Jessica Tapia
In today’s public schools, a teacher may have moral principles or religious beliefs, but sharing them can get you fired, as a California teacher learned. Jessica Tapia, fired in January, had returned to teach in the Jurupa Valley school district where, as a student, she had earned straight-As and participated in numerous sports. As a physical education teacher, she won […]
Benji Backer
Benji Backer is the kind of student teachers dream about, or should; a young man who takes seriously what he learns in the classroom and is just as serious at applying it to his life outside of school. Unfortunately, because he has, he’s learned some hard lessons about how people’s fears can be manipulated and that unions are masters of […]
Ruth Finnegan
Ruth Finnegan was a young teacher grading papers in her classroom in Hershey, Pennsylvania, when five men in black suits burst in and demanded she join the union. Terrified, she gathered herself to ask what the union could offer her. “Protection,” they said. To Ruth it sounded like a line from a gangster film. “Protection from being sued.” Ruth told […]
Aaron Benner
Aaron Benner is an outstanding Minnesota teacher who knows firsthand what happens when students, and teachers, feel unsafe in the classroom. “Safety is critical,” he says. “Learning suddenly is on the back burner, everything goes out the window once the classroom has been compromised. Instead of looking at the teacher, you’re looking over your shoulder. You’re not focused on learning, […]
Jade Thompson
While there are countless examples of people being forced to fund union activities in direct opposition to their own beliefs – i.e. pro-life advocates forced to watch their money support pro-choice causes – what happened to Jade Thompson and her family may top them all in the most grotesque way. In 2010, Jade, a high school Spanish teacher in Marietta, […]
Ryan Yohn
Ryan Yohn’s name appears on a federal lawsuit he and seven other California teachers filed in 2017 challenging mandatory union membership and the forced dues that come with it. As is usually the case when someone demands workers have the freedom to choose, Ryan was immediately branded as “anti-union,” and, as is usually the case, it just wasn’t true. Not […]