Big Dogs Weblog

Call FIRE!

by Big Dog on Oct 18, 2005 at 21:17 Political

There is an organization called the American Civil Liberties Union. From the sound of the name one would think that they had the interests of Americans at heart. Unfortunately, they are a communist based organization that is out to make money by suing organizations and getting paid off with taxpayer money. There is however, an organization that does what one would think a real American Civil Liberties Union would do and that is look out for the rights of people who are trying to get educated but are being abused by the liberals who inhabit the institutes of higher learning. Here are a few items that they helped with:

Predictably, some students concluded that thought control would make classroom dissent dangerous. A few students rebelled when a teacher at Brooklyn College School of Education showed Michael Moore’s movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” in class and dismissed “white English” as “the language of oppressors.” Five students filed written complaints and received no formal reply from the college. One was told to leave the school and take an equivalent course at a community college. Two of the complaining students were then accused of plagiarism and marked down one letter grade. The two were refused permission to bring a witness, a tape recorder, or a lawyer to meet with a dean to discuss the matter.

K.C. Johnson, a history professor at the school who defended the dissenting students, became a target himself. After writing an article in Inside Higher Ed attacking dispositions theory as a form of mind control, Johnson faced a possible investigation by a faculty Integrity Committee. The Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education entered the case on Johnson’s behalf, accusing the college of viewpoint discrimination and a violation of academic freedom. FIRE is a national civil liberties group that does what the American Civil Liberties Union should be doing but usually won’t. FIRE said: “Brooklyn College must confirm that it tolerates dissent, that it is not conducting another secret investigation of one of its own professors.” FIRE says the college has “disavowed any secret investigation.”

Another battle over dispositions theory has been unfolding at Washington State University’s college of education. The college threatened to terminate a student, Edward Swan, 42, for failing four “professional disposition evaluations” (PDEs). Swan, a religious man of working-class background, has expressed conservative opinions in class. He opposes affirmative action and doesn’t believe gays should adopt children. His grades are good, and even his critics say he is highly intelligent. One teacher gave Swan a failing PDE after spotting the statement “diversity is perversity” in Swan’s copy of a textbook.

At the start of the current semester, Swan was offered a choice: Sign a contract with the college or be expelled. The contract included mandatory diversity training, completing various projects at the faculty’s direction, and the possibility of above-normal scrutiny during Swan’s student teaching this fall. Instead of signing, Swan contacted FIRE.

“Almost immediately, Swan’s situation changed,” said an article in the local newspaper, The Moscow-Pullman Daily News. The faculty told Swan he did not have to sign the contract and would not be expelled. Judy Mitchell, dean of the college of education, said the school would continue using the PDEs. A reporter asked her if Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would pass a PDE if he were a student at the college. “I don’t know how to answer that,” Mitchell replied.

I think that we need more organizations like FIRE and we can get rid of the sorry ACLU. College conservatives, call FIRE when you are under fire. Liberal students, in the unlikely event you being wronged I am sure they will help you too. Unlike the ACLU, they seem to be fair.

Sure hope they like this at Stop the ACLU!!(they are having a mid week trackback party. Throw some this way….)

Tags: Political