{"article":{"id":57183,"heading":"The Devil in New England","author":"Ron Jacobs","created":"2003-05-11 18:18:37","modified":"2003-05-12 18:54:05","last_modified":"Tue, 13 May 2003 01:54:05","article":"

The War on Teachers and Students

The Devil in New England

Ron Jacobs, CounterPunch.org, May 10, 2003

Police states don't exist without help and acquiescence. Here in Vermont, where opposition to Washington's war on residents of the United States has been opposed by librarians, teachers, booksellers, town meetings, and others groups and individuals, there is another current that not only supports the war on the Bill of Rights, but stretches current laws to enforce that war. Most recently, a cop in the small town of Barre-home of some of Vermont's first labor unions and one of Emma Goldman's favorite places to speak when she toured the US in the early part of the twentieth century-took it upon himself to do some reconnaissance in the Bush war on the world.

According to the Times-Argus (the daily paper that serves this region of Vermont), office John Mott had heard that one of the history teachers at the local high school was encouraging his students to think critically about the war on Iraq and other controversial actions of the Bush administration. The teacher, Tom Treece, is a pacifist who has made it clear that he opposes the current administration's warmongering. Although most of the high school's students don't seem to have a problem with Treece's stance and vocal support of it, certain citizens do. Indeed, some of them have gone so far as to form a small citizen's group called Citizens Advocating Responsible Education (CARE), to oppose Treece's teaching. An underlying motive of the group is to scuttle the school district's budget.

For those who don't live in Vermont, the issue of school budgeting is quite controversial ever since a piece of legislation intended to provide a more equal level of funding to all schools in the state known as Act 60 was passed a few years back. This Act is an attempt to redistribute property tax receipts targeted for education from very wealthy school districts to those districts that exist in perpetual poverty. Of course, those in extremely wealthy districts do not want to share their wealth and have done whatever they can (including refusing to turn over their collected revenues to the state) to prevent this redistribution. The opponents to Act 60 are funded by a who's who of the Vermont's right wing-many libertarian in nature and others more traditionally rightist. Of course, the opposition to the act is funded by conservative businessmen and women.

Anyhow, back to Mr. Treece and Mr. Mott. The facts are these. At 1:30 in the morning of April 9, 2003, Officer Mott, in full uniform, convinced a custodian at Spaulding High School in Barre, Vt. To let him in to the high school and enter Treece's classroom. Mott was on duty at the time and was out of his assigned jurisdiction. Upon entering Treece's classroom, Mott began photographing a number of student projects concerning the war on Iraq and other aspects of Washington's current policies. Mott defended his actions in the Times-Argus, stating, \"Having spent 30 years in uniform, I was insulted, I'm just taking a stand on what happens in that classroom as a resident and a voter and a taxpayer of this community.\" Mott's recon mission took place the day after he attended a school board meeting where CARE presented their complaints to the board regarding Treece's instructional approach. CARE's founders claim that the issue is not free speech. To them, \"It's an issue of balance and it's an issue of professionalism.\"

Mott's actions were immediately criticized by the school district's superintendent, who wrote a letter to the Barre Police Chief condemning Mott's entering the school at that \"unusual; hour\" by intimidating a custodian and photographing student's work. She went further, defending Treece's teaching methods and stating clearly that Treece was a good teacher who wanted his students to think critically. Furthermore, she said, \"As a teacher he (Treece) does present all sides of an issue.\" Mott dismissed the superintendent's comments as \"tap-dancing\" and insisted that he did not intimidate anyone. Instead, he claimed to have \"found\" an unlocked door through which he entered. Why Mott would consider that explanation as justifiable is beyond many in the town. In a subsequent meeting of the school board, petitions were presented addressing both sides of the issues this incident has raised. CARE's petition, signed by a couple hundred residents, calls for limits on academic freedom and the appointment of citizens to the school board. A petition in support of Treece that was circulated by some of his current and former students was also submitted. In the discussion that took place, the lines were clearly drawn. According to the Times Argus, one of the opponents of Treece and his class (called Public Issues) said: \"The purpose of education is to teach students facts and how to use these facts to compete in the real world.\" Academic freedom, continued this speaker, is a waste of time.

The previous teacher of the class, Paul Poirier, rejected this opinion and the attempted character assassination of Treece by certain elements of the community. Poirier explained that there is a difference between \"pushing students to think\" and form their own opinions and \"brainwashing.\"

Other speakers condemned the attacks on Treece, which they claimed were based on rumor. One student, who describes himself as a conservative who argues frequently with Treece, relayed the results of an informal poll he took of the school's junior and senior classes on whether or not Treece provided a balanced perspective in his classes. The poll results showed an overwhelming response of yes, he does. In addition, of the 78 students this student asked to sign a petition in support of Treece, 75 signed. Many others in attendance attended the meeting to express their alarm at Mott's questionable entry into the school and his taking photos of students' work. Of those people, most of them found Mott's lack of repentance over his actions even more disturbing.

