Public school teacher tells class: "You belong in hell"

The following is from Paul L. LaClair, a NYC attorney who lives in Kearny, New Jersey, and is posted with his permission. David Paszkiewicz, the teacher described here engaging in incompetent teaching and dishonesty, is apparently a youth pastor at Kearny Baptist Church in addition to being a public school teacher. LaClair's son Matthew has previously garnered attention for protesting Bush administration activities by refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. He seems to be a principled and courageous young man who has caught a really bad teacher:

Kearny, New Jersey
November 10, 2006

A history teacher at the local public high school here may have bitten off more than he cares to chew this fall. Self-described conservative Baptist David Paszkiewicz used his history class to proselytize biblical fundamentalism over the course of several days at the beginning of this school year.

Among his remarks in open class were statements that a being must have created the universe, that the Christian Bible is the word of God, and that dinosaurs were aboard Noah's ark. If you do not accept Jesus, he flatly proclaimed to his class, "you belong in hell." Referring to a Muslim student who had been mentioned by name, he lamented what he saw as her inevitable fate should she not convert. In an attempt to promote biblical creationism, he also dismissed evolution and the Big Bang as non-scientific, arguing by contrast that the Bible is supported by what he calls confirmed biblical prophecies.

After taking the matter to the school administration, one of Paszkiewicz's students, junior Matthew LaClair, requested a meeting with the teacher and the school principal. LaClair, a non-Christian, was requesting an apology and correction of false and anti-scientific statements. After two weeks, a meeting took place in the principal's office, wherein Paszkiewicz denied making many of these comments, claiming that LaClair had taken his remarks out of context. Paszkiewicz specifically denied using the phrase, "you belong in hell." He also asserted that he did nothing different in this class than he has been doing in fifteen years of teaching.

At the end of the meeting, LaClair revealed that he had recorded the remarks, and presented the principal with two compact discs. The teacher then declined to comment further without his union representative. However, he fired one last shot at the student, saying, "You got the big fish ... you got the big Christian guy who is a teacher...!"

Commenting on the situation, LaClair's father, attorney Paul LaClair said, "In a few short weeks, this teacher has displayed bigotry, hypocrisy, arrogance and an appalling ignorance of science. The school's administrators seem not to appreciate the damage this man is doing to young minds. He has some real abilities as a teacher, but this conduct is the intellectual equivalent of the school cafeteria serving sawdust."

The student and his parents have requested that the teacher's anti-scientific remarks be corrected in open class, and that the school develop quality control procedures to ensure that future classes are not proselytized and misinformed. They have also referred the matter for disciplinary action. No apology has been forthcoming from the teacher or from the school. The parents state that because of the administration's inaction, they have taken the matter to the school board this week, from whom they are awaiting a response.

Some local press from this story is expected this week; the blogosphere may generate more attention.

(This came to my attention from a post on the SKEPTIC list by Paul Harrison--thanks, Paul.)

UPDATE (November 15, 2006): This story has now been reported in the Newark Star-Ledger.

UPDATE: The Jersey Journal has picked up the story and put some of the audio online. The story is also being picked up by NYC-area radio and television--the LaClairs have been interviewed by or have scheduled interviews with WCBS radio, 1010 WINS radio, Fox 5 News, and NBC 4 News.

UPDATE (November 22, 2006): The Observer (the weekly newspaper for Kearny, NJ) has published some quotes from the recordings and a few letters to the editor.

Republicans off to a lousy start in dealing with corruption

The Republicans, like the Democrats, are off to a lousy start in dealing with corruption in response to the mid-term election results. One of the worst Republican sleazy tricks in this election (along with the harassing robocalls designed to appear like they were coming from the Democrats, mailers designed to look like sex offender notices, mailers from fake "progressive" organizations, calling Democrats and telling them that their polling places had changed, and other deceptive calls and vote suppression tactics) was Michael Steele's hiring homeless people from Philadelphia to hand out flyers to voters in Maryland, telling them that Steele was the Democratic candidate. This was a repeat of a tactic Steele also used in the 2002 election.

It didn't work, but the Republicans thought highly enough of it to ask him to be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee.

The Republicans need to stop being so quick to forgive their own for moral failings and corruption and start showing some accountability and principle. A good start would be getting rid of Karl Rove, who has been right in the middle of the sleaziest of the sleaze.

UPDATE (November 13, 2006): Looks like Steele will not be the next RNC chairman after all--it will go to Rep. Mel Martinez of Florida instead. But the point still holds, as Martinez is connected to Jack Abramoff via former Rep. Bob Ney (who resigned after pleading guilty to corruption charges in the Abramoff scandal) and is in the middle of his own campaign finance scandal.

