- As the Patriot Act flew threw the U.S.
Senate Thursday by a lopsided vote of 89-10, the fascist screws of a militaristic,
thought-controlled society were tightening down in a Colorado high school.
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- The story received high profile news
coverage, as major networks told how an Aurora, Colorado, high school teacher
was suspended by the local school district for telling geography students
President Bush reminded him and was acting like the Nazi leader Adolph
Hitler.
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- Attempts to contact teacher Overland
High School social studies teacher Jay Bennish went unanswered, but his
Denver attorney, David Lane, is expected today to file a federal law suit
to protect the embattled teacher's first amendment rights.
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- The incident is another indication of
the lock down of free thought taking place in America as even he slightest
condemnation of President Bush and his policies is now getting severe retribution
with Bennish getting suspended from teaching for supposedly violating school
district policies.
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- Bennish, whose comments were recorded
by a student, said he received threats after making the anti-Bush statements
which led to him being placed on administrative leave Wednesday while Cherry
Creek School District officials investigate, according to district spokeswoman
Tustin Amole. The investigation is expected to continue into next week,
according to school officials.
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- Besides being suspended, Lane, his attorney,
said Bennish was not permitted to talk to the news media, but has told
him privately he was attempting to get students "think critically
... don't just follow hook, line and sinker everything everybody tells
you."
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- Lane also is known for representing the
rights of University of Colorado at Boulder professor Ward Churchill.
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- As the Bennish case drew national attention,
more than 150 students at Overland High School staged a walk-out Thursday
in support of Bennish's right to criticize Bush, the students claiming
free thought should not be stifled by administrative policies.
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- Bennish's comments in class the day after
Bush's Jan. 31 State of the Union address have generated national attention
and prompted a discussion of what's appropriate in the classroom.
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- Lane said Bennish has been devastated
by the school district's handling of the case, but case law has shown high
school teachers have much less freedom to express their opnions than do
their counterparts at the university level.
-
- In fact, a 1991federal court case ruled
K-12th
- grade teachers do not have an express
constitutional right to academic freedom, saying as agents of the school
district officials have the right to decide and control the content of
speech used in the classroom concerning controversial subjects.
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- The Bennish case adds another mark against
free speech, as illustrated by these other documented cases of free speech
abuses:
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- High School Class Discussion Leads to
Terrorist Task Force Interrogation of
- Two Teens.
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- Oakland High School teacher Larry Felson
has bitter memories about a "dark
- day" back in May 2003 when Terrorist
Task Force agents barged into school and
- interrogated two innocent high school
students.
-
- They had no warrant, no probable cause.
But yet agents held students for
- hours without legal counsel, without
parents or teachers present. They held
- students based on remarks the teens made
criticizing President Bush in a classroom
- discussion about the Iraq War.
-
- The teacher in charge of the discussion
thought the statements were a "direct
- threat", calling the task force
into action. But other teachers emphatically
- said the teacher "rushed to judgment"
over 911 paranoia.
- They said what is even more disturbing
is that a climate now exists were a
- situation as "fundamental to free
expression as a classroom discussion" can
- result in such fascist-type actions.
-
- "When one student asked agents if
they had the right to remain silent, I
- remember them responding: 'You don't
have any legal rights, we own you,'" Felsen
- recalled.
-
- Teacher Cassie Lopez, also stunned by
the "Gestapo-like activity," said the
- teachers union, parents and others who
tried to get an official explanation
- have been stonewalled, essentially given
nothing more than a general response:
- "necessary for national security
concerns."
-
- Terrorist Task Force Mistakes University
of Buffalo Professor's Art Project
- for Biological Weapons Laboratory
-
- University of Buffalo art Professor Steven
Kurtz also has bad memories about a "dark day" last May when
terrorist task force agents barged into his home, confiscated his belongings
and held him for two days without legal counsel.
-
- The reasons turned out to be bizarre
and frivolous, but not before subpoenas were issued to three friends and
a grand jury probe initiated in June to see if the peaceable art professor
violated Section 175 of the U.S. Biological Weapons Act.
- Of course, the illegal search and seizure,
as well as illegal detainment of the professor, was justified by overreaction
prompted by 911 paranoia made possible by The Patriot Act. As it turned
out, agents mistakenly thought the professor's art project was a bio-weapons
lab, but even after realizing the mistake, continued the investigation
under the guise of national security.
