It’s par for the course in America’s liberal academia today: punish the social studies teacher for teaching kids about their Constitutional rights.

In Illinois, Batavia High School teacher John Dryden told his students they did not have to incriminate themselves by answering the questions given on a school-wide survey about “emotional and at-risk behavior.”

The school decided to use a 34-question survey to get kids to open up about things like, drug use, tobacco use, alcohol use and cheating so the district could provide help to those who needed it.

Kiss privacy goodbye because all the surveys came with the students’ names pre-printed on them, the Kane County Chronicle reported.

And when Dryden told the students “they had a Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves,” he faced an angry school board who ultimately docked his pay for a day and accused him of undermining the school’s attempt to help at-risk students.

The Chronicle reported on the statement issued by the school superintendent Jack Barshinger after the closed-door School Board meeting Tuesday evening:

In this case, district teachers, social workers, guidance counselors, psychologists and others worked together for over a year to select a data-gathering instrument that could be used to determine what social or emotional issues our high school students are experiencing, and whether individual students could benefit from new or increased supportive intervention by our staff. These purposes were shared with our parents and our teachers.

The issue before the board was whether one employee has the right to mischaracterize the efforts of our teachers, counselors, social workers and others; and tell our students, in effect, that the adults are not here to help, but that they are trying to get you to “incriminate” yourselves.

Barshinger said students were allowed to opt-out of taking the survey.

Dryden, who said he was only trying to protect the students by informing them they didn’t have to self report potential criminal behavior, also said it wasn’t his “intention for the students not to take the survey,” the article said.

Fortunately, Dryden had a lot of support in the school community. More than 100 people attended the board meeting in support of him, Fox reported.

Watch Dryden and supporters discuss this story via Fox 32 News:
Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News
More from the Kane County Chronicle.

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Janeen Capizola

"And though she be but little, she is fierce." And fun! This conservative-minded political junkie, mom of three, dancer and one-time NFL cheerleader holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science. [email protected]. Twitter: @JaneenBPR

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