New York Post ^ | 10/02/04 | DAVID ANDREATTA

Posted on 10/02/2004 1:06:56 AM PDT by kattracks



October 2, 2004 -- A New Jersey public-school teacher claims she was
bushwhacked by her principal yesterday when he ordered her to "get out" of
the building after she refused to remove a photo of President Bush and the
first lady from her classroom.
The White House-issued photo of the Bushes was pinned to a bulletin board
that held portraits of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and a copy of
the Constitution.

"I wouldn't touch politics in my classroom with a 10-foot pole, but [the
principal] felt I was making a political statement," said Shiba Pillai-Diaz,
33, a seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher at Crossroads South
Elementary School in Monmouth Junction.

"It was meant to be a picture of the current president, nothing partisan
about it," said Pillai-Diaz, a Republican mother of one who volunteered at
the party's convention in Madison Square Garden. The controversy erupted
Thursday night when a handful of parents objected to the photo during a
back-to-school parent-teacher conference. Pillai-Diaz said three parents
demanded the photo be removed - or complemented with a picture of Sen. John
Kerry.

[snip]

Pillai-Diaz said McCartney warned her against telling her story to the
press, saying "it will be beyond [his] ability to help" her if she did. She
told The Post she was not sure if she would return to school Monday.




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