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Posted by Bearded_gnome on June 9, 2009 at 12:30 a.m.

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Fired for being conservative? LHS fires a teacher?

   Fired for being conservative?

What I'm going to write here is based on sketchy information. My hope is that people with information closer to the situation will post here.

This past school year was the first year of teaching for a Lawrence High School teacher in Social Studies, something like history, American Institutions, Western Civ, etc. He came to Lawrence from Arkansas, after teaching there for more than a dozen years.

He and his supportive students learned that his contract will not be renewed. He will be dropped after one year. There is some indication that possibly he is losing his job because he is conservative, and has been open about it in class.

Students of his attended a School Board meeting in late May; they were expected to visit the board yesterday--monday night.

I first learned of this just this evening. I've not been able to get more information on the situation and I hope others with closer knowledge will add theirs here. According to some of his supportive students, they have talked to LJworld about covering this, without gaining any coverage.
Nobody should be fired for being conservative, nor for being liberal. Teachers certainly do have freedom of speech but must balance that with the need to present accurate and balanced presentations of material in class. No student's grade should depend on repeating the indoctrination of a teacher; rather that student should be encouraged to freely arrive at his or her opinions, and know why.

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