Teacher offends high-schoolers with talk of vaginas and weather

Tim McDaniel

In today’s edition of what’s wrong with the US education system:

A Dietrich[, Idaho] science teacher is being investigated by the state’s professional standards commission after a complaint from parents over his teaching methods.

Tim McDaniel is being investigated after a complaint was filed by a handful of parents who objected to how McDaniel taught the reproductive system, Dietrich Superintendent Neil Hollingshead said.

Ooh, looks like we’ve got ourselves a pervert on our hands! Okay, so what did the miscreant do? What unwholesome, inappropriate, child-endangering teachings were forced upon his cherubic audience?

According to McDaniel, four parents were offended that he explained the biology of an orgasm and included the word “vagina” during his lesson on the human reproductive system in a tenth-grade biology course.

Oh, the deviant! What other unwholesome things did this fetishist do to those poor, defenseless young’uns?

According to a letter from the Idaho State Department of Education to McDaniel, the allegations also include that he shared confidential student files with an individual other than their parents, showed a video clip in class depicting an infection of genital herpes, taught different forms of birth control and told inappropriate jokes in class.

[…]

According to McDaniel, the commission is also investigating a complaint that accuses him of using school property to promote a political candidate. The complaint was because he showed the climate change film “An Inconvenient Truth,” also in his science class.

McDaniel said he includes the film to spark a discussion on climate change among the students. After watching the film, he asks students to write a response paper explaining their thoughts on climate change.

So he’s a political activist to boot! (Never mind that Al Gore hasn’t been in any elections in 13 years. That’s just no-good facts-talk.)

Okay, so sure, the guy’s actually never had a complaint made against him in almost two decades of teaching, and he does allow students to skip classes that talk about reproduction and sexuality to allow them to forever preserve their childlike ignorance innocence. But he’s obviously gone off the deep end lately with all this indoctrination about lady-parts and icky diseases and long-term weather patterns, so something must be done, right?

“It is highly unlikely it would end with his dismissal,” Hollingshead said. “Maybe a letter of reprimand from the school board.”

[…]

[McDaniel] said he doesn’t think it’s fair if he has to sign a letter of reprimand.

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” he said. “I told them I won’t sign it.”

Hey, guy, you’re the one who went and offended your students’ sensibilities with all your naughty talk about sex and politics, rather than sticking to the much-more-appropriate “stork” theory of procreation to avoid the risk of challenging anyone’s preconceptions. You obviously deserve to be punished for it. Just count yourself lucky they’re letting you off easy without chasing you outta town in your heathenly Prius or whatever.

My, they really let anyone decide what’s safe to teach our kids these days, don’t they?

(via Wonkette)