A history teacher who openly questioned the validity of the 2020 presidential election and then traveled to Washington D.C. for the infamous Jan. 6, 2021, election protest has resigned from his position at Burlington High School.
[snip]
“I am looking to take my passion, skills and talents and apply them elsewhere,” he wrote.
But wait, there's more!
West Iron School Board member Dennis Tousignant said board members were aware of Taff’s involvement on Jan. 6, and they discussed it before agreeing to offer him a job. Tousignant said he personally was impressed with Taff’s political activism. “I can’t think of a more involved history teacher than somebody who takes personal time and goes to a rally,” he said.
The county, which is now 94% and has lost nearly half of its population since its 1920 peak of 22,107, embraced Trump's MAGA message.
6/12/2021 update, " Apparently, Burlington Area School District Board is fine and dandy with Jeff Taff's dubious program of self-directed learning", starts here.
3/6/2021 update, "Aaron Melby stands with Jeff Taff and is fine and dandy living in a place where hateful racial slurs are woven into the community fabric", starts here.
"Unless he was teaching us the full lesson plan, its hard to jump to the conclusion as to what kids were asking leading up to that," said Aaron Melby, who supports Taff's reinstatement. Melby has gotten to know Taff through church. He feels the district is not being consistent with how it reviews teachers' lesson plans.
He points to a fourth grade teacher who taught a lesson on Black Lives Matter and racism following the Kenosha riots. It drew outrage from parents.
"She was back in the classroom within days," said Melby.
Thank you, Aaron, for this mindbendingly obtuse false equivalency.
But the Garbades were unprepared for the level of racial animus that has torn their community apart since late August when a Burlington elementary school teacher included the Black Lives Matter movement in a lesson about racism.
The hateful racial slurs — burned into the woodchips of a playground, painted on the floor of a new school building and shouted at students in an online classroom. The hostility and ugly exchanges on social media and at school board meetings. [emphasis added]
1/27/2021 update, "Meet the lead voices of the cheerleading squad for Jeff Taff", starts here.
A group coming to Taff’s defense has created a Facebook page called “We Stand With Taff,” on which they are soliciting donations to help the teacher pay for an attorney. As of Saturday, the site had raised more than $2,000 from more than 40 donors.
Organizers of the group, identifying themselves as Adrianne Mae and Aaron Melby, declined to comment via Facebook. Adrianne Mae had been the leader of the “Parents Against Rogue Teachers” Facebook group [apparently deleted] that formed last fall after there was community uproar following a lesson by Melissa Statz, a fourth-grade teacher at Cooper Elementary School in Burlington, about racial injustice and Black Lives Matter.
On the Facebook page, the group states that Taff is at risk of losing his teaching job for “asserting his constitutional rights.” Referring to Taff and his family, the group adds: “Let’s make sure this family knows that we support freedom, and our community cares an awful lot.”
Oh, the irony. (Not to mention the vivid display of west-of-the-I, Mississippi-style racism.)
Black Lives Matters classsroom lesson. Bad!! (Freedom denied.)
White teacher spewing discredited conspiracy theories in the classroom. Good!! (Freedom forever.)
Original 1/9/2021 post, "Who is Jeff Taff and what exactly is Liber/Leadership Education?", starts here.
Jeff is a social studies teacher at Burlington (WI) High School currently on leave.
What is that? The mysterious Orrin Woodward (no Wikipedia entry) praises the program and specifically mentions 2 mentors.
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