-
- Simply put, Kurtz is an artist dedicated
to education, peace and freedom of expression, everything the Bush Administration
diametrically opposes despite its false public image.
-
- Otherwise, how can any sense be made
out of what happened to the professor on the morning of May 11, 2004, the
day he called paramedics to revive his wife from a heart attack. His wife
died the same morning and it was officially found unrelated to anything
involving his art project and the terrorist task force.
-
- And a story such as this reveals how
things can spin totally out of control when confusing events mix with overly
broad governmental powers.
-
- Paramedics, who arrived to revive Mrs.
Kurtz, noticed laboratory equipment used in his artwork. Upon suspicion,
they called agents who, within hours, rifled through his house, seized
his books, personal papers, computer and art work, which to date has not
been returned.
-
- Kurtz is well-known in his progressive
art community and a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, a group
dedicated to exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical
politics and critical theory.
-
- His art, displayed nationwide, often
involves blending biological and agricultural issues. For example, in 2002
one of his exhibits called "Molecular Invasion" portrayed an
exhibit against genetically modified crops with a life-like display of
small soy, corn and canola plants growing under large incubator lamps.
-
- One of his other exhibits, trying to
raise public awareness against plant and food contamination, allows viewers
the chance to see bacteria growing in petri dishes.
-
- "It's a complete fishing expedition,'
said his Buffalo lawyer, Paul Cambria. "When they came to his house
the FBI found equipment used for extracting and amplifying DNA and three
types of bacteria, all used in his art work.
-
- "He is obviously not somebody trying
to make a weapon and the equipment seized by agents can be found in any
university biology lab as standard equipment. Everything taken in the house
has been already exhibited in public."
-
- Two of the Kurt's artist friends served
subpoenas, also members of the internationally-acclaimed Art Ensemble,
could not explain why the government has pursued this case so strongly.
-
- "It was shocking that the investigation
was ever launched," said Beatriz da Costa, one of the artist's subpoenaed.
"It just shows how vulnerable the Patriot Act has made freedom of
speech in this country. Our art is intended for peace by raising awareness
to possible environmental contaminants in our food."
-
- Member of the Art Ensemble suggest the
only possible reason for this type of government harassment is its hidden
agenda to silence their message displayed through their artwork.
-
- The equipment seized by the FBI consisted
of Kurt's latest project, consisting of a mobile DNA extraction laboratory
to test store-bought food for possible contamination by genetically modified
grains and organisms.
-
- University officials said this equipment
is used in school labs, even found in some high school science departments.
-
- The FBI this week was unavailable for
comment.
-
- Teen Webmaster Jailed for 1 Year Under
Patriot Act Now Released.
-
- A young Los Angeles webmaster made headlines
two years ago when he was arrested for operating what the government called
an anarchistic website called "Raise Your Fist."
-
- Legal observers said Sherman Austin,
18, may have been entrapped by Terrorist Task Force agents in order to
shut down his website. He was considered one of the first casualties of
the Patriot Act, his residence raided and ransacked after issuance of a
flimsy warrant filled with political accusations.
-
- Sherman was tagged an enemy combatant
for his website activities, which turned out to be nothing more than what
the government thought to be a radical political agenda.
-
- In this case, the government was able
to use the overly broad Patriot Act to stop Austin's activities. Innocuous
objects such as iced tea bottles and toy cars were described in legal proceedings
by FBI agents as terrorist devices.
-
- Added to the questionable charges was
the fact that elementary bomb making information was posted on his server,
although court documents show it was not posted by Sherman but by an Orange
County teen who was not charged in the crime.
-
- In order to get a stiff sentence, the
Prosecution applied sentencing standards under the Terrorism Enhancement
Clauses, meaning that Sherman was looking at a mandatory 20 year
sentence unless he pled down to a 1 year sentence with three years probation.
-
- Sherman is presently in Los Angeles
on probation under terms forbidding him from using a cell phone, computer,
or other digital devices. Needless to say, his website has been permanently
removed from cyberspace.
-
- Terms of his probation also forbid him
from associating with any anarchist groups who the government maintains
"advocate violence as a means of disrupting order and achieving social,
economic and political change."
-
- Critics said in light of the above travesty
of justice the only thing that needs to be changed after reading Austin's
case is the Patriot Act itself, not Austin's behavior.
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- For more informative articles,
go to www.arcticbeacon.com
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