Thoughts in a Haystack

Well, the case of Jerry Buell, a teacher at the Mount Dora (Florida) High School keeps ... um ... evolving.

Buell was suspended for making remarks on his personal Facebook page, about the New York State legislature's recent, and all too infrequent, bout of sanity in legalizing same sex marriage, that I, myself, found offensive and, worse, in a teacher, really stupid.

It seems the suspension has been lifted.

The thing about the First Amendment is that the right to say what you want does not depend on the speech being inoffensive or intelligent by my, or anyone else's, standards.

And, contrary to some expectations, the ACLU did come to the defense of Buell. It is less clear that Liberty Counsel, who actually represented Buell, would have done the same if the shoe was on the other foot.

But now this has come to light:

On his school webpage, he wrote that he tries to "teach and lead my students as if Lake Co. Schools had hired Jesus Christ himself."

On his class syllabus, he also offers this warning to students: "I teach God's truth, I make very few compromises. If you believe you may have a problem with that, get your schedule changed, 'cause I ain't changing!" On a separate document, he also said the classroom was his "mission field."

What Buell and any other government employee can't do is use his tax payer funded position to proselytize his religious beliefs to his students under the guise of "teaching" and, in particular, he cannot bully his students into accepting his beliefs.

If Mr. Buell abused his position to advance his religious beliefs in the classroom, he is no First Amendment hero. He is just another thief stealing from the public purse for his own selfish motives.
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