What American accent do you have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Boston
The West
North Central
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Legal ruling: A burrito is not a sandwich

A Superior Court judge in Worcester, Massachusetts has issued a legal ruling that a burrito is not a sandwich. I think that's pretty sound legal judgment--a sandwich has at least one piece of bread, and a tortilla, while having some bread-like properties and functions, is not bread.

The ruling occurred because Panera Bread Co. was trying to prevent the White City Shopping Center in Shrewsbury from leasing space to Qdoba Mexican Grill. Panera Bread's lease agreement stated that White City Shopping Center would not lease space to any other sandwich shop.

The legal ruling stated that "A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans."

Expert witness Chris Schlesinger stated in an affidavit that "I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian."

Indeed.

UPDATE (November 13, 2006): The commenters at Jamie Zawinski's blog take the discussion much further.

Democrats off to a lousy start in dealing with Congressional corruption

It looks like the Democrats are all set to put some of the most corrupt Democrats in Congress into leadership positions in the House.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), one of CREW's top 20 most corrupt Congressmen, is set to become leader of the House Appropriations committee. His sleazy deals and earmarks have already caused him to be a target of an FBI investigation.

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), another of CREW's top 20 most corrupt Congressmen, is set to become leader of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee. He was caught on tape in Abscam explaining how he works scams.

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) will chair the House Permanent Standing Committee on Intelligence, despite no intelligence background, charges of accepting bribes while a judge, and being the sixth federal judge to be removed from office by Congress on charges of perjury and conspiracy to obtain a bribe.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) may become the House Majority Leader. He actively seeks funds from K Street lobbyists, and voted for last year's bankruptcy bill.

This is ridiculous--the major campaign issue in the mid-term election this week was corruption, and the Democrats are already doing their best to put their worst offenders in control.

Gridlock helps slow government growth

The most recent issue of The Economist, which arrived last weekend, correctly called the outcome of the U.S. elections and the reasons (corruption, incompetence, Iraq). In the special report on the U.S. mid-term elections appears this box of data taken from Stephen Slivinski's book Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government, which shows the benefit of having control of the executive and legislative branches of the government in the hands of different parties:

Divide and save
Annual growth in federal spending per head under recent administrations

Unified government* Growth, %
Lyndon Johnson 4.6
George Bush junior 3.1**
Jimmy Carter 2.9

Divided government Growth, %
Richard Nixon/Gerald Ford 1.9
Ronald Reagan 1.7
George Bush senior 0.6
Bill Clinton 0.3

* President's party controlled House and Senate during most of term.
** First five years.

I'm looking forward to some gridlock.

How well connected is your zip code?

The Center for Public Integrity has set up a "Media Tracker" based on FCC data by zip code which allows you to see how well-connected your zip code is. For each zip code, it will list the number of broadband providers and the number of owners of various media resources in your area (newspapers, radio and television stations. My zip code comes up as "well connected" with 18 broadband providers (a few more than the ones I identified in my survey of Phoenix-area broadband providers).

HBO "Hacking Democracy" documentary online

You can watch it at Google Video. Everyone should be aware of the issues raised in this documentary.

Rumsfeld stepping down

An unexpected bonus for today.

A few from CREW's list of corrupt politicians given the boot

Of CREW's list of the twenty most corrupt politicians in Congress, seven or eight will no longer be in office next term. While it is extremely disappointing that so many sleazy politicians get re-elected, it is at least gratifying that the re-election rate for incumbents on this list is significantly lower than average.

Sen. Conrad Burns' (R-MT) race against Jon Tester is still too close to call, but Tester has a slight lead.
Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) has retired, and will be replaced by Bob Corker (R).
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) was voted out, and will be replaced by Bob Casey, Jr. (D).
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) was re-elected.
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) was re-elected.
Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) was re-elected.
Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) was re-elected.
Rep. Katharine Harris (R-FL) failed in her attempt to win a position in the Senate, defeated by Bill Nelson (D).
Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) was re-elected.
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) was re-elected.
Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) was re-elected (and unopposed in the general election).
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) was re-elected.
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) was re-elected.
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) was voted out, and will be replaced by Jerry McNerny (D).
Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) was re-elected.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) was re-elected.
Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) was voted out, and will be replaced by Kirsten Gillibrand (D).
Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) was voted out, and will be replaced by Joseph Shuler (D).
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) was re-elected.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) was voted out, and will be replaced by Joe Sestak (D).

CREW's dishonorable mentions also saw two removals from a list of five:

Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) was re-elected.
Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was re-elected.
Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) was voted out, and will be replaced by Harry Mitchell (D).
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) was re-elected.
Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA) was voted out, and will be replaced by Carney (D).