More on Shiba Pillai-Diaz
The previously discussed Shiba Pillai-Diaz affair gets murkier and murkier:
Teacher uses day for talks
Published in the Home News Tribune 10/06/04
By DINA GUIRGUIS
STAFF WRITER
SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Representatives from the school district met at length yesterday with the teacher who claims she was reprimanded for having a photo of the president up on her classroom bulletin board.
Shiba Pillai-Diaz was not in her Crossroads South Middle School classroom yesterday and has not been there since Friday, when she walked out after she was asked to take down a picture of President Bush and his wife, Laura.
Pillai-Diaz, her attorney and Superintendent Gary McCartney were in a conference until last evening. McCartney said nothing had been resolved and would not comment further....
Principal Jim Warfel met with Pillai-Diaz's pupils yesterday to answer their questions about the incident, said parent Michelle Donahue, whose daughter is in Pillai-Diaz's class.
Donahue sent a letter to the board saying she would not permit her daughter in the classroom if Pillai-Diaz continues to teach.
"These kids are old enough to know what's going on," Donahue said. "This is not a good environment for them to be in."
Pillai-Diaz and the school district have conflicting accounts about what happened on Friday. She said she was told to get her stuff and get out by the principal, while McCartney said she was not fired and that she "distorted the facts."
The conflict developed after parents e-mailed the principal, concerned about politics in Pillai-Diaz's classroom. The controversy was elevated Thursday on back-to-school night, when three parents got into a heated political discussion with Pillai-Diaz.
Donahue attended the open house and said none of the parents demanded that she take down the photo. According to Donahue, the parents were asking about the photo and had suggested that since it was campaign season, she put up a photo of John Kerry as well.
"She said that it was her personal bulletin board," Donahue said. "It's supposed to be about the kids -- she can have her personal bulletin board at home."
On Friday morning, Pillai-Diaz said she left the building after she was confronted by the principal and told to get out. SHe returned to retrieve her belongings, accompanied by a police escort, which she requested for her own safety. She was joined by union representative Sylvia Lee, and they discussed the incident for two hours with McCartney and Warfel.
McCartney described her leaving the building as "abandoning her post of duty and her classroom responsibilities. At no time was she told she was suspended or fired."
"My daughter is in her morning class, and the kids were alone for 20 minutes because no one knew that she left," Donahue said.
Donahue said her 12-year-old daughter has been complaining about Pillai-Diaz since the beginning of the school year for not letting the pupils voice their opinions about anything....
Donahue may have a point. If there was a picture of George W. Bush next to Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Reagan, etc., that's one thing. If there's a picture of George W. and Laura on a "personal" bulletin board, that's not suppression of information about one President in a long line of Presidents (although it appears that the picture was next to a picture of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence).
On the other hand, it sounds like Donahue is saying that a teacher shouldn't be allowed to have personal items in the classroom. Inasmuch as my picture has been in several classrooms over the years, I am officially offended by Donahue's assertion.
The critical factor is the following:
According to Pillai-Diaz, Assistant Principal Mark Daniels said he had no problem with the photo, which hung next to posters of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. But Daniels told the teacher she should address questions that arose because of the photo....
Friday morning, the teacher...was called into the assistant principal's office. Daniels told her to remove the picture, Pillai-Diaz said.
"He said, 'If you care about your job, you'll take the picture down,' " she said.
Did Mark Daniels really say "If you care about your job, you'll take the picture down"?
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