In This Sue Crazy World

From the "Clog Up The Courts" files:

The teachers' union for the nation's largest public school system accused the city on Friday of banning political campaign buttons and sued to reverse the policy, declaring that free speech rights were violated.

Weingarten said schools Chancellor Joel Klein urged principals more than two weeks ago to enforce a Department of Education policy requiring complete political neutrality.

In New York, the UFT's lawsuit included a copy of a letter it received from the schools. It urged enforcement of a regulation restricting political activity in school buildings, saying it was necessary "in light of the upcoming presidential election."

Weingarten said teachers should have a right to express their political views, just like anyone else. Suppressing political expression sends the wrong educational message, she argued.

"Students can only benefit from being exposed to and engaged in a dialogue about current events, civic responsibilities and the political process," Weingarten said.

The UFT lists a membership of about 200,000, including 74,000 teachers. The city's public schools have about 1.1 million students.

I fail to see how this policy suppresses anyone's first amendment rights. What you do on the job is the responsibility of your employer, not you. You can do as you see fit on your time. No one has said that you cannot support a given candidate on your time because you are a teacher as your vocation. That would be suppressing political freedom.

Children, who are in school in a role that is forced to be subordinate to the teacher, should not be subjected to the political leanings of their teacher. Saying that it creates "discussion" is disingenuous when you are pitting an adult teacher's debating skills and opinions against a student. Can you imagine if Ann Coulter was your child's history teacher?

There are plenty of ways for children, and their parents, to get involved in the political process outside of school as they see fit. Encouraging them to do so, I think, would be in the realm of a teacher's responsibilities, but not for a specific candidate.

You shouldn't have the right to pray in school, nor preach in school.