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PA High School Teacher Reportedly Showed Obsession To Students
Read More:
2008 Election, Islamophobia, Obsession The Movie, Pennsylvania, Public Schools,
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A teacher in Mifflin County, PA has reportedly shown the fear mongering, anti-Muslim propaganda film Obsession, recently distributed to 28 million swing state voters, to her class at Indian Valley High School, warning the students that if Barack Obama is elected, some of what they saw in the film would occur here in the U.S.
I first got wind of this teacher's clearly inappropriate "lesson" about a week and a half ago, when I was asked by a friend who saw one of my blog posts about the film to contact him about an Obsession related incident in his area. After speaking to this friend and getting what details he had, and finding out how he came by this information, I decided to investigate.
My friend couldn't initially recall the name of the teacher in question, and was only able to tell me that it was a female high school history/social studies teacher. But, since there are only two high schools in Mifflin County, and only a handful of female history/social studies teachers, it didn't take long to find a likely suspect. The official school system website of one of the possibilities, Dawn Renninger, was loaded with far right, conservative Christian clues. Once I zeroed in on this particular teacher, I called my friend back, and, upon hearing the name, he told me he was sure that this was the name he had heard in discussions among local residents about the incident.
On Sunday, October 5, I called Mrs. Renninger and asked her flat out if she was the teacher who had showed the film. She would not give me a straight answer, and told me that I would have to speak to the school's principal, Ronald Varner. So, I gave Renninger my name and phone number, which she said she would give to Varner. After several days with no response from either Renninger or Varner, I called the school and asked to speak to Varner. The first time I called, I was told he was gone for the day, so I called back the next day at an earlier time. This time, after explaining to the person who answered the phone why I was calling, I was connected to the school's vice principal, Michael Zinobile. That was on Thursday, October 9.
Zinobile, raising his voice several times during our conversation, repeated two or three times that I "didn't have the facts." In response, I told Zinobile that I was trying to reach Varner to get his side of the story. I gave Zinobile my name and number to give to Varner, who, again, did not contact me.
I also told Zinobile, as I had told Mrs. Renninger, that even without the reported showing of Obsession at the school, I had found enough inappropriate, politically and religiously biased material on this teacher's official school system website to write about her, and that I planned to do so whether or not Varner responded to my attempts to contact him.
One outrageously inappropriate link among the "Resource Links" provided for students on "Mrs. Renninger's Social Studies Page" is a link, under the heading of "Government," to the American Family Association (AFA). Self-described as "America's Largest Pro-Family Action Site," the AFA, originally founded by Don Wildmon in 1977 as the National Federation for Decency, is one of the most radical far right conservative Christian organizations there is. The following are the Mission and Philosophical Statements of this organization that Mrs. Renninger directs her public school students to as a "government" resource.
Mission Statement
The American Family Association exists to motivate and equip citizens to change the culture to reflect Biblical truth.
Philosophical Statement
The American Family Association believes that God has communicated absolute truth to man through the Bible, and that all men everywhere at all times are subject to the authority of God's Word. Therefore, a culture based on Biblical truth best serves the well-being of our country, in accordance with the vision of our founding fathers.
The pro-creationism and anti-gay AFA promotes and sells films such as Ben Stein's "Expelled," and "They're Coming to Your Town," a film about an Arkansas town that didn't realize that homosexuals were taking over the town until it was to late, and "how homosexual activists plan to do the same in other towns." In addition to the materials distributed by the AFA to promote these and other religious right causes, its website promotes the work of Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton, devoting a page of its online store to selling Barton's Wallbuilders DVDs. Needless to say, as inappropriate as the rest of the material on the AFA website is for a public school teacher to be promoting, the fact that Mrs. Renninger, as an American history teacher, is endorsing historical revisionism by sending her students to a website that promotes the distortion of and outright lies about American history, in both the website's content and the marketing items such as Barton's "American Heritage Series," makes matters even worse.
