Student and teacher
Talk in Class Turns to God, Setting Off Public Debate on Rights
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,” 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.”
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.
In a Sept. 25 letter to the principal, Matthew wrote: “I care about the future generation and I do not want Mr. Paszkiewicz to continue preaching to and poisoning students.”
Way to go kid. Stick it to THE MAN!
I had a high school teacher tell the class that college philosophy professors would try to tell you that god doesn’t exist and that we should avoid such courses.
I ended up with a degree in philosophy. To me it only made sense to do the complete opposite from whatever that idiot suggested.
#1. Hey! You took my comment.
This teacher should know better. He obviously knew what he was doing would cause a storm of controversy.
I’m sure if another teacher decided to preach the Qur’an he would be throwing a fit.
(Note: I’m against any religion being taught in school and I mention the Qur’an to contrast the fact that this teacher has no tolerance for any other view but his own.)
So you approve of what the teacher was doing: teaching his personal beliefs instead of what he was paid to teach?
I’m just curious, in all the church-state debate, where is that “boundary” written? I’m not familar with the laws related to this issue.
seriously, can someone send me some references?
Unless this is a religious school…. I hope they nail this fascist to the wall. This kid has my respect.
#6
See the Supreme Court ruling for Reynolds v. United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_v._United_States
Also, The Trety of Tripoli specifically states, “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli
Unless he was teaching about different religions, he was way out of line. Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark? Bet that was messy.
Oh how I wish teachers would just teach the damn material and not insert their own political and/or religious ideology in to it. Left or Right leanings should be left at the door. And also try not to sleep with the students.
There were dinosaurs on the ark; how did they not eat the other animals
I hope the teacher gets fired for not teaching the required material and the pupil gets sued for filming without the teachers consent. there’s only one thing i hate more than fascist teachers and thats pesky smug-faced do-gooders like this kid.
So… Where are the recordings? This is the internet people, get on it.
[sarcasm]
I thought the dinosaurs drowned in the flood. That is how they got ‘fossilized.’ I think God had it in for reptiles after the Eve and snake episode.
[/sarcasm]
WOOT!!!
Thats awesome!! That kid has my respect now!!
with luck that’ll teach those stoopid religious wacko’s to keep the stoopidness in the church, where it belongs.
Good for the student ghost buster !
We need to stand up THE GOP AGENDA out to pollute the minds of young Americans in order to recruit them to the religious right.
#15 There is far more left wing propaganda then right wing in schools and universities. Look at the things discussed at NEA conventions. (http://lexingtoninstitute.org/301.shtml)
You need to set down the Kool-Aid and come back to reality. There is medicine for paranoia you know.
Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark — hilarious!!
17…it’s not propaganda if it’s real.
Steevo – there are over 6 billion people on my world, its odd that yours is short an entire 500 million human beings.
When I was in high school, I had a really great Social Studies teacher. I had him for world history to 1500 and AP European History. He actually taught about religion (a few of them) in a way that was very interesting to me.
He was a truly great teacher and inspired me in many ways. It is very unfortunate that all students don’t get the chance to experience a good educator.
Even though I couldn’t imagine a way to misconstrue his lessons and think he was teaching religion, he made sure to cover his ass and say the following before every class in which the subject was to come up: “Remember, I’m teaching about religion and how it impacts the world, I am not telling you what to believe”
This kid reminds me of Ferris Bueller http://tinyurl.com/ykyema 🙂
I’m not overstating anything when I say this kid is a hero. It takes courage to stand up and do what he did. I hope the teacher gets fired and this kid earns valedictorian.
#11
Guess what Ben. It isn’t illegal for the kid to tape his teacher. It was a public school and a public discussion not a private conversation. It was not done over an electronic communication system. The teacher had no expectation of privacy
There was no law broken by the student.
Yes, and like many others of them, I think what the teacher did was totally wrong and that the moral majority is neither… Only a small minority support the extreme religious zelots that seem to think they speak for every Christian.
>>>> my stats are correct, 70% of Americans say they’re Christian… and 1.5 billion of 5.5 billion people in the world are Christian…
prop•a•gan•da (prŏp’ə-gān’də) Pronunciation Key
n.
