Like the story of a Colorado teacher who was taped by a student in March saying that Bush’s comments in a State of the Union address sounded “a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say,” Steve White’s story has sparked debate about whether teachers should discuss political views in the classroom.

White, accused last week of showing his eighth grade students a clip at www.filmstripinternational.com, was placed on administrative leave Friday from West Limestone High School after new complaints were filed. White is a Democratic candidate for the District 4 seat on the state House of Representatives. He is unopposed in the primary and will face Mickey Hammon, R-Decatur, in the general election.

The Colorado teacher, Jay Bennish, was suspended with pay from teaching an advanced geography class in Overland High School. Although Bennish also commented that he wasn’t equating the president with Hitler and he wanted students to express opposing views, parents were outraged and the story became national news.

Walter E. Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University who writes a column for The Washington Times, said “it is just plain wrong” for a teacher to show the offensive video White played in class.

Williams objected to the use of profanities in the filmstrip, but said it was also wrong because of its political content.

“I think whether it’s conservative or liberal, it doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “Teachers are hired to teach a particular subject. They should pay attention to their subject.”

Describing the president and his administration in vulgar terms also instills a lack of respect in children, he said.

“They should have respect for office whether they agree or disagree with the president,” Williams said. “I’ve criticized George Bush, but you don’t have to use the foul language to criticize George Bush or any president, particularly in a classroom setting. You should be trying to teach young people to be responsible citizens, responsible adults. (This video) was way out of line for that venue.

“Teachers ought to be about teaching youngsters —whether college, primary or secondary — how to think, not what to think, procedures for making analytical judgments so they can come to their own conclusions.”

Michael Class, a Seattle, Wash., man who wrote a history book for students in response to what is taught in classrooms, said the lack of respect in America is “epidemic.”

“The vice president was booed (Tuesday night) for throwing a ball at a baseball game,” he said. “My father would have slapped me in the head if I’d done that.”

Creations like the filmstrip shown in White’s class are part of the problem, he said.

“It teaches them to have no class and no respect whatsoever,” he said. “They’ll have no ability to engage in public discourse.”

Robert Burkhardt, director of Athens State University Library, said he feels it is not only the office of president people don’t respect.

“I think we’ve lost civility as a people,” he said. “You should treat everybody with respect.”

Depending on the subject matter being taught, Burkhardt said, teachers should be allowed to express political views as long as other views are also expressed.

“I think you have to be careful,” he said. “You have to offer a balanced view and give equal attention to other points of view.”

Stephanie Mitchell, who will graduate from East Limestone High School in May, said teachers should be able to share political views if they encourage discussion.

“I don’t think it’s wrong for a teacher to state political views as long as they’re not trying to force you to believe the same way they do,” Mitchell said.

Skewed facts?

Class, a former marketer and engineer who launched a successful Internet security company, was so disturbed by what his children were learning in class that he decided to write a history book.

Class said his eighth grade daughter and fifth grade son were not always learning in context. For instance, fifth grade students were assigned a project of making white origami cranes while studying the story of Sadako, a Japanese girl who died after the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.

Class said his son knew nothing of Pearl Harbor or D-Day or World War II history; he knew only that this girl had died from bombs dropped by Americans.

“It’s presented out of context,” he said, adding he did not have a problem with children learning Sadako’s story.

“My kids were coming home from school with all kinds of crazy ideas about America,” Class said. “We’ve created this environment where teachers feel free to tell perverse stories and we’re graduating self-loathing, guilty, hating kids. I’m sure they’re getting it from the school.”

He said the filmstrip shown by White is wrong on many levels.

“You should never be using that kind of language in a school,” he said. “What this film strip does is teach the kids not to think. It teaches them to call people names.”

The strip is also not based on facts, he said. “It shows the Depression, the poor getting poorer. Are these facts? We have low unemployment, the best economy we’ve had in years. This is really what’s going on. If you want to engage kids in what’s going on, present the facts, don’t show them a picture of 1930s bread lines.”

Class spent four years doing research and taking photos for his book, “Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame,” available at www.amazon.com or www.magicpictureframe.com. His research included interviewing Holocaust survivors and Jonas Salk’s son.

He said he wanted students to have access to learning that “doesn’t make you feel bad about your country.”

“I was on a mission,” he said. “I said ‘This is enough of this.’ I’ve got to reach these kids. There’s a lot of good about their country and they’re getting nothing but bad.”

Children should be taught to do good, he said, so they can “change the country in a good way.”