College Teacher Demanded Students Vote Democrat

http://news.msn.com/politics/college-professor-urged-students-to-vote-for-obama-should-be-fired

Sharon Sweet, currently on paid leave, is accused of encouraging students in her math class to sign cards pledging to vote for Democratic candidates in the November election.

A community college in Florida is recommending that a professor be fired for urging — and in some cases, possibly ordering — her students to vote for President Barack Obama.

An investigation by Brevard Community College officials concluded that associate professor Sharon Sweet violated school policy by soliciting political support for a political candidate during regular work hours or on college property.

The investigation was launched after a student's parent complained in September that Sweet was forcing students in her math class to sign a pledge card to vote for Obama and other Democratic candidates in the November general election.

In a statement Friday, the college said, "The investigation found that professor Sweet strongly encouraged or mandated that students from several classes sign a pledge card that stated, 'I pledge to vote for President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.'"

"She also misrepresented her intentions to multiple students, indicating at various times that she was conducting voter registration for the college, that the pledge cards were non-partisan voter registration forms and that the pledge was a 'statistical analysis,'" the college said.

Sweet, a tenured professor, has been on suspension with pay since September pending final disposition of the case, college spokesman John J. Glisch said.

Sweet could not be reached for comment Monday. A call to her campus phone was not immediately returned.

The investigation by school officials concluded Sweet's voicing of her political views in class and distribution of political pledge cards "created a hostile academic environment."

"The investigation found that professor Sweet's actions caused students to feel considerable discomfort, to believe their privacy was being invaded, to fear their grade could be negatively impacted if they refused to sign the pledge cards and to feel intimidated," the school said.

Sweet has 10 days to respond to the investigation's findings and recommendations.

The college's board of trustees will review the recommendations and decide whether to go forward with the firing. No date has been set for the hearing, which Sweet can attend to argue her case, Glisch told MSN News.

Sweet makes $40,000 a year and has taught at the college for five years, the school said.

I think anyone in such a position should be fired.

 

Get over it.

 

At PSU it is pretty much insinuated that you're an idiot, or a bad person, if you don't vote Democrat... same shit, different day.

 

Yeah, I don't get why republicans don't want to teach at colleges? It's not like there's no money in the job... oh wait! LOL Republicans would never waste their degree on helping other people!

 

Get over what? Your stupidity? I guess I can do that. In fact, it's so easy I never even need to.

 

I don't care what teachers/professors believe. But to demand students sign pledge cards in the classroom??? Be they democrat or republican, that's about as wrong as it can get.

It seems she will be fired. As it should be.

 

agreed.

 

Agree it was improper - but the article said she URGED. You said she DEMANDED. Get a dictionary - they are not the same.

 

Curious what you would say if Maris posted an article of a professor encouraging republican votes? I would assume your opinion would change.

 

Urged or demanded; wouldn't either one be grounds for termination?

 

That is a generic dig. I know many republican professors in my lifetime.

 

Maybe, but I still stand by my previous statement.

 

Of course you do. You are a radical liberal.

 

The article uses "urge" in the title and "encourage" in the article. Yet you chose "demand"..

 

It's pretty obviously that generally, democrats care more about "the people" than republicans. People who become teachers generally do it at least in some part due to caring about "the people". It's pretty much common knowledge that there are more democrat teachers than republican ones.

 

I totally agree; but it was over generalized that no Republican is a teacher.

Another argument could be that the school system is union run; which leans more towards the democrat side as well.

 

Psh, there are more democrat teachers because teachers are part of government. Democrats protect the unions (IE teachers) and spend more on increasing government. Take Portland, for example, where our democrat-run city loves to pass taxes that will put more money in PERS, and less money in the classrooms. Why wouldn't teachers love that?

 

I don't know whether this is grounds for termination - I think unless the teacher's grading/evaluation of students was based on their politics termination is too much. Reprimand definitely. But my point was that Blazer Prophet deliberately (I think) distorted facts. There is a big difference between urge and demand.

BTW when I was in high school I had teachers give me lower grades because I was too radical. My geometry teacher refused to answer any question I had (about math). An English teacher gave me a lower grade when we were supposed to right a "credo" and she wanted an essay about our religious beliefs but I wrote on on wildlife preservation which she called "communist".

 

So how would you respond if a teacher was passing out Church tracts to students during class?