Teacher Fired After Making Conspiratorial Sandy Hook Comments Online

Teac her Fired After Making Conspiratorial Sandy Hook Comments Online

I didn't know where to post this, because my thoughts after reading the article have nothing to do with Sandy Hook, nor the government's witch hunt for "conspiracy theorists".

I still can't get over this:

Heller joined the district in 2003 and earned $97,391 in 2012-13 according to records.

I am done listening to people complain about teachers not being paid enough. This is insanity. We are, at every turn, unceasingly bombarded with, "Schools don't have enough money!" and, "Poor teachers! These poor, poor public servants!"

Get OUT of here with that. This guy has made himself rich turning children into mindless wards of the state, and everyone in NY was guilt-tripped into paying for it.

And now he's suing the state, wanting even more money because he feels slighted. Sigh. The BS is so thick I can't even see into the deeper implications of this article. I know there are much more profound points to make here.

Have at it...

a reply to: NthOther

You a person in a PRIVATE chat room, says something and we are not seeing a transcript but it says this:

Mr. Heller expressed in an internet communication that he believed the U.S. government programmed the Newtown school shooter, which indicates that he might feel compelled to commit a similar act."

On May 12, the hearing officer agreed with all of the charges and terminated Heller's employment.

Now how would we know if he just said sometimes I could just shoot all the little brats myself, or some such, joking or even being in some character act inside this PRIVATE chat room?

So this

online conversations with a "medium"

turns him in for his conversation and he is fired...I just don't like the sound of this.

a reply to: NthOther

I wouldnt call 97k a year "rich" by any standards. Comfortable maybe, but not rich. Teacher pay is based off of degrees and experience. My computer science teacher in high school made 6 figures, and this was back in the 90s. She had multiple high level degrees and was an amazing teacher. Worth every penny IMO.

Now, on the topic of the article linked, this is a travesty and he has every right to sue the pants off of everyone involved in destroying his reputation and lively hood, all over opinions expressed in what was supposed to be a private conversation.

Based on what information is currently available, there was never any threat to cause harm. Having an opinion that goes against the government does not mean that person is going to kill anybody. Owning, or purchasing a firearm legally is not just cause to arrest and imprison someone.

Unless some kind of evidence appears that proves this man was a danger to anybody, he is going to win his lawsuit and he deserves every penny from it.

This is just another example of government agencies going after american citizens who disagree. Not much different than this post showing the update from a situation 6 months ago.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: NthOther

So is this about teacher pay or about him getting fired?

Seems like this is just a case of being careful of what you say to people.
It is rather scary for what happened just based off the report to the FBI from the friend tho

a reply to: NthOther

I would be willing to bet he was fired for claiming to want to kill people...That opened my eyes more than the conspiracy claims.

Also an issue is the police confiscating his guns without due process. Granted, he appears to be a nut-case who should not have guns. If that is the case then the guns should remain at his home while he remains in custody until due process is observed.

Totally pisses me off every time the govt. does stuff without taking the appropriate legal actions first.

So let me get this straight you are not upset this guy was talking about killing people with a medium, clearly has mental problems and had bought a weapon. Instead your upset because of how much money he makes? Of course I am guessing you did not bother to look up the cost of living for his area where an average home costs over 700K, a morgage payment is over 3K a month and that the medium income is almost 80 grand a year. A little thing to remember, the cost of living in a place that is very high means wages are very high or nobody could live there. Where he lives he would be middle class maybe even lower middle class.

According to payscale.com the average American teacher receives around $43,000 dollars a year - or around £25,000 in GBP. That's not a lot of dough, to be honest.

$97,000 is around £57,000 which would place this teacher as a manager - in the UK that'd perhaps be Head of Department or Head of Age Group. They joined 10 years ago, so that's a fair whack of experience.

Now, I'm not a teacher - and I'm not related to one either - but whilst complaining about a teacher with a lot of experience making half-decent money, I'd imagine you simultaenously complain about poor educational standards.

Fact is, it probably costs just shy of $100k to keep a person with at least a decade's experience of education management doing just that compared to what those skills could earn them in the private sector.

Wow, As a teachers wife I have got to make my husband get a job there lol. I have a good idea of what teachers normally make and this isn't normal. I did some investigating in the school and it seems like it is a super upper class area and well above your average school. Small classroom sizes with an average of 11-13 kids per classroom. Parents of the students make on average

Median family income: $103,573

So, it is a very wealthy area.

This is not normal. My husband just lost his job because he had too many years of experience so they fired him so they could bring in a teacher with little to no experience and pay them less. That, and it seems like the schools seem to frown on teacher that actually tries teach instead of handing out A's like they are candy without the students learning anything. He was told "We would rather graduate more students than educate them."

a reply to: MrSpad

So let me get this straight you are not upset this guy was talking about killing people with a medium, clearly has mental problems and had bought a weapon

It is alleged that he has mental health problems and I have seen no transcript of what he actually said in the private chat room to the medium, he legally bought a weapon.

originally posted by: NthOther
I am done listening to people complain about teachers not being paid enough. This is insanity. We are, at every turn, unceasingly bombarded with, "Schools don't have enough money!" and, "Poor teachers! These poor, poor public servants!"

