British Columbia teacher fired for having the wrong opinion

[Tennis]

Source : National Post

A teacher at a posh private school in British Columbia was fired last month after making an innocuous comment about abortion to his Grade 12 law class.

Though there is no way of knowing, since discipline matters are shrouded in secrecy, it may be the first time a Canadian teacher has been fired not amid allegations of impropriety, but for having the wrong opinion.

Certainly, Lori Foote, a spokesperson for the 60,000-member-strong Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, said Wednesday that no one at the association is “aware of anyone being fired” in Ontario in comparable circumstances.

The 44-year-old teacher, who has asked that he not be identified to protect what’s left of his career, was teaching “the criminal law unit, a lesson on vice, ethics, morality and the law” to his small class in the Vancouver-area school in late November.

“I was working my way through examples of how some people’s sense of personal ethics was more liberal than the letter of the law,” he said in an email.

For example, he told them, many people might roll through a stop sign on a deserted country road, deeming it morally acceptable, even if unlawful.

In other words, he said, in a pluralistic democracy, there’s often “a difference between people’s private morality and the law.

“I find abortion to be wrong,” he said, as another illustration of this gap, “but the law is often different from our personal opinions.”

That was it, the teacher said. “It was just a quick exemplar, nothing more. And we moved on.”

A little later, the class had a five-minute break, and when it resumed, several students didn’t return, among them a popular young woman who had gone to an administrator to complain that what the teacher said had “triggered” her such that she felt “unsafe” and that, in any case, he had no right to an opinion on the subject of abortion because he was a man.

The school, for the record, is a witheringly progressive one.

Before classes even started last fall, teachers underwent serious “gender training” given by QMUNITY, an organization for LGBTQQ2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning and two-spirit) people. Teachers were told in no uncertain terms, for instance, that “no one is 100-per-cent male or female” and that everyone is somewhere on the “gender spectrum.”

Unsurprisingly, students at the school, where $30,000-a-year tuition buys small classes, regularly say “I’m so triggered” and are allowed to walk out of class.

What happened to the teacher over the ensuing few days sounds like something out of the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China, where people were subjected to what were known as ideological struggle sessions, forced to “confess” to various imagined sins before large crowds, and roundly denounced.

Immediately after the student complained to the administrator, the teenager came, with a teacher at her side as support, to confront him in a public area of the school.

She pressed for an apology, but the teacher resisted, because, he said, it would set a dangerous precedent for a teacher to be reamed out in the presence of a colleague.

“When I didn’t show contrition,” he said, “I was summoned upstairs and grilled by two administrators who told me my job was on the line.”

Now panicking — he has a family to support and had just recently returned to teaching after several years in business with a relative — he apologized profusely and promised to apologize the next day to the offended student.

Instead, the school had an administrator take over the class for a day, whereupon, he was told, they would all discuss what went wrong in his absence. He would be invited back to “hear the grievances and offer an apology. It was clear I must do this successfully or I would be terminated.”

He repeatedly asked what he’d done wrong or if there was an allegation of misconduct.

“The answer I got back was that I was recognized as an outstanding teacher, but student ‘safety’ was the school’s primary concern.”

With the discussion now scheduled for the following day, the teacher, near to melting down with apprehension and disbelief, went to a walk-in clinic and asked for tranquillizers.

The discussion was postponed another day, and after “white-knuckling” it through his other classes, it came time for the law class.

It was exactly the horror show he’d imagined: His boss sat among a crowd of students, ran through a list of what had gone wrong and “what I needed to do to change.” While most students appeared to be on his side, the offended girl was still furious.

He apologized specifically to her, but then made what was apparently a fatal error: He said he liked her, that she was a bright and engaging student, and said he’d told her father just that at a recent parent-teacher night.

She stormed out of the class in tears, and he was again castigated by his superiors, this time for having been “too personal” in his apologia.

On Nov. 30, he showed up at the school, was retrieved by an administrator and taken to the “head” of school, the private school equivalent of a principal.

He was told he “could no longer continue in the classroom,” and was offered a short-term medical disability top-up for employment insurance.

He was then escorted down the hall and off the premises.

“Such is the cost of a small misstep in a crushingly politically correct world,” he said sorrowfully.

Postmedia is not identifying the school at the teacher’s request.

“They torched me,” he said, “but I’m reluctant to damage the brand … So many kids who would otherwise fall through the cracks … are valued and helped here,” he said.

