NJ teacher fired for giving student Bible

[Shadrack]

A slap on the wrist and a reminder about the policies would have been a more sane course of action. But I agree with the policy.

I suspect if the story was about a practicing Muslim substitute teach handing a Qur'an to a curious student FOX News would have had a very different spin on the story.

And that is why Fox News and their fans can suck it.

[Hum]

Oh ffs, its a book, and the kid asked for one. The teacher wasn't pushing anything on anyone. Political correctness is getting really old.

If it had been Grimm's Fairy Tales, no one would complain. :laugh:

[Rippleman]

did you just compare the bible to porn or gay porn. Im not a religious person at all but even I find that waaaay far fetched. and I wont even read the rest of the post because of it.

comparing the action of sharing inappropriate material.. not the paper.

[Yogurtmaster]

Freedom? What is that?

This pretty much sums up what I have seen lately. I am not buying that people are not getting

their "rights" trampled or that people who are openly religious are not being discriminated against.

"Religious hostility and intolerance are the symptoms of a simple mind"

[Hum]

The bible isn't just a piece of literature, it never has been, it's an authoritarian belief structure that is still being used to tell people how they should and shouldn't live. If people actually treated the bible like literature there wouldn't be a problem but they don't, they treat it as if it's real. And American Christians, particularly in the bible belt aren't exactly known for their open tolerance.

The Bible is only what you believe it is -- nothing more, nothing less. ;)

I've never felt threatened or necessarily influenced by the book.

[Growled Member]

Once again here in America we allow political correctness to run wild.

[Andre S. Veteran]

The Bible is the single most influential book of Western culture, it's an essential read if only to understand the world you live in. This was a middle-school student, i.e. well past the age where one can make the difference between fiction and reality.

Cultural repression at its finest, that's what this is. The separation of Church and State doesn't preclude freedom of religion, much less access to religious material. As many have noted already, this is similar to policies practiced by the Soviet Union and such ideological totalitarian states.

[Rippleman]

The Bible is the single most influential book of Western culture, it's an essential read if only to understand the world you live in.

no way, unless you consider interpretation as understanding

[Yogurtmaster]

no way, unless you consider interpretation as understanding

I would agree with Dr_Asik. It's definitely not "The selfish gene" or The God Delusion" from RD.

[Albert]

i've always find it very offensive to have total strangers coming up to me on the street trying to 'discuss' with me about christianity. this is doubly so. good riddance.

[HawkMan]

Freedom? What is that?

This pretty much sums up what I have seen lately. I am not buying that people are not getting

their "rights" trampled or that people who are openly religious are not being discriminated against.

"Religious hostility and intolerance are the symptoms of a simple mind"

Freedom to do as you please does not apply to schools or work places or most places except your own home.

[Yogurtmaster]

Freedom to do as you please does not apply to schools or work places or most places except your own home.

The kid wanted the Bible so you are off base and if I was him I would get the ACLU involved and sue. I know I would.

i've always find it very offensive to have total strangers coming up to me on the street trying to 'discuss' with me about christianity. this is doubly so. good riddance.

Nothing is more offensive than a simple mind.

"Religious hostility and intolerance are the symptoms of a simple mind"

[Twiddle]

Id agree except for the part that the student asked for a copy. However, since a policy was in place about distributing on school grounds they had a reason. If this guy was a regular teacher in the union with tenure this would have only been a slap on the wrist. Here in NJ if you have tenure you are basically a "made-man" and untouchable short of a felony. Pretty sure I just read a story about a teacher throwing a book at a students head had just returned to work after suspension... but thats not grounds for termination?

An Atlantic City High School teacher returns to class today following a 120-day suspension for throwing a book that hit a student in the head.

Piano teacher Christopher Lorge admitted tossing the paperback in February because the student was talking on a phone and wearing earphones.

The district suspended Lorge and started proceedings to terminate him.

But The Press of Atlantic City reports a state Education Department arbitrator found while the teacher displayed a "serious lack of judgment," he showed remorse and had worked 10 years without disciplinary action. The arbitrator declined to fire him.

http://www.nj.com/at...#incart_m-rpt-1

In my middle-school and high-school days. I had one teacher smack me on the back of the head with a book for sleeping, and then the same teacher threw a stapler at me, for sleeping, cutting me right below my eye. I didn't whine, or complain. I was, of course pi**ed off and embarrassed but not enough that I felt the need to run and cry, because I was in the wrong both times. I was being a little sh*thead.

Schools have changed so much over the years. I couldn't imagine being a teacher nowadays. To this day, I hold no ill will to that teacher. Hell, everyone knew what to expect from her class. Outside of school, she was really cool, as well.

Even more-so, when I told my parents about it (laughing about it the whole time) they said "Well serves you right for sleeping in school."

All this politically correct crap is really making the society as a whole a bunch of sissy whiners, expecting handouts their whole lives and no consequences for inappropriate actions.

On topic to the article. I don't care one way or the other, about god, or religion. But firing the guy seems overboard. It seems this situation would have been better handled reminding him of the rules, as this one slip-up was probably nothing more than being absent minded. Unless this has been a recurring thing and the media is twisting it to make it sound otherwise, which I fully expect to be going on here, as a school system would know by the now the backlash this would have. Also, it is Fox News, so I am almost guaranteeing this is the case, and this is not the first time this has happened in his tenure.

[HawkMan]

The kid wanted the Bible so you are off base and if I was him I would get the ACLU involved and sue. I know I would.

Kind of irrelevant when there was a rule against handing out religious material. No sane lawyer would touch such a case, well no lawyer caring about their win ratio, the crap ones that just want money and will get their pay check from the idiot who chooses to sue a no win case would.

There are rules, follow them. If he absolutely wants a bible, give it after school.

On topic to the article. I don't care one way or the other, about god, or religion. But firing the guy seems overboard. It seems this situation would have been better handled reminding him of the rules, as this one slip-up was probably nothing more than being absent minded. Unless this has been a recurring thing and the media is twisting it to make it sound otherwise, which I fully expect to be going on here, as a school system would know by the now the backlash this would have. Also, it is Fox News, so I am almost guaranteeing this is the case, and this is not the first time this has happened in his tenure.

That's what I'm thinking to, since it seems a bit of an over reaction, and we all know media never tells both sides of the story, that wouldn't fit with their agenda.

[mmjm]

another one of those martyrs - look I tried spreading the word of god and they stopped me. Woe us.

"Christians" are up in arms about the government telling people how to raise their kids, unless.... they preach to your child behind your back without permission, then it's ok

Teachers should teach not pimp their beliefs out in class