Indeed, Mott has expressed no remorse over the forced entry into the school, nor has he expressed any doubt as to his right to use his police uniform to do so. It's clear that Mott and his supporters have forgotten (if they ever knew) the reasons that certain of our country's founders insisted on the Bill of Rights before they would approve the constitution. It's also clear that these folks' leaders in Washington like things that way. This is why the minds of the young are their battleground. After all, if young people can think critically about their government and its actions, they might want to change it. If young people start asking why their friends are being asked to go to war and why there are military recruiters in their schools and their mailboxes, they might decide to oppose those wars and the liars who try and sweet talk them into fighting them. If young people start questioning why policemen can use their uniform to commit acts that would be illegal for anyone else, they might want to rein in the police.

Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground.

He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","contact":"rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu","link":"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/jacobs05102003.html","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Opponents to Act 60, which redistributes property taxes from wealthy to poor school districts, are funded by a who's who of Vermont's right wing--many libertarian in nature. They are also behind an effort to silence a pacifist high school teacher.","numcomment":16,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/05\/57183.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":57185,"heading":"Cynicism","article":"Why the nerve of the STATE and the PEOPLE for passing ACT 60?!\r\n\r\nDon't they listen to Diogenes and his Scrooge-like wisdom?! \r\n\r\nProtect "our" freedom!\r\nProtect "our" income!\r\nScrew the kids!\r\nScrew the school districts!","author":"The Dog","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-11 18:23:31","modified":"2003-05-11 18:23:31","fileurl":""},{"id":57191,"heading":"not against the law","article":"What the police officer did was not against the law, however I can see how it might violate his departments policies about using his position to gain entry that would not normaly be granted.\r\n\r\nAs far as the teacher; a good teacher will have his\/her students leave the classroom not know what his\/hers political affiliation. My favorite teacher, in high school or college, told the class that we would never be able to figure out if he was liberal or conservative, republican or democrat. He was right. He was able to present both sides of all arguments and act as the devils adovcate when we came up with a stance on a particular subject.\r\n\r\n","author":"fred","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-11 19:26:04","modified":"2003-05-11 19:26:04","fileurl":""},{"id":57194,"heading":"Favorite Teacher","article":" He sounds like he was a careerist who wanted to make sure he stayed on the upward career track to administrator. I guess that means that you had no idea of where he stood on such issues as segregation, McCarthyism, Nazism, the KKK, or elimination welfare. Sounds like you got a really humanistic education.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-11 20:07:38","modified":"2003-05-11 20:07:38","fileurl":""},{"id":57207,"heading":"my fav teech","article":"she was the woman(in typing class) that allowed? us guys to type silly notes back&forth, and obnoxious(course) ones. but, point maybe, peoples doan unnerstant yunguns, properly(if applicable). OOOOpen minded\/humanfolks Need apply","author":"cuzin it","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-11 22:06:06","modified":"2003-05-11 22:06:06","fileurl":""},{"id":57210,"heading":"Parents Don't Care Anymore","article":"The officer reports taking pictures of "a poster of President Bush with duct tape over his mouth and a large papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 combat boot with the American flag stuffed inside stepping on a doll, along with pictures of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his co-thug reactionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. They aren't "pacifists"! Besides, the whole so-called peace movement was organized around defending and protecting Saddam Hussein! The slogan: "All hail the idiot boy king" was posted next to a picture of President Bush as, Treece claimed, "a reason to reject the high school budget." \r\n \r\nIf Mr. Treece posted pictures of Bill Clinton on the wall and portrayed him in the same manner he did Bush, this cop would be a hero and the teacher would be on his way out. Apparently there were "rumors" about this teacher's curriculum, so this officer investigated. It's reported that there's a "backlash" against Officer Mott, but not that there was any sort of backlash against the class content. Why does it take a cop, taking pictures at 1:30 AM on his own time, to find out what's going on in this class? Where are the parents?\r\n\r\nSo we hear education this and education that all the time in this country. Everybody claims to care about teaching "the children." But if we really cared about education, 90% of the garbage going on inside classrooms wouldn't be permitted. We would have parents involved in their children's education that know every word on the chalkboard and in the books. A police officer - who from this story doesn't seem to have any kids in the school much less in Treece's class - wouldn't have to enter through a service door and then ask a janitor to unlock the classroom for him. The parents would have expressed their outrage; instead, there wasn't a peep.