TRI In The News
Tackling Teacher's Toolbox Debacle
10/3/2011
TRI IN THE NEWS: TACKLING TEACHER'S TOOLBOX DEBACLE
From One News Now
Original article available here.
Attorneys at The Rutherford Institute are appealing the four-day suspension of a Chicago elementary school teacher who was charged with possessing weapons when he brought ordinary tools for a classroom illustration.
In August, second-grade teacher Doug Bartlett was told he was under investigation for "possessing and using weapons" because a box cutter and a penknife were among the garden-variety tools he used for a teaching demonstration. The school board's vote on whether to uphold the suspension is pending, but John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, says the incident could end the teacher's 17-year career.
"Doug Bartlett, as he's told us, will never be able to teach again in the Chicago school system, maybe in the entire public school system across the United States," Whitehead reports. "This goes on his record. It's possession of a weapon."
So attorneys with his firm are asking that, first of all, the school policy that brought about this injustice be rescinded. Also, they are calling for Bartlett's position to be reinstated.
"To me, this looks insane. But the point here is that this is happening across the country to different teachers, and specifically to students," the Institute president notes. "This is just the whole zero-tolerance mentality."
And Whitehead adds that this charge is especially egregious because the school curriculum requires that visual aids be used for tool discussion lessons. Further, he points out that none of the students had access to the toolbox at any time.