The AFA is also a distributor of the extremely biased and dishonest 2008 presidential election "Voter Guide" put out by Wallbuilders. The specific lies and misrepresentations in this Voter Guide, which is still being distributed by churches and religious organizations, and will be until election day, are detailed in a post I wrote on Talk2Action back in August.
Another government resource linked to on Mrs. Renninger's website is the "Government Watch" page of Pennsylvania State Senator John Eichelberger, whose website's prominently placed "Constituent Action" section singles out only one cause with a separate link -- pro-family issues. While it would, at first glance, seem entirely appropriate for a teacher whose courses include a course on government to link to the website of a politician who represents the school's congressional district, Eichelberger, whose pro-life views are clearly in line with those of the AFA and very visible on his website, is the only politician singled out for inclusion in Renninger's list. There are no links to the websites of the district's state representative, or to the websites of its representative or senators in the federal government.
The section of Renninger's "Resource Links" page titled "Current Issues Main Links" does list the typical current events resources recommended by many teachers, such as the BBC, NPR, and PBS, but the only cable news network website included in Renninger's list is FOX News.
Another quite questionable thing on Mrs. Renninger's website is found on her homepage. It's an announcement of the theme for this year's "Veteran's [sic] Day Assembly" at the school, an event that Renninger apparently plans. This year's theme is a quote she attributes to Dick Cheney -- "It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you." Did Mrs. Renninger bother to look up where this quote came from? Or check to see if it was even real? Because it isn't. It's from an emailed letter allegedly written by Cheney, first circulated in 1999, then again shortly after the 2000 election, and eventually presented on right wing websites as a "prophetic" speech given by Cheney on August 19, 2001, just weeks before 9/11. Now, seven years after the first appearance of the bogus email, its last sentence, "It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you," is quoted on countless right wing websites, attributed to Cheney, but with no source. I certainly hope Mrs. Renninger holds her students to a higher standard of scholarship in checking their sources than she herself seems to exhibit.
The only additional information I've been able to find out about the reported showing of Obsession at Indian Valley High School is that at least one student's parents did complain to the principal, who had neither viewed nor approved the film before it was shown. It wasn't until after the complaint that the principal, along with the president of the school board, watched the film, and neither saw a problem with it.
I was also told about another reported incident in which Mrs. Renninger told a class they would receive extra credit if they wore something red, white, and blue on the day of a test. One student who showed up that day wearing a shirt with the Obama logo on it was denied this extra credit, even though the logo is red, white, and blue, and nothing in the school's dress code prohibits the wearing of clothing with political logos. It is not clear whether or not this student was the same student whose parents complained about the showing of Obsession.
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I would like to say start out by saying I am a student of Mrs. Renninger's and I think she is a fine teacher. It is noted in the comments posted that Mifflin County is a conservative region, and it is. So therefore why is it such a big deal that she is a conservative Christian? I am in no way saying that I then think has a right to push her ideals upon us as her students, but I have never felt that she was doing so.
I am in one of her Democracy and Economics classes that watched the Obsession DVD and my class was never told that would be the outcome if Obama was elected president. If anything, she stressed to us that it was a film about radical Muslims and that most Muslims do not agree with such acts of terrorism.
Thirdly, in the article it mentions her "Resouce Links". If you go to the page, up at the top in bold print, it states "Here are some helpful links for your research". The term "research" leads me to believe that these sites will help us with whatever assignment she gives us. So why is she being criticized for posting the links she feels will benefit us the most?
Lastly, the student that was denied the extra credit points was not one of hers. She was only giving the extra credit points to the students she had in class.
These children are being exposed to an alternate point of view and it must be stopped!!
We must not allow our children's minds to be infected with any ideology other than our own.
It appears this woman believes in God, yet she is still allowed to teach our children. NO!!
No more of this!! Our children must not be exposed to any opposing points of view!!!
Yes, that was the whole point of the article. You're right. Good job. Clearly, you have great skills in reading comprehension.
You theocrats don't really believe in equal time for opposing points of view.
You only believe in the imposition of your religion on others. By force.
