Dr. Dennis Thompson Suspends Dr. John Dwyer Thompson has filed ethics charges against Dwyer with the Florida Department of Education’s Professional Practices Services Section. What brought Dwyer to this pass? Was it money-laundering for a high-end prostitute? Was it an Orlando bike trip with lurid e-mails? Was it harboring a 15-year old run-away? Was it an unsolicited kiss on Dixie’s Martha Hayes’ bare shoulder? Was it giving speeches opposing the school board? Was it his marathon fasting? Was it teaching outside the curriculum? Was it teaching evolution? Was it reading the bible during class? Maybe mooning Mr. Withers or a student audience? Oh no. Well, maybe the speeches, Dwyer surmises. Documents assert that it is for encouraging his high school students to support the poor in Immokalee, and to write or visit the jailed inmate Mr. Capehart (whose death sentence was vacated in 2005 due to a LHS student-petition). Thompson also contends Dwyer did not remove certain items from Dwyer's class syllabus that Martha Hayes objected to and lastly that Dwyer disallowed students to leave class when summoned by the office. Dwyer says, So the whole ear of Naples Is by a forged account of my practices Rankly abused. Two army men from Texas, Fairbanks and Thompson, have conspired to exercise an unprecedented display of raw firepower by shooting a huge howitzer round at Dr. John Dwyer. They say that if you watch anyone close enough, long enough you’ll catch him doing something wrong. If not, you can fabricate the charges. Dwyer’s been suspended for three days without pay. His paycheck last week was docked for $1,068.49. Dwyer's students missed three 87-minute classes on the works now being closely read: _The Brothers Karamazov_, _Wuthering Heights_, _1984_, _Great Expectations_, and _Oliver Twist_. The AP class is currently beginning an intense effort to prepare daily in-class essays for the early May exam, a good score on which is worth thousands of tuition dollars to parents and is accepted for college credit by just about every university in America--even though Dr. Thompson asserted publicly that they were not. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Why? I reiterate: 1). Principal Fairbanks on October 8, 2007 accused Dwyer of not permitting students to leave his English classes for office requests from administrative, guidance, or attendance offices. Fairbanks made the same accusation on November 9, 2007. Dwyer has never disallowed any students from leaving his class for any reason at any time. 2). Fairbanks told him on October 31, 2007 to remove an element in his syllabi dealing with extra credit for donated books. Dwyer obeyed the very next day and announced to each class that extra credit was no longer available. It's documented in students' daily notes. However, Fairbanks says Dwyer didn’t do as directed. 3). Furthermore, Fairbanks accuses Dwyer of not obeying school field trip policy in taking an “unsanctioned fieldtrip” to Miami on November 30, 2007. Dwyer contends he did not take a field trip. Dwyer instead requested and took an approved day of personal leave and notified several students that there would be no School Related Activity (SRA) excuses for anyone choosing to travel with him to a march in Miami supporting the workers in Immokalee. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers provided a church minibus for anyone who wished to participate. Fairbanks says this was a field trip. It wasn’t. 4). Finally, Fairbanks on December 4, 2007 told Dwyer to remove another element in Dwyer's newly-approved-by-the-College Board AP syllabus: an optional writing assignment on Gregory Capehart, a person released from Florida’s Death Row on June 3, 2006 by Pasco Judge Lynn Tepper. Dwyer immediately complied. Fairbanks says Dwyer didn’t do as directed. In addition to this 3-day OSS without pay, John has suffered other inconveniences at the hands of Mr. Fairbanks, lieutenant to Superintendent Thompson and Martha Hayes. Dwyer’s been interrupted from grading papers during his planning time by being called down to Mr. Fairbank’s office on scores of occasions since October. Mr. Fairbanks has forbidden Dwyer's Shakespeare Academy from putting on any plays in the school auditorium after 8 pre-Thanksgiving _Macbeth_ performances. Mr. Fairbanks required Dwyer to change his screen name in the Comments section of the Naples Daily News. Mr. Fairbanks now requires Dwyer to submit all writing assignments to Principal Fairbanks for prior approval. (None of them may deal with the the death penalty, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, or Burger King). Fairbanks requires Dwyer to give class participation points to students while they are not present in class. Dwyer may not accept books donated to the English Department by students. Dwyer is gagged: “directed not to take class time or other time to discuss the subject of this discipline.” Fairbanks replaced Dwyer and his wife's once per week lunch duty with four separate duties outside in front of the school after the last bell. Dwyer is reprimanded for continuing to teach during a prank fire alarm that happened the same period of the student walkout over schedule changes (the alarm in Dwyer's room and building didn't sound--not Dwyer's failure but the Principal's). Dwyer is reprimanded for objecting to school issues in purportedly anonymous Comments in the electronic _Naples Daily News_. Dwyer had objected to class time used for police sessions preaching the dangers of the internet; for objecting to class time used for Jerry Berry’s preaching regarding alcohol, drugs, and sex; for objecting to class time used for a mandatory session with Herff Jones advertisers. Dwyer is reprimanded for complaining about class time used for a hypnotist/ magician performance. Dwyer is reprimanded for supporting the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Dwyer is reprimanded for paying two professional actors, a choreographer, a costume designer, and a fencing coach to intensively prepare 25 students for the 8 performances of _Macbeth_ put on the Lely stage in November. Dwyer is being kicked out of his classroom after this year. After all this, Dwyer hardly complained against class time used for a field trip arranged by Mr. Fairbanks to Manatee Middle during Dwyer’s AP English literature class to advertise the Lely clubs and the new Thompson Freshman Academy. Dwyer feels that Mr. Fairbanks is a "nice guy"; however, he's got to do what his Superintendent wants in order to keep his job. Nevertheless, Dwyer contends that Mr. Fairbanks, Ms. Martha Hayes, Ms. Mary Gemmill, and Superintendent Thompson are making his preparing his AP students for their exam and his teaching of five separate great works of literature in five separate classes very difficult. Not counting hours of FCAT interruption, AP students have lost an additional seven 87-minute classes this school year. What's the point? Perhaps it is: Let this be a warning to all teachers and students in Collier County. Our new management will provide you with lots of stress. So, NDN Editors, how can we "turn trust [in Superintendent Dennis Thompson] up"? Superintendent Thompson concurred with Mr. Fairbanks’ recommendation to suspend Dwyer without pay for three days from March 25, 2008 and the charges will go on record with the Florida Department of Education’s Professional Practices Services Section. After 40 years of teaching with a practically perfect record, this! Don’t you wonder what Dr. Dwyer’s book will say about this school district? Maybe something like, "Collier County Schools is a plantation where every field hand must keep a smile on his/ her face and feel grateful for every lash of the whip." FEAR THIS! BTW Superintendent Thompson's degrees: B.S. West Point 1976; M.A. University of Texas-Austin 1985; Education Specialist Austin Peay State University Clarksville, TN 2001; Ed.D. Tennessee State University 2003. Teaching experience: two years as adjunct professor of psychology at West Point (no experience teaching in a high school or elementary school classroom). John Dwyer's degrees: All four from the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. John: A.B. 1966, M.A.T. 1968, M.A. 1992, Ph.D. 1997. Teaching experience: four years as adjunct professor of English at the University of Notre Dame; 36 years of high school classroom experience teaching English with 156 semester credit hours in English alone. Whom should we trust?