\r\n \r\n","author":"parent","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-11 22:28:34","modified":"2013-11-11 00:22:26","fileurl":""},{"id":57215,"heading":"Affliction","article":"Wow, all the psychopaths have come out to comment on this one...according to them it seems free speech has no place in the classroom. It must be too complicated for young expanding adolescent minds. Brainwashing the youth to support the wars of corporate capitalism is the only education needed.\r\n\r\nLet's see...whats next...\r\n\r\nEnd all sex education\r\nDefund and then throw all schools to the mercy of junk food corporations.\r\nThank your corporate father by licking theri boot for the next forty years or until they fire you.\r\nTeach them how evil uynions are.\r\nAllow police to blitzkrieg schools and stomp all dissent out.\r\nContinue to model dysfunctional relationships as appropriate to Americs's youth.\r\nIgnore the coroprate welfare that leads to corruption, police states, and everlasting military holocausts.\r\nOne god. One world. One way. \r\n\r\nWhat a bunch of sickos. Glad none of them are in control of the school board here, or live in LA.","author":"Parmenides","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-11 23:21:05","modified":"2003-05-11 23:21:05","fileurl":""},{"id":57216,"heading":"Systematic Death~~Crass","article":"SYSTEMATIC DEATH\r\nsystem, system, system - death in life system, system, system - the surgeons knife system, system, system - hacking at the cord system, system, system - a child is born poor little fucker, poor little kid never asked for life, no she never did poor little baby, poor little mite crying out for food as her parents fight (x2) system, system, system - send him to school system, system, system - force him to crawl system, system, system - teach him how to cheat system, system, system - kick him off his feet poor little schoolboy, poor little lad they'll pat him if he's good, beat him if he's bad poor little kiddy, poor little chap they'll force feed his mind with their useless crap force feed his mind with their useless crap system, system, system - they'll teach her how to cook system, system, system - they'll teach her how to look system, system, system - they'll teach her all the tricks system, system, system - create another victim for their greasy pricks poor little girly, poor little wench another little object to prod and pinch poor little sweety, poor little filly they'll fuck her mind so they can fuck her silly fuck her mind so they can fuck her silly system, system, system - he's grown to be a man system, system, system - he's been taught to fit the plan system, system, system - forty years of jobs system, system, system - pushing little buttons, pulling little knobs poor fucking worker, poor little serf working like a mule for half of what he's worth poor fucking grafter, poor little gent working for the cash that he's already spent (x2) he'll selling his life, she's his loyal wife timid as a mouse, she's got her little house he'sgot his little car and they share the cocktail bar she likes to cook his meals, you know, something that appeals sometimes he works til late so his supper has to wait but she doesn't really mind cos he's getting overtime he likes to put a bit away just for that rainy day cos every little counts when the cost of living mounts they do the pools each week hoping for that lucky break then they'd take a trip abroad, do all the things they can't afford she'd really like to have a fur, he'd like a bigger car they could buy a bungalow, with a georgian door for show he might think of leaving work, but no, he wouldn't like to shirk he'd much prefer to stay and get his honest days pay he's got a life of work ahead, there's no rest for the dead she's tried to make it nice, he's said thankyou once or twice system, system, system - deprived of any hope system, system, system - taught they couldn't cope system, system, system - slaves right from the start system, system, system - til death do them part poor little fuckers, what a sorry pair had their lives stolen, but they didn't really care poor little darlings, just your ordinary folks victims of the system and its cruel jokes (x2) the couple views the wreckage and dreams of home sweet home they'd almost paid their mortgage when the system dropped its bomb. \r\n","author":"Penelope Rimbaud via Parmides","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-11 23:30:01","modified":"2003-05-11 23:30:01","fileurl":""},{"id":57218,"heading":"?","article":">Brainwashing the youth to support the wars of corporate capitalism is the only education needed\r\n\r\nWhere did that come from?\r\n\r\nI see one person advocating that teachers should leave their own personal political viewpoints at the door and objectively teach the subject, and another who believes that parents should become more closely involved in what their children are being taught. How are either one of these infringing on free speech?\r\n","author":"?","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-11 23:34:40","modified":"2003-05-11 23:34:40","fileurl":""},{"id":57252,"heading":"Double standards again","article":"When a teacher offers rightist opinions it's "brainwashing".\r\n\r\nWhen a teacher offers leftist opinions it's "pushing students to think".