The problem is that she only shows one point of view. Nobody cares that she believes in God, most people do. You can be as sarcastic as you want, but you only help make your oppositions point here. Congrats.
I am very offended as a Christian. The words "crazy Christian" are degrading and insensitve. Those persons who have used such terms are no less guilty of wrong than of ANYTHING that Mrs.Rennin
No.
If people would like to call all Christians crazy or whatever, they can do that. They aren't in positions of power and authority, and they aren't teaching teenagers and influencing their minds in non-educational ways. It's clearly different. If you are offended by something like "crazy Christians", then feel free to step into the real world at any time. I assure you that many more offensive things will happen in your life, so I suggest growing a thicker skin.
Anyways, the point is that she's in a position of power where she is not allowed to teach with a bias, and as you can see by her actions and the comments from students and former students, she is clearly breaching the code of conduct.
If this teacher were in my kid's school, I would not rest until she was gone.
Certainly by high school and especially in a Social Studies class, the skills of critical thinking should be a part of every lesson plan. The movie in question would actually be a great example to show why critical analysis must be continually developed. It doesn't look like the movie was used this way and ignoring the movie's roll as an educational tool illustrates the teacher's failure as a facilitator. It also seems like the teacher never developed, or at least doesn't use, critical reasoning in her profession. Failure of institutional oversight is certainly evident as well. I hope there is a conscientious resident who will address this problem with a distinguished necessity. It would also be great if Ms. Rodda passed all her hard and conscientious work on to a trusted local journalist. It is great for everyone's awareness out 'here' to read of these stories, but it is now the ultimate and appropriate responsibility of the locals to be the center of the debate.
Critical skills are an essential element of a good academic program. As kids in 7-9 grades are going through the development of abstract thought it is important to expose them to opportunities to critique material and to learn how to express dissent. Expressing dissent includes the freedom to disagree with recognized authority figures like parents, teachers, and pastors in appropriate ways. One of the most important ways is to do so in developing the ability to write articulately and to debate intelligent on a range of issues.
School districts and teachers that do not encourage or promote this hold back young people from important developmental skills.
As a 2007 graduate of Indian Valley, I can personally vouge that this is the type of thing Dawn Renninger would do. Although I never had her in class, I was however closely involved with the Social Studies Club, and I knew how she was. A very consersative, close-minded christian who broke all moral and social code in her classroom and beyond. I can remember her failing a good friend of mine on a project almost on the basis that he was the complete opposite of her, liberal, open minded and non religious, but I think Mrs. Renninger's cut goes far deeper. On one occasion I can remember her forcing my friends that had her in class to "hand over" my cell phone number because she needed me to do something, which is highly unacceptable. As I read the comments in reply to this story, it is easy to see that this disease, Dawn Renninger, has been infecting the school system for quite some time. I hope that this story gets more publicity around Lewistown and something is done to eliminate this disease.
Hello, I'm a reporter in Harrisburg for WGAL looking into this story. Do you know anybody in the class who may have seen the film?
I am a student currently being taught by Mrs. Renninger. I am in one of her DIAA class. Earlier this year we were made to watch the movie Obession. The movie, many of my class mates and I thought, was point less and one sided. It was also a waste of two class periods.
Also, the article mentions the extra credit for wearing red, white and blue on test day. We did not have a test that day. It was on September 11, and the whole school was encourage to wear the colors. Mrs. Renninger made it a point that if one wore red, white and blue that it must be obvious. If one were to have white shoes with a little red stripe and blue jeans, they did not get credit because they did not make it a point to wear the colors. I do not know specificaly about the Obama tee shirt situation; and I am not at al saying i agree with her, but if the colors were not dominate he/she would not get credit.
I have Mrs. Renninger for DIA first period, and we viewed the movie.
