Here are two stories that took place in 2006 involving high school students recording their teacher's comments in class because they didn't agree with the teacher's point of view, and wanted actual evidence. These two stories are almost like polar opposites of each other.
One involves a conservative student who did not like his teacher's opinions on Bush and U.S. foreign policy, and the other involves a (probably) liberal student who did not like his teacher proselytizing Christianity in the classroom.
These two stories taken together raise some difficult questions on academic freedom and high school classroom settings, and I'm not sure if there's a firm answer to them. There's a lot of gray area here. Follow me below the fold for a discussion on this. Hopefully we can reach some kind of guideline or consensus.
First, in Colorado:
The student whose recording of an Overland High School teacher's lecture triggered national debate on academic freedom will be honored this week in Washington, D.C.
Sean Allen, a former Overland student who now attends Cherry Creek High School, will receive an award for "courage" from the Students for Academic Freedom at a conference, said Sara Dogan, national campus director for the group.
Also, Allen will participate in a news conference Friday with David Horowitz, a conservative author affiliated with the group.
Allen in early February recorded a lecture by Overland teacher Jay Bennish during a geography class. During the 20-minute recording, Bennish made comments critical of U.S. foreign policies and compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler.
Dogan described Bennish's remarks as a form of "indoctrination."
Bennish, who had been placed on paid leave during a district investigation, has said he was trying to provoke critical thinking among students in the class. He was permitted to return to Overland.
And then in New Jersey:
After a public school teacher was recorded telling students they belonged in hell if they did not accept Jesus as their savior, the school board has banned taping in class without an instructor's permission, and has added training for teachers on the legal requirements for separating church and state.
A junior at Kearny High School in New Jersey, Matthew LaClair, 16, complained to his principal after the teacher in his American history class, David Paszkiewicz, told students 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. He started recording the comments in September because, he said, he was afraid school officials would not otherwise believe that the teacher had made them. Matthew said he was ridiculed and threatened after his criticism became public.
After several students complained to the school board that their voices had been broadcast on the Internet and on television news programs without their consent, the board adopted a policy in mid-January that requires students to request permission from an instructor to record or videotape a class.
"Adoption of this rule at this time sends all the wrong messages," said Paul LaClair, Matthew's father. "We were in negotiations and this is extremely ill-advised and disrespectful, if not bad faith."
About the same time, the school board president, Bernadette McDonald, addressed a memo to the Kearny School District community that every teacher would receive mandatory instruction about how to interpret the Constitution's separation of church and state and how it should apply to classroom discussions.
....
School officials said they took "corrective action" against Mr. Paszkiewicz, but would not elaborate.
Meanwhile, Matthew said that Mr. Paszkiewicz recently told the class that scientists who spoke about the danger of global warming were using tactics like those Hitler used, by repeating a lie often enough that people come to believe it.
Mr. Lindenfelser said that the district did not investigate the report of that comment, which he said was not religious or a violation of "any kind of law."
So what do you guys think about the two cases as they relate to academic freedom and secret tape recording in a classroom to use against the teacher later on? What should be the rule, if any, on teachers giving their personal political and religious viewpoints in class? I'm not going to compare the reactions the school boards took, because they are two different school boards in two different states, so it'd be like comparing apples and oranges. As we know, different state school boards operate under different policies (hi, Kansas). And what do you guys think about the complaints from other students that their voices were on the recording, albeit just audio, in this age of YouTube and viral videos?
If you're looking to me for an opinion on tape recording in high school classes, you won't find one, because I don't have one. There's a lot of gray area here, so I honestly don't have a settled opinion on this. I can see both sides of the issue. (Universities are different, as there are already laws in place about the tape recording of professors' lectures, as we found out so nicely thanks to Andrew Jones' meddling at UCLA.)
I will say this, though. A teacher being critical of U.S. policies and making a comparison to Hitler in a geography class is understandable, if the topic in class was about comparing different regimes' policies throughout history to gain insight into how regimes operate, though perhaps it was still not the proper place to do so. But for an American history teacher to tell a Muslim girl she's going to burn in hell for being Muslim, and talking about evolution and Noah's Ark?? Wow. And he still has a job.
Also interesting is the reaction to the students themselves. The Colorado student is getting honored. The New Jersey student is getting criticized and threatened.
But what I find most interesting is that "Students for Academic Freedom", which is affiliated with none other than David Horowitz, gave the Colorado student an award for "courage". Will they honor the New Jersey student for similar "courage"? If not, why?
Update: Please check out Naniboujou's comment below to see exactly what Jay Bennish's comment was that got him in trouble. I've transcribed it here.
"He started off his speech talking about how America should be the country that dominates the world. That we have been blessed essentially by God to have the most civilized, the most advanced best system and that it's our duty as Americans to use the military to go out into the world and to make the world like us. Sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say... we're the only ones who are right, everyone else is backwards, and it's our job to conquer the world and make sure they all live just like we want them to."
And also from the link Naniboujou provided:
"Now I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same, obviously they're not, OK," Jay Bennish was heard saying on a recording of his class lecture on the day after Bush's State of the Union Address. "But there are eerie similarities to the tones that they use."
The link has a YouTube video from Hannity & Colmes, and Sean Hannity goes on some more with some more quotes he reads off a paper, but I do wonder if Hannity is deliberately selectively quoting to make Bennish look bad there. Like the part about saying how al-Qaeda thinks we're the terrorists, well... isn't that true? Do Osama's followers actually believe they're evil, or do they view themselves more like freedom fighters, and view the U.S. government as evil?
More interesting thoughts to ponder.