Gay Men Should Quake and Quail?
James Nimmo
September 19, 2009
Joke-lahoman (aka Oklahoman) Editorial:
(OKLAHOMA CITY) Recently an Oklahoma County judge found in favor of Joe Quigley, a teacher in the Oklahoma City public schools, concluding that the School Board was unable to prove its case that Quigley is an incompetent teacher of high school English.
This Joke-lahoman editorial states quite clearly that to be an out gay man, to advocate for the protection of school children, and to be a good teacher are three incompatible aspects of being human.
Unlike power-hungry, narrow-minded, straight newspapers editors, gay men and women can be very talented at holding more than one idea and maintaining one ideal at a time. Also, we can read and discern the meaning of words written in a judicial opinion; this one uses plain English, no Latin worth mentioning, and no obtuse legal footnotes and references.
The editorial goes on to imply that Quigley should have no right of appeal from the School Board to a higher judcial level. Is Quigley supposed to quail and quake like some feudal serf before the manorial lord? The Joke-lahoman prefere keeping these decisions close to the source of power. But what it really means is out of the public eye--closeted, in other words.
Only when court decisions go against the Joke-lahoman's perceived order of labor kow-towing to management, does it find the rule of law to be inconvenient and flawed.
As an observer to the dismissive School Board meeting convened as a kangaroo court I was reminded that this country has an adversarial system of justice allowing for levels of appeal and the exercise of other view points.
Along with the School Board, I think the editorial staff of the Joke-lahman needs some remedial reading instruction.
As just a casual reference of not much importance, I'd like to point out that Judge Barbara Swinton is Republican with children in a public school, so, having found in Joe Quigley's favor, under the judicial robe she "must" be a wild-eyed activist judge.
You read, you decide---
http://www.newsok.com/district-right-to-fight-for-ability-to-do-its-work/article/3401575
or http://tinyurl.com/l69h3n
District right to fight for ability to do its work
OUR VIEWS: FIRING OF NORTHWEST CLASSEN TEACHER
The Oklahoman Editorial
Published: September 17, 2009
THE Oklahoma City School District isn´t the first to have a judge intervene
in a personnel decision. But unlike many similarly situated districts,
school officials here have decided to fight to keep a fired teacher out of
the classroom.
The case involves Joseph Quigley, a longtime English teacher at Northwest
Classen High School. Quigley was fired in May for willful neglect of duty,
repeated negligence, instructional ineffectiveness and other reasons. The
school board upheld his firing, and he appealed in Oklahoma County District
Court. Last month, a judge ordered Quigley reinstated. --snip--
From Oklahoman: http://www.newsok.com/district-right-to-fight-for-ability-to-do-its-work/article/3401575
"Quigley´s case is somewhat complicated by the fact that he´s gay and has long been an advocate of a more succinct discrimination and bullying policy that specifically covers sexual orientation. Inevitably, that history is intertwined with questions about his teaching performance."
From Judge Swinton:
"And all I have with regard to the end of year or end of instruction testing is that his students did well"
"And I can´t find that anything that he wished to show his students would have harmed them in any way or done anything more than help educate them in the curriculum that Mr. Quigley was assigned."
"There have been emails sent during instruction time, but no one´s brought me any evidence that has caused a lack of learning in his classroom if it, in fact, happened."
"to criticize a teacher and try to take his job away for not following a policy that he gets faulted whether he uses it or doesn´t use it does not appear to be a good use of the district´s time."
"If the problems had remained the same with a different evaluator that had not made up her mind, this case would have been completely different, but the school district chose not to do that."
And last but not least--
"So I believe it´s obvious from the parts of this case that I have just commented on that I find that in no way has the district met their burden of proof."
(OKLAHOMA CITY) Recently an Oklahoma County judge found in favor of Joe Quigley, a teacher in the Oklahoma City public schools, concluding that the School Board was unable to prove its case that Quigley is an incompetent teacher of high school English.
This Joke-lahoman editorial states quite clearly that to be an out gay man, to advocate for the protection of school children, and to be a good teacher are three incompatible aspects of being human.
Unlike power-hungry, narrow-minded, straight newspapers editors, gay men and women can be very talented at holding more than one idea and maintaining one ideal at a time. Also, we can read and discern the meaning of words written in a judicial opinion; this one uses plain English, no Latin worth mentioning, and no obtuse legal footnotes and references.
The editorial goes on to imply that Quigley should have no right of appeal from the School Board to a higher judcial level. Is Quigley supposed to quail and quake like some feudal serf before the manorial lord? The Joke-lahoman prefere keeping these decisions close to the source of power. But what it really means is out of the public eye--closeted, in other words.
Only when court decisions go against the Joke-lahoman's perceived order of labor kow-towing to management, does it find the rule of law to be inconvenient and flawed.
As an observer to the dismissive School Board meeting convened as a kangaroo court I was reminded that this country has an adversarial system of justice allowing for levels of appeal and the exercise of other view points.
Along with the School Board, I think the editorial staff of the Joke-lahman needs some remedial reading instruction.
As just a casual reference of not much importance, I'd like to point out that Judge Barbara Swinton is Republican with children in a public school, so, having found in Joe Quigley's favor, under the judicial robe she "must" be a wild-eyed activist judge.
You read, you decide---
http://www.newsok.com/district-right-to-fight-for-ability-to-do-its-work/article/3401575
or http://tinyurl.com/l69h3n
District right to fight for ability to do its work
OUR VIEWS: FIRING OF NORTHWEST CLASSEN TEACHER
The Oklahoman Editorial
Published: September 17, 2009
THE Oklahoma City School District isn´t the first to have a judge intervene
in a personnel decision. But unlike many similarly situated districts,
school officials here have decided to fight to keep a fired teacher out of
the classroom.
The case involves Joseph Quigley, a longtime English teacher at Northwest
Classen High School. Quigley was fired in May for willful neglect of duty,
repeated negligence, instructional ineffectiveness and other reasons. The
school board upheld his firing, and he appealed in Oklahoma County District
Court. Last month, a judge ordered Quigley reinstated. --snip--
From Oklahoman: http://www.newsok.com/district-right-to-fight-for-ability-to-do-its-work/article/3401575
"Quigley´s case is somewhat complicated by the fact that he´s gay and has long been an advocate of a more succinct discrimination and bullying policy that specifically covers sexual orientation. Inevitably, that history is intertwined with questions about his teaching performance."
From Judge Swinton:
"And all I have with regard to the end of year or end of instruction testing is that his students did well"
"And I can´t find that anything that he wished to show his students would have harmed them in any way or done anything more than help educate them in the curriculum that Mr. Quigley was assigned."
"There have been emails sent during instruction time, but no one´s brought me any evidence that has caused a lack of learning in his classroom if it, in fact, happened."
"to criticize a teacher and try to take his job away for not following a policy that he gets faulted whether he uses it or doesn´t use it does not appear to be a good use of the district´s time."
"If the problems had remained the same with a different evaluator that had not made up her mind, this case would have been completely different, but the school district chose not to do that."
And last but not least--
"So I believe it´s obvious from the parts of this case that I have just commented on that I find that in no way has the district met their burden of proof."
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