I am a student of Mrs. Renninger's 6 period class. We did view the movie however she wasnt the only teacher who showed their class. I dont remember his name but a male teacher also showed it. Let me first say she never said "If obama is elected president this will happen." Durring one part of the film it was talking about how these radical groups planned to one day be in the white house or something, at which point Mrs. Renninger said something about how alot of news and people are trying to use the fact that Obama is muslim against him saying that this is what these people mean and that they will see this as a win. And that is 100% true. Not once did she say "If Obama is elected president this is what will happen." As for the red white and blue thing, I am in the boys class who wore the Obama t-shirt and he did actualy get extra credit for it. Also this was not because we had a test on that day, it was for 9/11 and the entire school was encouraged to wear red white and blue.
As for the website link I never saw it once while going to her website. We were told in class that if we needed any assignments or rubrics that we could find them on her website. Now lets be honest here folks, what high school student would actualy visit a teachers website for anything else? Heck alot of studens wouldnt even bother going there for that. And even if they did by chance go to the link , which i dout many if any at all did, theres nothing saying you had to read it. I personaly am Atheist and not once have I felt urged to change my ideals due to anything she has sad. Mrs. Renninger is one of the nicest teachers I have and I think the fact that someone is using these lies against her simply to get in a good report for this blog is rediculous.
In response to the last post. I am an Indian Valley graduate from 2005. Unlike the person who is passing judgement and never had Mrs. Renninger, I was one of her students. You are unable to give a valuable opinion based on the fact that your ideas are by word of mouth. I have witnessed students lying and stretching the truth in order to get her into trouble. That occured in my class! When question by an administrator, I set things straight. I will happily discuss these details with you in person. Mrs. Renninger, on occasion, did add her opinion to things which she taught. I do not think that a teacher should be punished for sharing their ideas. Everyone is entitled to the FREEDOM OF SPEECH. This is stated in the Bill of Rights. The beauty of high school government class is that we are old enough to research, process, and filter out ideas on our own! We are becoming adults. She was a teacher who challenged me and taught me to think about the things that I believed and believe. During debates it is very common not to agree with both sides, correct? I felt as if she help tpo teach me how to research, get the facts and examine what I believe. I believe that Mrs. Renninger is a fine teacher. I am a senior in a teaching program. I think that I should know.
Whoa, a senior in a teaching program, you're clearly way more qualified to comment than any of us pons. Anyways, I was a student of her's (unfortunately), so I hope this comment is "valuable" enough for your liking.
So you don't think she should be punished for her ideas and that she has Freedom of Speech, huh? Well, guess what? There is no such thing as an absolute freedom. All freedoms have limitations on them, one of those limitations being that a public government teacher can not teach with an extreme bias and put down everything that she does not support.
...and we are not all old enough to "process" ideas on our own. I certainly am, but I know a lot of kids in my class who clearly are not. I've seen students, in every class, naively believe everything the teachers tells them and not really question them. These are 16-17 year old kids we are talking about here, not everyone is smart enough to be able to really process information. When a teacher says something like "If Obama is president, this will happen!" a lot of students will trust the teacher enough to believe it.
And considering how this isn't Renninger's first time under the eye (She's been criticized since her hiring it seems), it's only a matter of time before she gets fired. She's too stubborn to change and we are finally seeing the day where people have finally had enough of Dawn's tiring charade.
While it is true that people have a freedom of speech, they do not have a right to push their views on others through the spread of propaganda. Especially being a teacher, you have a certain power over the students and can offer perks of good grades to get a certain view or point across, just like lobbying, and to say she is a fine teacher is a false statement. I fine teacher opens doors for you to think freely, not say for instance that "O'bama is the anti-chris
Chris, I am positive the video was of David Barton, who had false information in the video we listened to (I remember specifically looking it up).
If you want a deeper understanding of the numerous places that Barton goes off track and how he and others intend to deceive buy Chris's book. Liars for Jesus.
2 Years ago I had Dawn as a teacher. I was her biggest "problem" in the class. I'm an intelligent, well-spoken liberal, atheist, and Democrat, so naturally Dawn had a problem.
