# I pit stupid partisan schoolteachers **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 6, 2004, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815 "2004-10-06T06:27:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/1 "2004-10-06T06:27:51Z")
First, the setup… > [@](#): > > [**Middle School Teacher In Trouble Over Presidential Photo?**](http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_100304_middleschoolteacher.html) > > …This is Crossroads South Middle School in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. On Thursday, there was a back-to-school night for parents of students. Veteran English teacher Shiba Pillai-Diaz says she was shocked when three parents confronted her. The three, insisting the teacher either add John Kerry’s photo to the montage of presidents or remove the Bush photo. When Pillai-Diaz refused, she says the school’s vice-principal threatened her job which is an act that has parents here fuming. > > Pillai-Diaz ultimately removed the entire bulletin board and says School Principal Jim Warfel told her she disrupted the school with her “inflammatory politics”. She says he then ordered her out of the building. While she says she is a Bush supporter in her personal life, Pillai-Diaz says she keeps politics out of the classroom. But don’t cry for Ms. Pillai-Diaz just yet! As it turns out, she’s a bald-faced lying \… > [@](#): > > [**Announcements from the South Brunswick Board of Education**](http://www.sbschools.org/boe/announcements.php) > > In an incident that has recently been reported to several media sources, a claim has been made by South Brunswick Middle School teacher Shiba Pillai-Diaz, that she was fired for not removing a picture of President George W. Bush from a classroom bulletin board. The claim is false. While I am normally reluctant to discuss personnel matters in public, Ms. Pillai-Diaz’ distortions of the facts, along with her aggressive efforts to get herself national media attention, leaves the district no choice but to set the record straight. > > The facts are as follows: > > Ms. Pillai-Diaz is a new Language Arts teacher in the South Brunswick Schools. Recently, the school administration began receiving complaints from students and parents that Ms. Pillai-Diaz was using her position, classroom and teaching time to engage in partisan politics. Students reported that she had made statements which denigrated one party over the other. The conversations included **Ms. Pillai-Diaz telling some students who offered opinions contrary to her statements, that she was “glad they were not old enough to vote.”** Other comments to students, including such statements as, **“you should be ashamed to be a Democrat”** have been verified through student interviews. > > A classroom bulletin board, normally intended for curriculum-related matters, was set up as what she herself described as a “personal bulletin board.” On the bulletin board she placed a picture of the President, the President’s dog, the Oval Office and several other Presidential artifacts. In addition, she placed a stuffed elephant on a classroom cabinet, which generated student reaction and discussion about partisan politics. I don’t care what side of the aisle you want to sit on – telling students in a public school that you’re “glad they’re not old enough to vote,” or that they “should be ashamed to be a \_\_\_\_\_” deserves nothing but derisive jeers. Shiba Pillai-Diaz – :wally of the Week ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/2 "2004-10-06T06:35:09Z")
Meanwhile that partisan piece of shit Colin Quinn leads his show with this story without the aspect of truth, painting this dishonest bitch as a victim of repressive democrats. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/3 "2004-10-06T06:48:37Z")
I had a teacher that was like this, but he thought he was subtle. He would say “I won’t tell you my opinion on this, but…”, followed by his opinion on the subject. The most prominent example of this that sticks in my mind: “I won’t tell you my opinion on abortion, but I’ll just say this: there wouldn’t be such a controversy over it if there weren’t something inherently evil about it.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or just bang my head into my desk, so I did a little of both. He gave me a puzzled look, and I honestly don’t think he understood why I reacted that way. I guess after twenty years of spouting inconsistant middle-of-the-road “ideology” at students, it had become so ingrained that he no longer realized he was doing it. Since ours was an honors government class, the students were too smart to be affected by this to any great extent, so it was merely amusing. Nonetheless, it’s still wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/4 "2004-10-06T07:01:46Z")
What the fuck is wrong with the first quote? George W. Bush is the president of the United States and John Kerry is only a senator. For anyone to insist that Kerry be put on the bulletin board is obviously as much a partisan hack as Pillai-Diaz is said to be in the second quote. That you would pit someone for being overly partisan is ludicrous in the extreme and I say that as someone who actually \*shares \*your political beliefs. While people accuse \*\*Reeder \*\*of being our **December** , it’s my opinion that \*you \*are instead. I think I’ve seen maybe a dozen posts by you that aren’t some thinly veiled jab at Bush, Republicans, or conservatives in general if it’s even disguised at all. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/5 "2004-10-06T07:07:36Z")
