From a *World Can't Wait* email today:
Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish has been suspended for making remarks critical of the Bush regime in his classroom. Demand that the suspension of Jay Bennish be immediately withdrawn and that he be allowed to return to teaching, unimpeded by harassment or threats from inside or outside the school.
Contact Overland High School Administrators:
Principal Jana Frieler
[email protected]School Phone: 720-747-3700 FAX 720-747-3895
Superintendent: Monte Moses 720-554-4213
Sign and Circulate this Statement:
On January 31st, George W. Bush stood in front of the world to deliver his State of the Union speech that angrily defended his murderous war on Iraq, the Patriot Act and NSA spying, and his whole ugly program. The next day, Jay Bennish, a teacher at Overland High School in suburban Denver, stood in front of his geography class and spoke a simple truth: Bush’s program of spying, forced religion, unjust war and oppressive foreign policies is immoral and a grave danger to humanity. In his critique of the Bush Administration, Bennish commented, "I'm not saying Bush and Hitler are exactly the same, obviously they're not. OK. But there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use."
For this, Bennish has been suspended and could be fired from his teaching position at Overland High. A student who complained about Bennish’s progressive views hid a tape recorder in class and turned it over to the school’s principal. Right-wing bloggers and media pundits have gone on a rampage to put Bennish at the center of a witch-hunt atmosphere for the “crime” of exposing the very real crimes of the Bush regime.
In an act of inspiring defiance and large-mindedness, 150 students walked out of class to protest Bennish’s suspension, demanding that Bennish continue teaching at Overland High and chanting for peace. The students’ demands cannot fall on deaf ears and the persecution of Jay Bennish must not go unchallenged!
At a time when critical thought and dissent are under attack and a chilling atmosphere looms over academia, the suspension and possible firing of Jay Bennish demands nation-wide, public opposition. At a time when someone like University of Colorado Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill can be systematically attacked - in the media and by people within the government - and nearly forced to resign for political statements he has made, a precedent allowing for the same or worse for a public high school teacher must not be allowed!
The firing of Bennish would represent a step toward a future where electronic surveillance and fear are classroom norms, where adherence to public policy is mandatory and dissenters whisper behind closed doors in fear of a network of informants and spies. If people can remain silent as a public school teacher is spied on, and on that basis is suspended and could face firing for telling the truth to his students about the horrors being committed by their government, what will it take for people to step out? That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn — or be forced — to accept.
Will Bennish’s name simply get lost in a long list of teachers and professors who have their careers come to an abrupt and humiliating end for publicly opposing the Bush Regime, or will thousands and thousands of people step out to oppose this unjust suspension and all it represents?
The answer to that question is up to us.
Bennish not only dared to ask the questions all too few are asking; he challenged his students to ask them, too. The question of whether Bennish spoke the truth must enter into this debate. His direct challenge to Bush’s "do as I say, not as I do" logic and his encouragement for students to look beyond the surface in the search for what is true, must be supported, not attacked!
Please add your name to this statement and demand that the suspension of Jay Bennish be immediately withdrawn and that he be allowed to return to teaching, unimpeded by harassment or threats from inside or outside the school.
Visit
http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1163&Itemid=61 to sign this statement.
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