Anyways, nearly EVERYONE I know who has ever had her, will agree that she is a VERY biased and very unprofessional teacher. Even the Republican Christians in my class were outraged and embarrased by her conduct at times. I've sent her several emails regarding her teaching, and the last one never got a response. She consistently made anti-atheist, anti-liberal, and anti-Democratic remarks. You could always look around and find half the class raising their eyebrows when she spoke.
As someone mentioned earlier, she made us listen to a taped recording by David Barton where he preached about how the United States was a Christian nation and that the founding fathers wanted a more Christian nation. She never presented two sides to any issues - only her side. When I did a debate mocking religion, but still following all of the project guidelines, she gave me a 0/100 on it and attempted to get me kicked off the sports teams. Students were afraid to challenge her because of the fear or getting removed from teams or clubs.
Her teaching is completely ridiculous and I can't thank you enough for this article. I am very UNsurprised the Zinobile raised his voice and that himself and Dawn tried to avoid the topic - They've always been like that.
I agree with most of your comments. However, I think I know who you are and what project you are talking about. I don't think your actual points got you the 0/100. I think it was when you talked about how you used a "super bible" for your information. Which isn't her fault that you didn't take the project seriously.
No, but I followed the guidelines and gave a ridiculously awesome speech. I wasn't real concerned about the 0, especially considering I made it up at a later time...but the fact that she would try to get me kicked off of sports teams for mocking religion when she sits in front of the class and mocks anything she doesn't support on a daily basis is ridiculous.
Hi, FireWaterBurn. Are you Evan?
Nope, Curt.
I am very happy to see that someone else is passing through IVHS not afraid to speak their mind. Keep up the good work and don't let unprofessional, irrational teachers change your point of view. I had a teacher fail me for not adhering to her views, but still made honor roll. Congrats on making up the grade. Teachers who punish students for not sharing their beliefs should be punished the same way students are for insubordination and truancy. Suspension.
Tax dollars should not be spent on pushing either the extreme right or the extreme left agendas. Personally I have an equally disagreeable opinion of a teacher that tries to push a liberal sex education mindset in high schools based on their personal beliefs
This teacher has crossed the line as it is high school not college so her students are captive to her beliefs to receive a passing grade. They do not have the option of dropping that class and taking from another professor. They do not have the option of lodging a complaint against the teacher since the school administration has not disagreed with her teaching style.
Additionally it sounds as if the school in general is pushing an extreme version of Christian right agenda which is no different that a school in New York or San Francisco pushing an extreme leftist agenda and using both State and Federal tax dollars doing it. Neither case should happen.
This teacher’s personal opinions should never be used to grade a student’s work but it sounds as if this teacher has crossed that line. The school administration also needs to be educated about where to establish the proper line between personal politics and proper high school education.
I wonder if a case could be made for school sponsored harassment due to some of the responses provided here.
See Chris Rodda's Profile
While I agree that a high school teacher shouldn't push their politics, whether left or right, on their students, the issue becomes worse, and, in fact, downright unconstitutional, in the case of a right wing teacher like Mrs. Renninger because their political ideology includes a religious ideology. Just look at Mrs. Renninger's linking to the American Family Association (AFA) as a "government" resource. Look at the AFA's mission statement in my post. All of the AFA's political stands are based on their "biblical worldview.
Ms. Rodda,
I am a 2008 Indian Valley graduate. I am glad to see your article. If you want to further this story, I recommend that you also check the Social Studies Club for information on Renninger. You should also know that the school board meetings are open to the public and if you push the issue with the school, you could stumble on to some very interesting discussions. I feel that you could find many more students that have had problems with Renninger in the past. Ask students of different race and religion.
Thank you for pointing out the difference between a politically active teacher pushing their personal politics in the classroom and a politically active teacher pushing their personal religious beliefs as politics. I did not adequately separate the two issues in my post.
Using my previous post, teaching liberal sex education policies in a public school is not unconstitutional despite what certain socially conservative groups who attempt to reinterpret the US constitution say. However the teaching of one’s religious beliefs in a public school by wrapping those beliefs up in lessons on US national history and by using the classroom to advocate for groups who are focused on attempting to rewrite our national history to match their limited view of the US Constitution is definitely unconstitutional in my opinion.
