�s clear, of course, why elected politicians are so eager to appear responsive on this issue. When parents see evidence that a fifth-rate government school monopoly is depriving their kids of first-rate futures, parents understandably get quite anxious. And anxious parents in large numbers can quickly translate into thoroughly dead political careers. Consequently, everyone in the Nevada Legislature today endlessly proclaims his or her eagerness to...

The National Education Association (NEA) is holding its annual meeting on July 1-6, 2005, in Los Angeles, California. The NEA Representative Assembly, the organization’s highest decision-making body, has over 9,000 delegates from all fifty states; however, critics believe the NEA is hardly the representative body it claims to be. With 2.7 million members each paying approximately $137 per year in union dues, the NEA has nearly $370 million at its disposal, making it a major force in American politics and education. Though one would naturally expect that an overwhelming majority of union dues would go toward collective bargaining activities, making...