Nancy Perry Should Not Be Allowed To Teach

My father was a teacher, and, in some ways, he still is, because he is constantly imparting bits of knowledge — most notably about climate change, a passionate topic to him — to friends and family, so I love a good teacher; I’ve had many in my lifetime.

Nancy Perry, however, is not a good teacher; in fact she is the worst kind of teacher imaginable and how she still has a job is beyond me.

See, Nancy teaches at Dublin Middle School in Dublin, Georgia, and one day during class she decided to teach the class a lesson in … something … by telling her students that President Obama is lying about being a Christian and that if their parents support him, they aren’t true Christians.  To add insult to religious indoctrination stupidity, she then challenged her class of middle school students to prove they were Christians.

Well, you just know one of the students took this story home to his parents, who were baffled and confused and angry that a public school teacher would impart her own, obviously limited, opinions on the president’s faith, the student’s faith, and the parent’s faith, in a classroom setting so they demanded a conference with Nancy Perry.

On the day of the scheduled meeting, though, they were surprised to find that not only was Nancy Perry at the meeting, but she’d brought along her husband, Bill, who is on the school board, and who once hosted a right-wing radio program during which he would demonize same-sex marriage and trash Democrats, including President Obama.

Which, by the way, is his right, on the radio, but is not Nancy Perry’s right, in a classroom.

During the conference, the parents got the impression that Mrs. Perry had brought along her husband to intimidate them, and became even more alarmed when the Perry’s, rather than discussing her inappropriate lesson, tried to convince them to goosestep along with their extremist views by offering them a packet of internet propaganda.

The parents then took their complaints to the school board and to the Dublin Laurens County NAACP, who called upon the school to take action against the Nancy and Bill Perry:

“This teacher has betrayed her profession. She has broken the trust from teacher to student and from teacher to parent. The harm that she has done goes beyond her classroom. It is incalculable. At the very least she has tainted the learning experience and caused divisiveness among her students, the school faculty, staff and the community. Her husband should be held accountable for his abuse of power stemming from his participation in the parent-teacher conference. He had no right to be there. His presence did nothing to enhance the process. In fact, his presence further eroded his wife’s credibility as a teacher.”

Sounds about right to me, but, apparently school administrators had a different thought and have allowed Nancy and Bill Perry to retain their positions, though Superintendent Chuck Ledbetter had this to say about the incident:

“We work to build bridges with students, not build walls, and talking politics, especially giving political opinions, can be very divisive

[…]

We’ve had meetings to make sure there is an understanding that this is not appropriate

[…]

You try to be appropriate to the situation. It’s one of those that you don’t want repeated… A board member being in a parent-teacher conference can tip the balance, or at least from the appearance, tip the balance of fairness. It is not a practice that we can allow. Her husband should be held accountable for his abuse of power stemming from his participation in the parent-teacher conference. He had no right to be there. His presence did nothing to enhance the process. In fact, his presence further eroded his wife’s credibility as a teacher.”

Am I wrong in thinking that Nancy Perry should be kicked out of school immediately? I mean, first, for bringing her own personal views into the classroom as a lesson? I mean, she has the right to her opinions, but I don’t think her opinions were part of the curriculum for middle school students.

And then, to bring her husband into the parent conference? He had no business being part of that discussion, or in sharing his little website package with them, and, in fact, inserting himself into a parent-teacher conference is a violation of school policy, so Bill Perry should be removed from the school board instantly.

The fact that they haven’t been terminated, and have really only gotten a minor slap on the wrist, only means that Nancy Perry will continue teaching students her own political and religious beliefs, and that her husband will continue to back her up.

It amazes me that these two still have jobs, and in education, no less.

sources:

Addicting Info
Freakout Nation
GWMAC