See Chris Rodda's Profile
To those of you who are former students of Mrs. Renninger.
First of all, I want to thank you for jumping in here with your comments. Second, I've seen a few of you mention a particular biased CD on the Constitution that you were forced to listen to in her class. From the description, I'm curious as to the possibility that this may have been a David Barton CD, such as "Keys to Good Government
Here's a link to the CD page of Barton's Wallbuilders online store. Maybe seeing the titles might jog someone's memory.
http://www
I am another former student of Dawn Renninger.
I was a few years ago and I was also one where we had to listen to a preacher talk about how the founding fathers never meant to separate Church and state. This tape was long, boring, and worthless. She said it passed the Lemon test (I believe that's the name) and therefore, she was allowed to share it. However I felt that it wouldn't have passed that test but honestly, I think she really believed that it did.
I really believe she hated people who were not Christians or if she thought you were liberals. I heard from reliable sources that she told one of her student's mothers that she had "no morals or values" simply because the lady was a registered Democrat. This was out on a school trip and I feel very uncalled for. In class, she would single out students that didn't hold her beliefs and pick on them. She would give them a hard time and treat them unfairly. Students knew how to get on her good side because they would purposely bring up their faith or agree with her opinions in her class. I disagree with the person who said that she would say "This is MY point of view" because in my class, she never did.
(Continued)
I remember her talking about people who got pregnant and then got more help from the government than she did for college. She would say that it was unfair that she got less government support since she chose to be responsible and not have premarital sex. In fact, "premarital sex" has probably never been mentioned so much in a class. I feel like I left that class only learning about what she cared about. The only good thing about her faith was it was easy to write papers in that she would grade highly. If you put in a paper about how our country needed to abolish the separation of Church and State and bring itself back to Christianity and only that would save it from an untimely demise, you'd be guaranteed an A.
Mrs. Renninger, however, did had two things are amazing for a high school teacher to display. She had passion. Her passion was for this country. She did keep in contact with her senators and keep update with all the bills and proposals going on with the government. She was the most patriotic teacher in Indian Valley. She really loved America and wanted to convey that to her students. Most teacher work for the money but she was teaching for the love of it.
I remember her talking about people who got pregnant and then got more help from the government than she did for college. She would say that it was unfair that she got less government support since she chose to be responsible and not have premarital sex. In fact, "premarital sex" has probably never been mentioned so much in a class. I feel like I left that class only learning about what she cared about. The only good thing about her faith was it was easy to write papers in that she would grade highly. If you put in a paper about how our country needed to abolish the separation of Church and State and bring itself back to Christianity and only that would save it from an untimely demise, you'd be guaranteed an A.
Mrs. Renninger, however, did had two things are amazing for a high school teacher to display. She had passion. Her passion was for this country. She did keep in contact with her senators and keep update with all the bills and proposals going on with the government. She was the most patriotic teacher in Indian Valley. She really loved America and wanted to convey that to her students. Most teacher work for the money but she was teaching for the love of it.
(continued)
Also, Mrs. Renninger also cares about her students. Several times during the year, she said "If anyone ever needs to talk to me, my door is always open." Few teachers ever publicly told their classes that. Yes, she probably would push her ideals on you if you had a dilemma but isn't it more important to have someone who cares? I really think that's important because most teachers are too busy to care about their students. She never really liked for me but one day, in her class, I felt incredibly ill and even though she was teaching in front of a class of about 35, she gave us an assignment, came to me, and asked me if I'd like to go to the nurse since I looked so ill.
Mrs. Renninger may push her Christian ideals on student but is a good person. I'm just not quite sure if a high school setting is the proper place for her to do her teaching.
See Chris Rodda's Profile
The person who said that Mrs. Renninger would preface her biased comments by stating that this was her point of view said that they are now a junior in college. This means that they would have had Mrs. Renninger as a teacher the first year she was at the school. I would imagine its possible that she could have been a bit more careful in her comments as a new teacher and have gotten more overt once she realized that the school would tolerate it.
