Yesterday, as one of his final, and one of the most progressive moves since the bill granting marriage equality for same sex marriages, President Obama signed a bill granting protection to Atheists from persecution. This is monumental. Atheists have been hiding in the corners of society in America since the first colonists arrived. We have been accused of everything from witchcraft to devil worship (News Flash: we do not believe in the supernatural).
Over the past few years I have written much of my own experiences as an Atheist teaching in the South. I have documentation dating back to 2007, I have received more than one written reprimand for my Atheism, I have been spied upon and reported upon for a lack of patriotism (hello? 1950 McCarthyism). In fact my civil liberties have been violated in so many ways it is unbelievable. However, a trail of documentation leads back to one simple fact. I do not believe in a god, or gods, or heaven, or hell.
I have sat in conferences with my administrators asking me on more than one occasion: How do you know right from wrong if you do not believe in god.
My answer to this asinine question is: I have a brain and healthy psyche. The fact that these administrators never see anything wrong with asking me such a question, gives me cause to believe... they do not.
This year I received a formal write up, which along with other ridiculous claims only added to camouflage the really juicy claim of refusing to teach the bible as fact.
This seriously happened. This year. 2016. 21st Century. Now you may be asking... Why were you teaching the bible? I was not. There was a biblical allusion to the Tower of Babel. I explained to my [senior high] students who were unfamiliar with the bible story that it is a Hebrew myth explaining the [natural phenomenon] of diverse languages.
After class dismissed, my team teacher (this was a special education classroom), verbally assaulted me and demanded that I not refer to any part of the bible as myth. She stated her offense at my reference and told me that I was wrong. That she had evidence to support her claims, which were screamed into my face: BECAUSE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE BELIEVE IT [the bible] IS TRUE.
I calmly told my rabid attacker, still from my seated position behind my desk, that I could not, as a public educator, honor, nor acknowledge one religion over another. I repeated this mantra three times. Like a charm in reverse... I ended up with a reprimand. This teacher ran to the principal and "tattled" on me. I was immediately summoned.
I do not make this stuff up.
My attorney has this letter and sees all the fluff added to cover the one part that could be used against them; however, I did ask that we hold off on any action until my daughter graduates next year. When the harassment by my administrators continued by way of walkthroughs, 3 informal and 3 formal, and poor marks given for each time, I asked for a conference with my direct assistant principal. I told her I just want to see my daughter graduate. I told her it is obvious to me and to my attorney what is happening here, and we are just holding on to that.
The next thing I know I am being accused of helping students cheat on the SLO (Student Learning Objective Test) - a test so riddled with problems it does not even count as a grade, and many feel is simply a "gotcha" means for ridding schools of ineffective teachers. Well, I am anything but ineffective. In fact, the reason I am on administrative leave, pending investigation, is because my students scored too well. Let me preface that with my Black and Hispanic students scored too well.
Why am I so bold as to post this publicly? Because I am not afraid of them. My daughter will graduate next year. I have allowed the intimidation, the pulling of my students from my classroom, the spying and "data" collecting of special educators who have seen their own form of administrative trouble used as pawns or bargaining chips. I have endured all this so that I, a single mother, could see my daughter through the same educational system that has sought to destroy me.
I am not alone in this. I am currently researching the number of teachers in this district who have been forced out, some even taking their lives due to the duress and harassment by district administration and principals.
It stops now. I will not go down without a fight. I will not go down.