I wrote Thursday that sometimes it feels that while six billion people may live on the same planet, some people seem to live in a different reality.
Expulsion threatened over prayer for sick teacher just reinforces the worry:
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Attorneys representing two students who have been threatened with expulsion by a California college because of a prayer for a sick professor say a federal judge has refused the school's efforts to have the case dismissed.
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Here is an account of what happened:
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The case was prompted by an incident just before Christmas in 2007 in which the students went to deliver a Christmas gift to a professor.
"Kandy found the instructor alone in her shared office," according to Pacific Justice. "When the instructor indicated she was ill, Kandy offered to pray for her. The instructor bowed her head, and Kandy began to pray – until she was interrupted by another faculty member, Derek Piazza, who walked in and said, 'You can't be doing that in here!' Kandy quickly left and rejoined her friend and fellow student, Ojoma Omaga. Piazza followed Kandy outside and repeated his rebuke."
While the students reported they were surprised by the teacher's aggressive behavior, they were stunned when, days later, they both got letters notifying them of the college's retroactive "intent to suspend" plan.
The letters, however, provided no facts on which to make such a threat, listing only vague references to "disruptive or insulting behavior" and "willful disobedience."
School officials informed them during administrative hearings that Kyriacou was being disciplined for praying for the sick teacher. Omaga was not part of the prayer, and her offense apparently was that she was with Kyriacou a short time later.
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This is seems weird in so many ways. Here we have a teacher who agrees to let a student pray for them. The student does so, and then another teacher thinks the sky is falling and the college decided to threatens the student with explusion.
What reality is this college from? Is it a reality that doesn't have the First Ammendment?
(Hat tip: EducationNews.org)
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Technorati tags: government schools, public school, public education, education
6 comments:
That is sad. Really, really sad. It's not like this student was asking their entire class to pray for their teacher. Or forcing this other teacher to pray with them. What happened to just minding your own business if you disagree?
I could understand asking the student to leave if the sick teacher had declined and the student badgered them into it or something, but a lawsuit? Just unbelievable.
Was it an obviously Christian prayer? Versus a Islamic prayer? Or maybe it was offensive because it was a pagan prayer? Wiccan? I wonder because "prayer" can mean a whole lot of things and bias is certainly rearing it's head here.
Crazy world.
I see a lot of "alternate reality" things going on. It's rather odd.
~Luke
Here is the SJ Mercury's article about the situation. It did not sound like the students were being disruptive in their prayer.
I noted that the professor, Derek Piazza, is no longer employed at the College of Alameda. Perhaps they followed their own policy. To wit:
"Nothing in the District’s Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment Policy should be construed to prevent faculty members from rigorously challenging fundamental beliefs held by students and society. These challenges should be done in a manner that, in the professional judgment of the faculty member, is most pedagogically advisable. Indeed, this is at the core of academic freedom; however, faculty members may not interject into the academic setting an element of discrimination or discriminatory harassment that is unrelated to any legitimate educational objective. Nor, may a faculty member create, or allow, the educational setting to be so charged with discrimination or discriminatory harassment, that our students are prevented from effectively participating in the academic environment."
However, I could care less what the College policy says. This "school" was founded ca. 1970 using taxpayer dollars, and continues to be funded through taxpayer support. Thus, they had better pay attention to the U.S. Constitution, Amendment I:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
It would appear I wrote too soon...pulling up the College of Alameda Spring 2009 catalog shows Derek Piazza is still teaching: specifically, ADAM 217 Production Pattern & Size Grading.
ADAM stands for Apparel Design And Merchandizing).
"What happened to just minding your own business if you disagree?"
Tolerance means you accept what other people do, but it is only a one way street.
"It would appear I wrote too soon...pulling up the College of Alameda Spring 2009 catalog shows Derek Piazza is still teaching: specifically, ADAM 217 Production Pattern & Size Grading."
Bummer!
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