Re: Texas: Christina Comer's lawsuit dismissed

On Apr 4, 2:12 pm, Burkhard <b.scha...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 4 Apr, 15:27, rokim...@xxxxxxx wrote:





On Apr 1, 9:49 am, "Steven L." <sdlit...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

garyh...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Mar 31, 7:28 pm, Jason Spaceman <notrea...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
From the article:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTIN – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday by a former state
science curriculum director who alleged that she was illegally fired
for sending out an e-mail on a lecture that was critical of those
wanting to teach creationism in science classes.

The lawsuit by Christina Comer of Austin charged that her firing by
state Education Commissioner Robert Scott in November 2007 was
improper because she was accused of violating an "unconstitutional"
policy. The Texas Education Agency requires that employees to be
neutral on the subject of creationism, the biblical interpretation of
the origin of humans.

Comer said in her suit that the agency's neutrality policy had the
effect of endorsing religion, and thus violated the establishment
clause of the U.S. Constitution.

State attorneys said Comer was fired for sending out e-mails from the
TEA Web site that gave the impression the agency supported the views
of a lecture speaker, Barbara Forrest, who wrote a book critical of
the tactics of creationists and their attempts to inject religion into
science classes.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel sided with the state and Scott on
Tuesday, granting a motion for summary judgment and dismissing the
lawsuit.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------­­---

Read it athttp://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/0401...

J. Spaceman
.

This is what happens when you let the religious right pick judges for
15 years.

I happen to agree with the judges on this one.

You're siding with Comer only because you agree with Forrest.

But this is a question of law, not of policy.  If the Texas Education
Agency requires employees to be neutral on a particular subject, then
Comer is being disingenous to claim she took a job with a policy she
disagrees with, cashed their paychecks for years--and then suddenly
figured out she had to violate the policy?  Give me a break.  She knew
damned well what her employer thought.  If she couldn't deal with it,
she should have done the honorable thing and submitted her resignation.
  Or better yet, never gone to work there in the first place.

When you go looking for a job, you are supposed to know what the
employer does for a living.  If you can't deal with it, don't go to work
there.  If you're an atheist, don't send your resume to Catholic Charities.

Example:  Circa 1990, one of the Vice Presidents of Raytheon, one of
this nation's biggest defense contractors, said publicly that the U.S..
was spending too much money on national defense, and the defense budget
could and should be cut.  Raytheon promptly fired him.  Raytheon was
absolutely right to do so.  A vice president of a defense contractor is
supposed to be an ADVOCATE for that industry, not a critic of it.

--
Steven L.
Email:  sdlit...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.-

Why hasn't McLeroy been fired for doing something similar or even
worse?  He has sent out anti-evolution literature and suggested anti-
evolution authors.

From what I have seen, Comer only put something along the lines of
"for your information" on the forwarded email.  She did not solicit
the email, and was not involved in organizing the talk.  She only
forwarded the information that the talk was going to take place.

McLeroy's emails made claims about his recommended creationist sources
that are apparently false.  So there would be a double mess.

Ron Okimoto

I suppose the legal difference is that McLeroy is elected, not
employed. Several things get balanced here, and even though I think
the US gets the balance wrong, one can see how the court was
reasoning. The principle of democracy gives elected office holders
_certain_ freedoms even from judicial scrutiny (otherwise you get the
dictatorship of the judges) At the same time, our democratic process
requires a certain degree of loyalty from civil servants, even if they
disagree with the policies - otherwise, a Republican dominated civil
service say could effectively deny the will of the people (and vice
versa of course)   Throw in a general lack of employee protection
against dismissal (very unlike say some  continental European
countries, where unless they commit a criminal offence with a sentence
of two years or more they enjoy tenure, and the outcome is
predictable.

Her argument was that her action was not merely undermining a public
policy, but at this policy was unconstitutional, which would have give
her a defence. But that was shaky - While I'm not sure about the
applicable state law, normally "whistleblowers" have a duty to try
first internally to get an unlawful policy changed. Second, it is
doubtful that the "neutrality requirement" in this case is unlawful,
as her employer is responsible for ALL of education, not just science.
So the Dover line of "endorsement" does not work.-

I think that you will find that McLeroy was appointed to his current
position by the governor. There was negative press coverage of the
dirty deed when he got appointed to be director of the board. He also
got involved in the Comer affair, but he is unwilling to take his own
advice or penalties. He is not only a hypocrit, but a bogus and
dishonest hypcrit. I have no doubt that he has real religous
convictions and that he isn't lying just for political gain, but he is
willing to lie about why he is doing what he is doing and thinks that
he is justified in doing it. He is the type where the rules don't
apply to him, but he expects others to do what he says, not do what he
does.

Ron Okimoto

.

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