I left the comment. It was also me who posted this on my facebook account which is why so many former students have left comments.
I do believe I had her her first year (that or her second year, I do know she was new). And that is a good point, she may have been more careful. It is hard to say, I have not spoken to her since shortly after I graduate high school.
This is hardly the time or circumstance to defend or attack based on through the grapevine information.
As a teacher if you want to speak your mind and give your opinion on politics openly then be a college prof. I deal with it every week during my college life but I paid for it, and I am also mature enough to question, to myself, what is being said.
Classes of high school students are not the place to hurl political frustrations, period. This has nothing to with personal life (being gay, jewish, a farmer, or field hockey player). I let a lot of little things go as a student of hers when I should have spoken up during discussion and inserted my own viewpoint to defend my beliefs but like someone said before, the area is heavily conservative and it is common to get singled out. Although teachers in the school will never admit it.
This administration is also at fault. Teachers have teaching plans that are supposed to be adhered to. So where does this person get the time in the classroom to propagandize her captive audience children?
FIRE HER.
The administration is a joke. Zinobile would rather intimidate someone that talk to them like an adult, and I've seen him do it.
typical high school prinicipal or vice principal.
IF they were good at anything at all, they wouldn't be principals.
My kids teachers and administrators will answer to me when it comes to my kids education. My child will no participate in any class that promotes religion, will not participate in NAZI derived programs (DARE), and will not be taught creationism.
The things these public school administrators need to understand, a pissed off parent can make their lives hell, especially ones with access to good lawyers.
I personally don't have Mrs. Dawn Renninger yet (another year until I get that pleasure), but I'm pretty sure I can safely say that she is one of those "crazy christians" who would gladly push her beliefs and religion on you if given the slightest chance. As to her being fired, that might be a little too far, because she seems to be a fine teacher, by what I hear. I think if she would be warned of the possibility of being fired or asked to change, she would comply. She loves her job, and she loves her Country. She's not the only teacher who showed this film, also. I don't see the point of the film; it was the STUPIDEST thing I've ever been forced to watch in my school career, but what probably doesn't help is that I deemed it not worth my time in the first five minutes, and read the rest of the time. Next, we have teachers that could fit the "I bet if they had a teacher that was an Agnostic or an Athiest, or Pro-choice, that teacher would be gone." that Shashi0224 said. We currently have a very openly lesbian teacher, we have the teachers that just don't care about religion (I don't know if you would call them atheist, or what), and we have two Jewish teachers who are often the butt of jokes around the school. Any other teacher that might come in and be like that, are fine.
WOW! You neglected to mention if this was a public school that is funded by state and federal dollars. If so, they could have a lawsuit on their hands especially if my child was a student in her class and she pulled that cr*p. I am probably guessing that a large majority of the student population lives in an area where these conservative views are popular so this teacher feels embolden to take these risks. However, if this is a private school it's a different story.
Ditto, HHarvey
Even an private school has to adhere to standards. I went to a college prep academy in San Marcos, Texas (San Marcos Baptist Academy), and even though it was started with a Baptist bent, we were never subjected to religious indoctrination. We had to attend a non-denom chapel on the campus for 30 minutes per week. We were taught evolution only (I graduated in 89), and were taught comprehensive sex ed. The teachers were great and inspiring.
The students were required to give each teacher a report card, and those report cards were taken seriously by the school administrators, and teachers were fired based on these cards. Makes the teachers very responsive to parent's and student's wishes. That should be done in all public and private schools.
My kiddo will not attend a public school, ever. The quality of teachers I had @ SMA were light years ahead of the public school teachers. My English teacher was an old Shakesperean actor & linguist from London, my advanced math teacher was a mathematician for NASA for 20+ years before coming to teach. These teachers changed my life, they had passion and a genuine understanding of what they were teaching, they could actually tell you "why" something is done a particular way, without referring to the teacher's edition textbooks. All teachers at that time were not unionized.
The teacher's unions need to be destroyed.
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