I hope the lying, abrasive nature of this individual doesn’t leave any of her students (or those who interact with her) with a falsely negative opinion of democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Spree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/6 "2004-10-06T07:10:42Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > What the fuck is wrong with the first quote? George W. Bush is the president of the United States and John Kerry is only a senator. For anyone to insist that Kerry be put on the bulletin board is obviously as much a partisan hack as Pillai-Diaz is said to be in the second quote. > > That you would pit someone for being overly partisan is ludicrous in the extreme and I say that as someone who actually \*shares \*your political beliefs. While people accuse \*\*Reeder \*\*of being our **December** , it’s my opinion that \*you \*are instead. I think I’ve seen maybe a dozen posts by you that aren’t some thinly veiled jab at Bush, Republicans, or conservatives in general if it’s even disguised at all. Ummm, I think that the point of the first quote is that the bulletin board nonsense was _made up_\* by the teacher\*, who was trying to get media attention and painted the story so that she looked sympathetic. And while I accept that partisanship is going to happen and I need to deal with it (heck, I’m just as partisan as the next person), I absolutely, positively REFUSE to accept or condone partisanship in our schools. It does NOT belong here. **Rjung** was right to pit this scumbag of a teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/7 "2004-10-06T07:12:15Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > What the fuck is wrong with the first quote? George W. Bush is the president of the United States and John Kerry is only a senator. For anyone to insist that Kerry be put on the bulletin board is obviously as much a partisan hack as Pillai-Diaz is said to be in the second quote. > > That you would pit someone for being overly partisan is ludicrous in the extreme and I say that as someone who actually \*shares \*your political beliefs. While people accuse \*\*Reeder \*\*of being our **December** , it’s my opinion that \*you \*are instead. I think I’ve seen maybe a dozen posts by you that aren’t some thinly veiled jab at Bush, Republicans, or conservatives in general if it’s even disguised at all. I kind of got sidetracked there. While I find the hypocrisy of the OP to be overpowering, the idiocy of the teacher is even moreso as evidenced by the second quote. I’m glad someone so ignorant is no longer in the classroom. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/8 "2004-10-06T07:13:25Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > What the fuck is wrong with the first quote? George W. Bush is the president of the United States and John Kerry is only a senator. For anyone to insist that Kerry be put on the bulletin board is obviously as much a partisan hack as Pillai-Diaz is said to be in the second quote. That’s the point, there’s nothing wrong with Pillai-Diaz’s behaviour in the first quote. If she had been sacked for the situation described in the first quote, it would be ridiculous, as you suggest. But that was not the real situation - the real situation was the second one. The first was Pillai-Diaz’s version of events, and she was lying. Many people thought as you did, and were on Pillai-Diaz’s side. There was a Pit thread on it yesterday with only Pillai-Diaz’s version. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/9 "2004-10-06T07:14:35Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > What the fuck is wrong with the first quote? George W. Bush is the president of the United States and John Kerry is only a senator. For anyone to insist that Kerry be put on the bulletin board is obviously as much a partisan hack as Pillai-Diaz is said to be in the second quote. What was wrong with the first quote is that, according to school board, it was a lie. What’s interesting, IMO, is this. > [@](#): > > At no time was she told to leave, asked to leave or given authorization to leave. School was still in session. At no time was she told she was suspended or fired. With professional responsibilities of a classroom teacher waiting, Ms. Pillai-Diaz chose, of her own volition, to walk out of the school, contact various media sources and claim she had been fired. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/10 "2004-10-06T07:15:37Z")
Ok, that was a simulpost there. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/11 "2004-10-06T07:15:48Z")
> [@](#): > > The three, insisting the teacher either add John Kerry’s photo to the montage of presidents… Good God, Kerryites are stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/12 "2004-10-06T07:16:54Z")
