It's been 10 days now since the Dade County Schools strong-armed him out of his teaching position as a much loved chemistry teacher at Krop high and "reassigned" him to the "maintenance depot." Mr. Beightol, who is running against the current teachers union president, allegedly made the mistake of using the schools' Internet to post messages to fellow teachers that were considered to be of a "political nature."Give us a break! MVB thinks Mr. Beightol ought to sue them for infringing on his 1st Amendment rights and defamation of character just for starts. Last week, we caught a TV interview with students outside the high school. Seems the substitute teacher hired to replace him while he wastes away at the "maintenance depot" doesn't do anything except read the newspaper. Parents should be outraged. We urge them to raise holy hell to get this guy back into the classroom before all of their kids fall too far behind.
Readers who feel as outraged as we do, can click here. It will open the Dade County schools website. You can find the School Board button on the left. Dr. Martin Karp reps Mr. Beightol's school, but it probably wouldn't hurt to let all of them know how you feel.
And remember our rallying cry, "Free Shawn Beightol! Free Shawn Beightol!"
UpDate (11/1): Mr. Beightol was "freed" after 17-days from "Guantanamo North" as he called it on Halloween and put back in the classroom where he belongs and should never have been removed in the first place. Unfortunately, in an email from him, the charges brought against him have been taken to the state level. Talk about intimidation tactics. If there is justice in the world, perhaps forcing the issue like this will come back to bite the school board on its collective fat asses when the state orders all school boards to back off and backs Mr. Beightol and all teachers in exercising their First Amendment rights.
4 comments:
"Mr. Beightol, who is running against the current teachers union president, allegedly made the mistake of using the schools' Internet to post messages to fellow teachers that were considered to be of a "political nature."
I'm curious what was it Mr. Beightol was posting. Got a quote, link?
Gus, the "political nature" of the emails were regarding salary and other teacher related issues. For a more detailed examination, go to the Miami Sun Post web site and bring up the October 19th cover story on Mr. Beightol: http://www.miamisunpost.com/archives/2006/10-19-06/wakefield.htm.
Not to be a meanie, but if a company has a clear policy on e-mail use, i.e., http://www2.dadeschools.net/schoolboard/rules/Chapt4/4c-1.064.pdf (it was the e-mail system he was using), then employees are bound to it and whatever the consequences violating that rule brings.
And the messages were deemed political because he discussed UTD elections and his intentions to run for president and such.
Well, you are being a "meanie" especially if you think handling the rule breaking means strong-arming the guy into a meaningless job instead of allowing Mr. Beightol to do what he does best, teach high school kids chemistry. As far as I know there is a dearth of science and math teachers in this county and you'd think they'd respond in a less knee-jerk reactionary way to allow him to keep teaching. But I guess they have a bigger point to make-- at the expense of the kids.
And don't get me going about "clear policy" and breaking rules. Among other things, I'm part iconoclast. When someone says I can't do something, I want to know why. If I find the reasons are built to restrict my basic freedoms in expressing myself, watch out. Like our Founding Fathers, I have a low tolerance for anything that restricts self-expression-- especially if it isn't harming anybody.
Finally, I have to ask the real question, As long as they are not religious in nature, what's so wrong about a teacher expressing his or her ideas about the teaching profession through the Dade County Schools email system to other teachers? If the County pushes this issue, it probably will lose in court because, to the common man, this looks like an egregious violation of the First Amendment which states "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech...". I think that applies to school boards too.
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