1. The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.
2. Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause: wartime propaganda
Propaganda does not have to be untrue; it just has to advocate one side and not the other.
What this teacher did was give out religious propaganda, whether it is true is or not is a different discussion. I must have missed the dinosaurs on Noah’s ark in Sunday School.
#15 There is far more left wing propaganda then right wing in schools and universities. Look at the things discussed at NEA conventions. (http://lexingtoninstitute.org/301.shtml)
You need to set down the Kool-Aid and come back to reality. There is medicine for paranoia you know.
==========================
Great, the only problem is that none of the “agendas” on this page are radical. Most of them are actually pretty moderate, the one exception might be giving illegal immigrants funds for college. However, this might be a realist approach given our government will never be able to properly deport illegal aliens and it would be better to have them educated and self sufficient than living off from welfare.
Lets go through them individually now.
Opposes federal requirements to make significant decisions about schools, teachers, or children based primarily on test scores.
“They have never been shown to actually work, that is judge intelligence or the ability to achieve with the dynamics of peer to peer relationships.”
2. Opposes the use of draft registration or immigration status as an eligibility criterion for federal student aid funds for college students.
“You might want to look at the Constitution for information about why the draft is likely a violation of your rights as a citizen.”
3. Supports a mutual, verifiable nuclear freeze with cessation of testing, production, and future deployment of nuclear delivery systems and other destabilizing systems.
“Pipe dream thinking, but then again so is the Clinton/Bush embraced Democratic Peace Theory.”
4. Supports requirements that pension fund investments be socially desirable and fiducially responsible.
“Help, evil communism kool aid drinkers or maybe not.”
5. Supports reproductive freedom without government intervention.
“This is common sense. At the very least the authority should be within the parents and the school system, and not the state and federal government.”
6. Supports legislation to study possible reparations to African Americans to address the past and residual effects of slavery in America.
“You do realize the United States of America has had a real problem with this issue of racism. Reparations may be a little radical, but something does have to actually be done.”
7. Supports statehood for the District of Columbia.
“Hints of racism, given that D.C. is largely a black population.”
8. Opposes exchange between agencies of confidential information about a citizen without the individual’s knowledge.
“This is called common sense. It might be wishful thinking though.”
9. Opposes mandatory testing of school employees for the HIV.
We wouldn’t want anyone with HIV/AIDS to teach our children, WTF?
10. Opposes any trade agreement lacking the inclusion of any social charter or other guarantees of high standards of human rights, environmental, and union protection.
“Pipe dream thinking, but our government attaches conditions to agreements all the time (executive agreements even).”
It would be really interesting to hear the recordings. While they quoted one student that basically is backing the kid up…….most of the rest seem to feel it was a set up. To be honest, until I hear the actual tapes, and not chosen excerpts, that’s my feeling as well. Based on the fact that the New York Times couldn’t find but 1 former student to back this kid up, I’m leaning towards what the one gentleman said about the father being a lawyer, setting the teacher up, recording it and going to 300 newspapers. Either way, this kid has a future as a politician or a crook.
As all Uncle Dave stories tend to do, they rile you, but later things turn out to not be so clear cut.
All religions should be taught in school, but as an elective, and probably not until college, as not all teens are mature enough to take it as a lesson and not an attempt to convert. I’m not saying that about this case, this kid seems to know his mind.
Oh….and I kinda like the idea of Dino’s on the Ark. Bet it was fun when feeding time came around.
If you are gonna preach, I would prefer a Theologeon(sp) that has had experience with Many religions. Discuss(NOT preach) all of them and how they work.
Many religions tell person how things should be, and how they should work, but I havent seen Many that Use/practice all the tenants of their religions. And the most strict are also the strangest.
Its either that Or you keep them ALL out of the schools.
#27 And all of this has what to do with teaching kids? And where in the Constution is the right to a free education, since you are so keen on the Constitution?
With a little diligence, I was able to find an early photo of this troublemaking student. He’s the one in front, left of center (which also describes his philosophy) 😉