A bit of research will show those ideas can be traced back to the teachers unions.
The teachers have one of the best unions out there...
That is why bad teachers are kept on staff, and why they don't have to prove any level performance to maintain their jobs. It costs a school more to fire a teacher in some districts then to just pay them to sit and do nothing.

I think stories like this are manufactured for the purpose of scaring other teachers into shutting up!

Its propaganda folks!

If I could go back and do it all again, I would have home schooled all of my kids.
At home there is a fine anti school shooter protection system complete with Smart-Dog technology!
Thank the Goddess that my kids grew up normal!

a reply to: VoidHawk
Agreed, after all teachers make a joke of a salary compared to office and administrative personnel.
Face it folks, the districts are raping....err raking us over the coals.
...But it is for the children!!!

originally posted by: g146541
If I could go back and do it all again, I would have home schooled all of my kids.
At home there is a fine anti school shooter protection system complete with Smart-Dog technology!
Thank the Goddess that my kids grew up normal!

Exactly

I know several families homeschooling, and they're all using "Smart-Dog technology". There's no better system, and its as nature intended.

originally posted by: bbracken677
a reply to: NthOther

I would be willing to bet he was fired for claiming to want to kill people...That opened my eyes more than the conspiracy claims.

Also an issue is the police confiscating his guns without due process. Granted, he appears to be a nut-case who should not have guns. If that is the case then the guns should remain at his home while he remains in custody until due process is observed.

Totally pisses me off every time the govt. does stuff without taking the appropriate legal actions first.

This is entirely too important, relevant, and smart for ATS.

This is not normal. My husband just lost his job because he had too many years of experience so they fired him so they could bring in a teacher with little to no experience and pay them less. That, and it seems like the schools seem to frown on teacher that actually tries teach instead of handing out A's like they are candy without the students learning anything. He was told "We would rather graduate more students than educate them."

a reply to: calstorm

Unfortunately everything you've said is the absolute truth. Teachers who challenge their students and fail kids who don't deserve to receive passing grades are frowned upon by school administrators. The education system today is so political and not about making sure children are competent before they graduate. It's all about enrollment numbers
test scores and school funding. It's easier to blame teachers for a student's poor performance rather then the student. The student has the responsibility to be motivated to learn. I always revert back to this saying... "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

a reply to: Char-Lee

According to court documents, Heller, a Pound Ridge, New York resident, acquired a Russian military rifle on Dec. 14, 2012, the day Adam Lanza gunned down 20 elementary school children and six adults at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut.

That same month, Heller began having online conversations with Georgia O'Connor, described in court documents as a "medium," about government conspiracies.

During these conversations, Heller expressed "concerns about government power and corruption, including the potential use by the government of technology to effect weather patterns and nationwide conspiracies," according to court documents.

This was definitely enough for the school superintendent to look into the guy and get some kind of opinion from someone trained to make an assessment. Besides, it was the "medium" that contacted the FBI and told them that she thought he was off his nut. It wasn't the government that fired him. It was the school superintendent that fired him.

The guy wasn't a machinist or a taxi driver. He was a school teacher. His mental state is a really critical aspect of what he brings to the job each day. Obviously he wasn't tenured (since they were able to just fire him), and that means that he could be fired for pretty much any reason at all. Even if he simply refused to follow that specific school's dress code for teachers.

No government conspiracy here. Just a idiot who couldn't understand that what he was saying and doing (in the immediate aftermath of that Sandy Hook massacre) as a teacher himself, was going to freak out normal, rational people. The truth is that his inability to even see anything bizarre about his own behavior would've been enough for me - if I were the school superintendent - to get rid of him. Obviously it was bad enough that his chat buddy got scared to the point of contacting the FBI. That suggests that this Heller character isn't all that aware of reality and his own contribution to it.

originally posted by: KingIcarus
According to payscale.com the average American teacher receives around $43,000 dollars a year - or around £25,000 in GBP. That's not a lot of dough, to be honest.

$97,000 is around £57,000 which would place this teacher as a manager - in the UK that'd perhaps be Head of Department or Head of Age Group. They joined 10 years ago, so that's a fair whack of experience.

Now, I'm not a teacher - and I'm not related to one either - but whilst complaining about a teacher with a lot of experience making half-decent money, I'd imagine you simultaenously complain about poor educational standards.

There are a lot of really ignorant people in the US, and every one of them is proud of how stupid they are. It's a cultural thing, and we tend to elect idiots into power as a result.

The belief that someone's thoughts are controlled or influenced by "the government" or someone else is common delusional thinking. In the case of the teacher, this fantasy was about violence against schoolkids. I would not want this man to be present at any school. If you, yourself believe your thoughts are controlled by "implants", "microchips" or radio waves, it is not a conspiracy, it is a paranoid delusion. Seek help.