\r\n\r\nPolitics of ANY sort do not belong in the classroom.","author":"daveman","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-12 02:33:54","modified":"2003-05-12 02:33:54","fileurl":""},{"id":57258,"heading":"education is political, dumbass","article":"The standard educational curriculum of the united states doesn't promote\r\ncritical thinking and rather serves to perpetuate the reproduction of \r\nracial and class stratification. Any person with a basic high school degree\r\ncan figure that out. Some teachers could give a shit if their students learn\r\nanything other than regurgitating what they are told. \r\n\r\nWhat the cop did in Vermont was plain wrong and very much like the \r\nactions of the Nazi party in 1930s Germany. If he wasn't on duty then he\r\nwas breaking and entering and should be arrested. Enough said.\r\n\r\n","author":"mediawatcher","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-12 03:43:28","modified":"2003-05-12 03:43:28","fileurl":""},{"id":57262,"heading":"Like I said, double standards","article":"Had the teacher been teaching conservative values, you would scream to crucify him.","author":"daveman","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-12 06:56:01","modified":"2003-05-12 06:56:01","fileurl":""},{"id":57282,"heading":"Politics does belong in the classroom","article":"Politics does belong in the classroom. Teaching young people requires a stance where critical thinking and moral development are necessary, where right and wrong are determined via debate and investigation. Otherwise education becomes no more than watching television without teacher contextualization or input and taking tests...of course that seems to be what the neofascists want. \r\n\r\nIn bushite America all education is potential thoughtcrime, sniffed out and prosecuted by a militarist police state,\r\n\r\n","author":"Parmenides","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-12 10:56:45","modified":"2003-05-12 10:56:45","fileurl":""},{"id":57303,"heading":"Politics in the classroom","article":"Politics absolutely belongs in the classroom. Kids and young adults need to learn how to debate, how to listen and how to argue a point, and then listen to the other side. Too many people listen to talk radio where someone calls in with a differing view and is yelled down by the host who controls the volume. That is not debate that is yelling at each other.\r\n\r\nTeachers have an opportunity, and an obligation, to encourage differing views. There are hundreds of horror stories from around the country where students are belittled by teachers and professors who have differing views. That just teaches the golden rule; he who has the gold (the instructor) makes the rules. When a student is afraid to speak out then they will not or will act out and then nothing is gained.\r\n\r\nWe need to hear other points of view because sometimes the light comes on and we might realize we agree more than we disagree.\r\n\r\nRegarding the officer "breaking and entering" how do you get that when he was allowed in? I also fail to see how someone taking pictures of what was in the classroom some how equates to Nazi Germany.\r\n","author":"fred","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-12 13:26:22","modified":"2003-05-12 13:26:22","fileurl":""},{"id":57308,"heading":"Politics","article":""In bushite America all education is potential thoughtcrime, sniffed out and prosecuted by a militarist police state."\r\n\r\nUh huh.\r\n\r\n"Kids and young adults need to learn how to debate, how to listen and how to argue a point, and then listen to the other side."\r\n\r\nDo you think they're gonna get that when the teacher is brutally clear on his\/her stance? No. The best teacher, as has been pointed out in here before, is one who can debate both sides of the issue and never give a clue as to his\/her personal beliefs.\r\n\r\nLet me rephrase: "Personal politics of ANY sort do not belong in the classroom."\r\n\r\nTeachers should encourage rational debate and critical thinking, while giving no indication of their leanings. If the students want some one-on-one time with the teacher to discuss issues, fine...the teacher may express personal views then. However, in the classroom setting, any espousal of personal beliefs by teachers smacks of "indoctrination".","author":"daveman","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-12 13:53:21","modified":"2003-05-12 13:53:21","fileurl":""},{"id":57312,"heading":"A pack of miserly scrooges","article":"Funny how the Libertarians will not address the issue of ACT 60?!!\r\n\r\nLibertarians are against the use of property taxes taken from wealthy school districts to help pay for poverty-stricken school districts. Libertarians know that the second they try to defend unequal educational funding, they will be rejected by the vast majority of the electorate.\r\n\r\nThis story is about Libertarian-Republicans using the controversy of a teacher's opinion to sabotage ACT 60. You see, Libertarians will support the suppression of personal liberties if it means they can protect their ass-ets.\r\n\r\nA pack of miserly scrooges.","author":"pro-human","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-12 14:05:53","modified":"2003-05-12 14:05:53","fileurl":""},{"id":57330,"heading":"Libertarians","article":" A lawyer friend of mine once described Libertarians as "pot smoking Republicans." ","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":57183,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-05-12 18:54:05","modified":"2003-05-12 18:54:05","fileurl":""}]}