Just A Matter of Time?
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the anti-intellectual witchhunt continues… The Independent Florida Alligator:
Capitol bill aims to control ‘leftist’ profs
THE LAW COULD LET STUDENTS SUE FOR UNTOLERATED BELIEFS.
By JAMES VANLANDINGHAM
Alligator Staff WriterTALLAHASSEE Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out ‘leftist totalitarianism’ by ‘dictator professors in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.
The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.
The bill has two more committees to pass before it can be considered by the full House.
While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than ‘one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom,’ as part of ;a misuse of their platform to indoctrinate the next generation with their own views’.
The bill sets a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative ‘serious academic theories’ that may disagree with their personal views.
According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.
Students who believe their professor is singling them out for ‘public ridicule’ for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class would also be given the right to sue.
Some professors say, ‘Evolution is a fact. I don’t want to hear about Intelligent Design (a creationist theory), and if you don’t like it, there’s the door’ Baxley said, citing one example when he thought a student should sue.
Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, warned of lawsuits from students enrolled in Holocaust history courses who believe the Holocaust never happened.
Similar suits could be filed by students who don’t believe astronauts landed on the moon, who believe teaching birth control is a sin or even by Shands medical students who refuse to perform blood transfusions and believe prayer is the only way to heal the body, Gelber added.
‘This is a horrible step,’ he said. ‘Universities will have to hire lawyers so our curricula can be decided by judges in courtrooms. Professors might have to pay court costs – even if they win – from their own pockets. This is not an innocent piece of legislation.’
The staff analysis also warned the bill may shift responsibility for determining whether a student’s freedom has been infringed from the faculty to the courts.
It doesn’t stop there.
Professor beaten; attackers cite KU creationism class
Associated PressLAWRENCE – A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to be a roadside beating.
University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said that the two men who beat him made references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring.Originally called “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies,” the course was canceled last week at Mirecki’s request.
The class was added after the Kansas State Board of Education decided to include more criticism of evolution in science standards for elementary and secondary students.”I didn’t know them,” Mirecki said of his assailants, “but I’m sure they knew me.”
This is all sounding horribly familiar….
At the Middle School attached to Qinghua University, the birthplace of the Red Guards, Wan Bangru, the principal, and his vice-principal, Han Jia?ao, were forced to put a piece of black cloth on the front of their shirts, on which were written in white characters: ?first head of the black gang?? and ?second head of the black gang,? respectively. Beginning from early August, they were beaten black-and-blue many times. Their hair was cut raggedly. Wan?s kidneys were seriously damaged. One day the students of class 6401 (the eighth grade) forced Han Jia?ao to kneel on the floor of their classroom and took turns beating him, one after another, with a club, whip, or leather belt for more than an hour, and then burned Han?s hair. Some teachers were forced to beat each other and were told, ?f you don?t beat each other, we will beat you both.?
A female staff member, Gu Hanfen, not only had half of her head shaved, but was also blinded in one eye as a result of being beaten. In late August, the violent beatings expanded to younger teachers, and even to some students. At midnight of August 26, 1966, having been beaten and insulted for the whole evening at a struggle meeting, a twenty-six-year-old chemistry teacher named Liu Shuhua committed suicide by jumping from the top of the school?s chimney.