You didn’t even bother to read past the first paragraph, did you? ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/13 "2004-10-06T07:19:28Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > You didn’t even bother to read past the first paragraph, did you? Please point out the specific line that refutes what I quoted. ---
**Author:** ![Spree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/14 "2004-10-06T07:19:48Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > Good God, Kerryites are stupid. Ya know, the OP wasn’t really THAT difficult to parse. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/15 "2004-10-06T07:20:25Z")
Okay, I suppose I should have actually clicked on the links and not just believed the quotes as given. For that I apologize. Thank you, \*\*Atticus \*\*and **Sublight**. And now \*\*Brutus \*\*is showing it’s not just restricted to hypersensitive liberals. I hate election years. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/16 "2004-10-06T07:23:25Z")
> [@Spree](#): > > Ya know, the OP wasn’t really THAT difficult to parse. I was being serious, you know. Please point out the specific line that refutes what I quoted. I can and will eat crow when proven wrong, as infrequent as that is. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/17 "2004-10-06T07:29:42Z")
> [@](#): > > The claim is false. Howzat? ---
**Author:** ![Spree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/18 "2004-10-06T07:40:41Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > I was being serious, you know. Please point out the specific line that refutes what I quoted. I can and will eat crow when proven wrong, as infrequent as that is. From the first quote: > [@](#): > > The three, insisting the teacher either add John Kerry’s photo to the montage of presidents or remove the Bush photo. From the second quote: > [@](#): > > On the bulletin board she placed a picture of the President, the President’s dog, the Oval Office and several other Presidential artifacts. In addition, she placed a stuffed elephant on a classroom cabinet, which generated student reaction and discussion about partisan politics. There was no “montage of presidents” - it was a tribute to Bush. [More info:](http://www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,1070431,00.html) > [@](#): > > Interviewed yesterday, McCartney said if Pillai-Diaz stopped making political statements he would allow her to return to the classroom and even return the picture to the bulletin board, telling her, “I encourage you to do so.” > > According to McCartney, pictures of the president are “openly displayed” in all district schools. > > A teacher at the Monmouth Junction School has displayed a portrait of President Bush for four years, without incident, said McCartney. > > McCartney said it was Pillai-Diaz who removed the picture and pictures of the president’s dog, the Oval Office and the Declaration of Independence. She said she also had a picture of Air Force One, and a poster with a signature of all the presidents. > > Pillai-Diaz’ display, accompanied by her rhetoric, he said, “took it out of the realm of education and made the presentation appear partisan to many of our students and parents.” > > Earlier in the school year she had on top of her cabinet a stuffed elephant, symbol of the Republican Party, for which Pillai-Diaz served as a volunteer at its national convention in New York. There is no evidence, none at all, that any parents demanded that Kerry be added to a photo montage of the presidents. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/19 "2004-10-06T07:43:27Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Howzat? Doesn’t address what I quoted. According to the South Brunswick Board of Education, 'The claim is false 'applies to: (if you believe their statement, that is) > [@](#): > > In an incident that has recently been reported to several media sources, a claim has been made by South Brunswick Middle School teacher Shiba Pillai-Diaz, that she was fired for not removing a picture of President George W. Bush from a classroom bulletin board. They don’t address the three parents who believe that Kerry is a President. > [@](#): > > Veteran English teacher Shiba Pillai-Diaz says she was shocked when three parents confronted her. The three, insisting the teacher either add John Kerry’s photo to the montage of presidents or remove the Bush photo. Ergo, stupid. As to the whole ‘fired’ thing, the last paragraph in the first link addresses that nicely: > [@](#): > > School officials would not talk on camera but insist nobody here has been fired. To that, Ms. Pillai-Diaz asks what does it mean then when your boss asks you to hand over the keys and kicks you out of the building? ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815/20 "2004-10-06T07:48:04Z")
> [@Spree](#): > > There was no “montage of presidents” - it was a tribute to Bush. The second quote certainly doesn’t claim that there were no other presidential photos up there. > [@](#): > > There is no evidence, none at all, that any parents demanded that Kerry be added to a photo montage of the presidents. Ms. Pillai-Diaz claims there were, and judging from the outrageous actions of Kerry supporters here and elsewhere, I am inclined to believe her. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-partisan-schoolteachers/267815.md?page=2)