Saratoga News

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

District should protect
students from teachers

The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District has demonstrated its dedication to protecting the physical safety of its students by denying adults noon access to the swimming pool at its Saratoga campus. It is my hope that the district will also take steps to ensure that students are protected from indoctrination by teachers.

Formal complaints were filed against the board of trustees after a teacher at Saratoga High School admitted in a letter printed in the Jan. 12, 2005, Saratoga News that he and his fellow teachers routinely use their classrooms to indoctrinate their students by denigrating Christianity and conservatism. Presumably as a means to mitigate this situation, then superintendent Cindy Ranii formed the Ad Hoc Study Group to review district procedures with emphasis on those applicable to the handling of controversial issues. The following facts were disclosed during meetings held by the study group:

* Teacher members admitted that they present their personal biases on controversial issues to their students.

* Student members reported that such indoctrination was so prevalent they assumed it had district approval.

* Teachers and students were not familiar with district policies and procedures.

* District procedures specify religious and political ideologies as being controversial issues and prohibit presentation/discussion of any such issue that is not pertinent to the class curriculum.

* District procedures require that any presentation of a controversial issue be balanced and that the personal bias of the teacher not be exposed.

* The district does not have an effective means of monitoring compliance with its procedures.

The district can readily take steps to ensure that teachers and students are made aware of district policies and procedures. However, the district must develop an effective procedure for monitoring compliance. Anonymous surveys of students regarding various current controversial issues would determine which teachers were engaging in controversial issues not pertinent to the curriculum and student knowledge of the personal bias of the teacher would show which teachers were exposing their own biases. This member of the study group is not aware that any corrective action has been taken by the district.

Wesley I. Ferguson

Chateau Drive