Problems at Private Schools

Readers of this blog know that even though I'm a public school teacher, I'm not necessarily a fan of public schools. I am, however, a fan of universal public education, which is why I support vouchers.

But where would these vouchers be spent? At Darren's fictitious All-American High School, where the mascot is an eagle and the school colors are red, white, and blue? Hopefully :-) But until such schools are created, the largest alternative to public schools remains the religious schools.

But what's going on there?

Here in Sacramento, an all-girls Catholic school fired a teacher because she volunteered at Planned Parenthood. The teacher threatened suit, the school settled, and neither will disclose the amount of money changing hands. The teacher will not return.

Incidentally, the mother and daughter who used to counsel people outside the Planned Parenthood clinic, the ones who recognized this new teacher and reported her activities to school officials? They're banned from campus, too, for supposedly making negative public statements about the school. I've only heard the mother and daughter once and they weren't being inflammatory at all, but I haven't heard the totality of their statements.

Then there's this story about a Catholic school that fired a teacher for being pregnant and unmarried. The author's point seems to be that if the teacher had gotten an abortion, no one would be the wiser; also, such firing represents discrimination against women because men cannot get pregnant. Then, towards the end of the article, she changes direction and makes it a "society doesn't seem to value fathers" piece. I don't know.

We had another case here in Sacramento about three years ago. A woman sent her kindergartener daughter to a parochial school, and the daughter was going to be expelled because the mother worked at a local strip club. The school had offered to help the mother find alternate work, but when she didn't, the school was going to follow through. Mom eventually did quit, the church helped mom get a new job, and the daugher stayed at the school....for a few days. Mom got a job at a local radio station, but also posed for Playboy. The pastor in charge of the school let the daughter finish up her last week of school, then booted her.

Dang, and the worst issues we have at the public schools are teachers sleeping with students, teachers who impose their political beliefs on students as part of their grade, and superintendents who steal a million from the district (I've discussed all of these in previous posts). Choose your poison.