How do you feel about this? Are you okay with teachers getting fired over their opinions?

I guess we must all adjust to this new world eh?

[Ghaleon]

I think it is a continuation of a horrible trend of no longer having free speech. The world is going backwards with freedoms. To a more communist style of ou opinions being policed.

[THE Bigzoman]

Cuk Fanada.

[Grimbold21]

young woman who had gone to an administrator to complain that what the teacher said had “triggered” her such that she felt “unsafe” and that, in any case, he had no right to an opinion on the subject of abortion because he was a man

[Tennis]

I think it is a continuation of a horrible trend of no longer having free speech. The world is going backwards with freedoms. To a more communist style of ou opinions being policed.

There are positives though. Teachers need to be more careful as to what they say and cannot abuse their position of authority like in the past.

[Kalis]

Before classes even started last fall, teachers underwent serious “gender training” given by QMUNITY, an organization for LGBTQQ2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning and two-spirit) people.

YES! I have been determined to end up in this ever expanding identity group...I'm a two-spirit person!


Whisky and rum count, don't they?

[Deleted]

There are positives though. Teachers need to be more careful as to what they say and cannot abuse their position of authority like in the past.

Positives to not having free speech?

[deschainx]

Tennisace I have to say that I am a great supporter of your work and the work of people like you.
You are LITERALLY legitimizing actual racists, misogynists, nazis ect.
If it wasn't for people like you constantly policing everyone trump probably would not have become president.
So thank you.

[Xanjori]

This "school" sounds more like a nuthouse. I think its where parents send useless kids to get rid of them, at a relatively steep price, but if you can afford it it's probably a welcome relief.

[Forgettable]

SJWs need to be stopped. This is way too far on the crazy scale.

[BourneWolf]

Source : National Post



How do you feel about this? Are you okay with teachers getting fired over their opinions?

I guess we must all adjust to this new world eh?

I am not ok with SJW's doing rediculous things.

Its like watching Demolition Man become true. One step further and Equilibrium will become true and books and arts will be bonfired.

Guys like you have made this happen though. This is YOUR World that you have helped create by supporting a system which silences people with opinions.

Good job.

[IIamaKing]

lol

I assume this is exactly what some people want.

[GennGreymane]

You must fight the power @Tennisace

[Masark]

lol

I assume this is exactly what some people want.

People shown the error of privatizing education?

Sure.

[IIamaKing]

There are positives though. Teachers need to be more careful as to what they say and cannot abuse their position of authority like in the past.

IF the street goes both way, sure, but dollars to donuts, if he had been pro Abortion, this would not be a story.

Its fine if we tell teachers, "keep your personal beliefs to yourself" its not fine if we are punishing teachers simply for having a divergent opinion.

[Tennis]

I am not ok with SJW's doing rediculous things.

Its like watching Demolition Man become true. One step further and Equilibrium will become true and books and arts will be bonfired.

Guys like you have made this happen though. This is YOUR World that you have helped create by supporting a system which silences people with opinions.

Good job.

Don't blame me. I'm against hate speech not opinions.

[Gref]

a nice full force punch right on the nose of that sjw bitch would be appropriate.
I felt triggered, unsafe and punched her.

opinions are opinions, he gives just an example. for fuck sake sjws arghhh

[The Firestar]

Yeah... this is absolutely not okay.

For the record, I do disagree with the teacher's opinion. But that's exactly what it is. An opinion. Neither of us can be proven objectively right or wrong. If you can't handle someone having a different opinion than you, even when they only mention it in passing... you're not going to be ready for the real world.

It also really, REALLY irritates me that this stuck up snobby bitch of a student ran directly to an administrator, rather than talking to her teacher about it. If your first instinct in a conflict is to go over the other person's head, again, you're not ready for the real world.

Quite honestly, he should sue for wrongful termination. Expressing an opinion, in passing no less, is not grounds for removal from a job. Especially considering that he did apologize for offending the student, and she refused to accept it.

[ovm33]

I think it's ridiculous. I agree with the teacher and the school sounds like a cesspool.

But it's a private school... He knew the type of place he was in.

[Knaar]

LGBTQQ2S

Holy shit, that accronym is getting longer and longer every month >_>

But there is a "I" missing somewhere in there... i swear i saw one 2 months ago.... oh well.

on topic : Private school, they do what they want