Doug Bartlett, a veteran teacher with an upstanding record of 17 years, has filed a lawsuit against the school district of Chicago for suspending him without pay after giving a lesson on gardening tools to his second grade students.
The incident took place on August 8, 2011 at Washington Irving Elementary School.
Mr. Bartlett recently filed suit on April 17, 2013 saying that he suffered humiliation and embarrassment as a result of his reprimand.
The “hazardous” tools in question were pliers, screwdrivers and wrenches that only the teacher handled. The tools were kept in a locked toolbox high on a shelf out of reach before and after the gardening lesson.
The district says that Mr. Bartlett exhibited negligence in supervising the children and for “possessing, carrying, storing, or using a weapon”. Â He was subsequently suspended without pay for 4 days.
Mr. Bartlett’s lawsuit claims the suspension violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process as he asserts that there was never a full hearing on the incident. Â Further, he was disciplined without ever having the opportunity to plead his case.
According to the Rutherford Institute which is representing him, Mr. Bartlett is seeking damages and requesting the suspension be expunged from his teaching record.
It is important to have electronic records in order as the charge of possessing a “weapon”, in this case gardening tools, has the potential to prevent Mr. Bartlett from seeking employment elsewhere.
The incident is yet another example of an over the top reaction by school officials demonstrating poor judgment and a gross lack of common sense.
A related story occurred in the Fall of 2012 when the Vice Principal of a California school suspended a boy for bringing kombucha in his lunchbox.  With no parent or guardian present at any time, the boy was interrogated in the school office by school administration and a police officer and was ultimately suspended for 5 days for “violating” the school’s drug and alcohol policy. No tests were ever performed on the beverage which is able to be legally purchased by minors at local stores.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Teacher Who Showed Garden Tools to Second Grade Students is Suspended Without Pay
gee Im remembering in 3rd grade the teacher used the smoking machine to show us how bad it is to smoke. ..pipe with baffle and bag with paper that showed the junk that got in your lungs….Im sure they dont do that today. however I know it stopped a lot of kids from smoking when they got older!!!
This is what happens in a super-litigious society, in which the law is routinely used as a recreational blood-sport to seek the opportunity to extort millions of dollars from others, for the most trivial of incidents via the institutions of the law, at the state and/or federal level. A state of affairs that Americans vote for, and demand to be put in place. Next time, vote more responsibly and use the law with greater prudence.
How are wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers gardening tools?
You must not be a gardener. I’m an avid gardener and I use tools in my garden A LOT!
I build my own grow boxes and raised planting beds, install fencing to keep animals from getting in and eating the fruits of my labor, use screwdrivers to make holes for planting seeds, used knives to divide my Iris rhizomes and other perennials, etc. What kind of lunatics do they have running the asylums we call public schools? I’m so glad I don’t have children because I’d be on the 6:00 news every night due to calling out the ignoramuses who claim they are running things! When is the stupidity going to stop?!!! When are you parents out there going to pay attention and say ENOUGH ALREADY! Geez
Yes indeed. The world is becoming increasingly draconian and crazy. It seems to me that common sense left the planet and is replaced by maniacs who have absolutely no common sense. Too much TV and violent movie watching, playing violent video games, but a teacher cannot show basid tools to his kids at school. .
How do we stop this insanity??
Start going to all the school board meetings and visit the schools on a regular basis to see what they’re up to. It’s usually up to no good as evidenced by the stupids they are cranking out by the 1000’s in the colleges and universities that teach your kids. These stupids are infecting your children on a daily basis. Put a stop to the infestation by putting all schools under a microscope and call them out every day. If you don’t your children are going to be brain dead and useless when thrust into society. I feel sorry for the teacher in this case because he was trying to show how useful tools are and he was the only one handling them. Someone in the admin needs to be fired an have a mandatory “mental health check”.
YEA.. just imagine if we all had gardening skills – we would PLANT FREE WIKI-TREES, WIKI-VEGES…= we would turn our cities into FREE GARDENS = free food to all 7 billion people = SOVEREIGNTY = destruction of their system that is based on profit! They could not sell their GMO/ pasticides, poisoned food!
Of course – it’s about WEAPONS against their profit based system!
Now – we all have to save our tomatos/apple seeds and plant all around – google: GUERRILLA PLANTING!!!
USE & CREATE FREE STUFF at all levels = best weapon against their slave system that want us to pay for water, fruits, shelter… (real human birthrights that no constitution has ever defended)
BE THE POWER
HELP build a parallel economic system = GIFT ECONOMY where everything is A GIFT… because life is a gift
If not… soon, they will ask money for the air that we breath in (in Australia they already ask CO2 tax = expiration air tax)
They are elected. They are not in power via the authority of Divine Right. Thus, stop electing them.
Well, in Maryland they’re talking about a “rain tax”! LMAO Have fun trying to force anyone to pay THAT!
PS – Very few people are going to work for free then give away the fruits of their labor for free. I think you are a little daft on utopia. This is a country of 300+ million people and over half won’t or don’t work at all so I don’t think your idea is doable.
Wikipedia, LINUX, UBUNTU… collaborators do already work for FREE in A GIFT ECONOMY – you can use wikipedia for free thanks to these people – they are pioneers… and many people in Europe, Canada … have already started to turn OUR CITIES INTO FREE GARDENS
No – it’s not about an utopia!
Use FREE STUFF and SHARE & GIFT – no better way to finish with their system that creates scarcity by design
Hey you were featured on InfoWars.com! 🙂 Also, this makes me sick! When is ENOUGH going to BE ENOUGH in America!!!
Okay, so there’s a peculiar definition of “gardening tools” going on here, just for starters. You see, I did a little digging (geddit?) and it turns out that the tools he brought to school included wrenches, pliers, and a pocket knife (which is what caused the suspension).
‘Second grade teacher Doug Bartlett was recently suspended from his job after he showed off garden tools to his class … [he] displayed wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers and a pocket knife, but kept the devices out of students’ hands, reports UPI.’
So, I checked out the UPI report …
‘”Plaintiff, a school teacher, showed to his students a pocket knife, as part of a curriculum-mandated ‘tool discussion,'” the lawsuit states. “Other garden-variety tools plaintiff used in the discussion were a box cutter, various wrenches, screwdrivers, and pliers. As a result of showing a pocket knife, plaintiff was charged with bringing a weapon to school, and received a four-day suspension without pay. Plaintiff sues for money damages and to have this suspension expunged from his record.”‘
I don’t actually have a lot of sympathy at this point. The teacher must have known that there was a school policy on the subject of knives and still brought one to school. What he showed his students was that it was perfectly okay to bring knives to school as part of what is essentially “show and tell”. He received the same sort of suspension a student would get and, frankly, needs to suck it up – just like a student would have to.
Sappho
http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/chicago-teacher-sues-school-being-suspended-showing-garden-205200372.html
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2013/04/18/Chicago-teacher-sues-over-pocket-knife-suspension/UPI-30621366302601/
Oh man, you are as ..(word removed to remain politically correct) .. as the administrators.
A pocket knife is a tool not a weapon, a sword is a weapon, a knife is a tool. Anything and everything can essentially be used as a weapon, a hammer or wrench is far more lethal than a clasp knife. Many, many people have been killed and bludgeoned by baseball bats, but that does not classify them as weapons. Even more have been killed and maimed by cars, but that does not mean that cars are weapons.
Are you related to Piers Morgan perchance?
So what is wrong with this?
Oh my gosh! Common sense must have missed those in administration…. good grief!
Awesome! Score another victory for the Nazi eugenicists!