News and Politics

After Matthew LaClair, a student at Kearny (N.J.) High School, reported his teacher for preaching religion in his history class, the student received death threats and the community overwhelmingly took the teacher’s side.

Via Newsvine:

KEARNY, N.J. — Before David Paszkiewicz got to teach his accelerated 11th-grade history class about the United States Constitution this fall, he was accused of violating it.

Shortly after school began in September, the teacher told his sixth-period students at Kearny High School that evolution and the Big Bang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark, and that only Christians had a place in heaven, according to audio recordings made by a student whose family is now considering a lawsuit claiming Mr. Paszkiewicz broke the church-state boundary.

“If you reject his gift of salvation, then you know where you belong,â€? Mr. Paszkiewicz was recorded saying of Jesus. “He did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sins on his own body, suffered your pains for you, and he’s saying, ‘Please, accept me, believe.’ If you reject that, you belong in hell.â€?

The student, Matthew LaClair, said that he felt uncomfortable with Mr. Paszkiewicz’s statements in the first week, and taped eight classes starting Sept. 13 out of fear that officials would not believe the teacher had made the comments.

Since Matthew’s complaint, administrators have said they have taken “corrective actionâ€? against Mr. Paszkiewicz, 38, who has taught in the district for 14 years and is also a youth pastor at Kearny Baptist Church. However, they declined to say what the action was, saying it was a personnel matter.

“I think he’s an excellent teacher,â€? said the school principal, Al Somma. “As far as I know, there have never been any problems in the past.â€?

Staci Snider, the president of the local teacher’s union, said Mr. Paszkiewicz (pronounced pass-KEV-ich) had been assigned a lawyer from the union, the New Jersey Education Association. Two calls to Mr. Paszkiewicz at school and one to his home were not returned.

In this tale of the teacher who preached in class and the pupil he offended, students and the larger community have mostly lined up with Mr. Paszkiewicz, not with Matthew, who has received a death threat handled by the police, as well as critical comments from classmates.

Greice Coelho, who took Mr. Paszkiewicz’s class and is a member of his
youth group, said in a letter to The Observer, the local weekly
newspaper, that Matthew was “ignoring the First Amendment to the United
States Constitution, which gives every citizen the freedom of
religion.â€? Some anonymous posters on the town’s electronic bulletin
board, Kearnyontheweb.com, called for Matthew’s suspension.

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Several bloggers point out that the top Google entry for Martin Luther King is a racist hate site run by a white supremacist group. To remedy the situation, how about a nice google bomb.

Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King

With all of the elation over the results of the election, I’d like to focus on a few negatives.

My biggest disappointment is Charlie Crist winning the race for governor. Although he’s a moderate and most of his policies aren’t too objectable, I’m strongly opposed to him for one reason only: his support for the FCATs, which Jim Davis promised to change.

For those of you who don’t live in Florida, the entire school year is focused on preparing for the FCATs. Instead of actually learning, kids are only taught how to pass the FCATs, since it determines the school funding based on the grades. This has ruined Florida’s educational system. If I had kids, I wouldn’t want them to go to school in Florida for that reason.

Another big disappointment was Joe Lieberman’s win in Connecticut. I hate him more than anyone else in politics because he’s a hypocrite who betrayed the Democratic party.

One minor disappointment is the closeness of the senate race in Virginia. I had hoped Webb would soundly defeat “Senator Macaca” instead of barely squeaking by. As it stands now, a few senate races are still undecided and there’s still a chance the Democrats might not take back the Senate.

The polling place only had 3 machines, so I had to wait for one, but there was no line. The ballot was 11 screens, which may have been responsible for the long lines reported during early voting. The machine registered all of my choices correctly on the review screen, although that doesn’t guarantee that my vote will be counted properly.

Despite the upbeat talk, I feel very pessimistic about this election. I’m afraid tomorrow might be more like…

Via Newsvine: A company headed by President Bush’s brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act.

With investments from his parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and other backers, Neil Bush’s company, Ignite! Learning, has placed its products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market internationally.

At least 13 U.S. school districts have used federal funds available through the president’s signature education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, to buy Ignite’s portable learning centers at $3,800 apiece.

The law provides federal funds to help school districts better serve disadvantaged students and improve their performance, especially in reading and math. However, Ignite does not offer reading instruction, and its math program will not be available until next year. (originally from L.A. Times)

Thanks to Oliver Willis.

We are now officially living in a dictatorship.

Many of my friends and neighbors have no clue that today USA ceased to be a democracy. They do not realize that Congress and Courts do not have any power to stop Bush from doing whatever he wants. He never cared what they said before and did it anyway. But starting today, it became legal.

Many of my friends and neighbors believe that “it cannot happen here”. They do not understand that evangelical-chosen candidates will, by whatever means neccessary, win all the primaries and elections in the future. They have no intention of losing ever. If, by some fluke, they lose an election, they have no intention of conceding. They have tasted the power and they are not letting go. Elections are just kabuki now.

I get more disgusted every day by what I see happening. Congress told the world that torture is an American value. That’s who we are. Congress will just roll over and play dead while Bush consolidates even more power in the Executive branch. None of the Rubber Stamp Republicans in the senate or the house have the guts to oppose Bush’s unconstitutional actions. If they truly cared about this country, they’d put an end to his illegal actions.

Via Daily Kos: The reason George Bush stumbles, ends sentences midway through to jump to another thought, rattles off non-sequiturs, and makes up words, is that George Bush is breaking under the strain of lying almost all the time about almost everything. Lying is hard work, and he’s trying to hold several different false scenarios in his head while not blurting out what he’s really being told behind closed doors.

Proof that abstinence-only education is a failure: An Ohio school board is expanding sex education following the revelation that 13 percent of one high school’s female students were pregnant last year. There were 490 female students at Timken High School in 2005, and 65 were pregnant. (Via Newsvine)