Program Information

Florida Teacher Punished For Providing Classes With "Anarchist" Reading Materials

Series:

Subtitle:

CKLN 88.1fm Toronto

Program Type:

Interview

Featured Speakers/Commentators:

Contributor:

Ron Anicich Contact Contributor

Date Published:

Feb. 21, 2002, 9:43 a.m.

Summary: Interview with Ian Harvey, a Naples, Florida high school teacher who has been suspended after providing "radical left" and "anarchist" reading materials to his mass media classes.

Credits: Producer: Ron Anicich
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Notes: An extemely biased report which was prepared by Peter Debaun, an invesigator for the school district, concluded in part that Ian Harvey:

* Used his classroom as a forum to espouse his ideological views and thus made his students sit as a captive audience to the detriment of the learning environment.

* Provided course materials, engaged in discussion and behaved in such a way that served to inhibit the free flow of ideas and skewed learning ideologically so as to taint the learning process in violation of School Board policy and The Principles of Professional Conduct of the Education Profession in Florida.

* Allowed his ideological views to affect the efficiency of school operations.

And DeBaun found Harvey's teaching practices weren't protected by the First Amendment.

Other claims made in the report (which Mr. Harvey insists are comletely false) include:

"During the course of the investigation, it became equally apparent that the controversy surrounding Mr. Harvey's attacks on American politics and his teaching methods were polarizing faculty and having an increasingly disruptive effect upon school operations."

"One student who played devil's advocate in an inverse manner from his teacher, by taking a far right position and presenting it anonymously via e-mail, was threatened with immediate dismissal from the class once his (identity) became known."

"One student asked Mr. Harvey to please limit his anti-war invective because her boyfriend had just been sent to serve in Afghanistan and she was worried for him. Mr. Harvey refused and encouraged the rest of the class to continue the debate."

Shortly after this interview took place Ian Harvey was notified that he had recieved a 3 day suspension without pay and would be "reassigned" to an "alternative" position, one where he would likely no longer be teaching high school students.

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