Teacher Smackdown

Here at Teacher Smackdown I’ve seen teachers fired for having sex at school with other teachers, molesting kids, and stealing. But I haven’t seen this much press attention for a teacher acting like an idiot.

In Illinois, Dave Warwak, 44, a teacher at Fox River Grove Middle School, was fired he had turned his classes into lectures on veganism and stopped teaching art.

He has filed an appeal with the Illinois State Board of Education, and said he would not return to the classroom unless the school served only lunches free of animal products. Well since that will never happen, I guess he doesn’t have a job, thank goodness.

I have no problem with a teacher telling his students, “I’m a vegan” or “I’m a Catholic.” But I do have a problem with preaching in the classroom. Most disturbingly, Warwak told pupils not to tell their parents, teachers or the school’s principal what he was teaching and that he refused to answer questions from school officials.

Excuse me, he refused to report to his superiors what was going on in the classroom? If you did that at work, you boss would fire your ass.

In his letter seeking the hearing, Warwak said he was “educating students about the power of advertising in the visual arts.” It’s fine to to show students how the meat and dairy boards or the cosmetic and fashion industries influence people’s values, opinions and behavior with their advertising. It would probably be a very interesting discussion. But he has no right to preach to kids in secret, or dictate to the school district that he won’t teach until the cafeteria goes vegan - or that Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” is played every morning during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Wawak says he was also concerned about bullying at the school. But Wawak’s acting like the biggest bully of all when he pushes his private beliefs on others.

(If you’re the Daily Herald, you think that Wawak deserves a reward for preaching healthy meals. Wawak was never promoting health. Instead he was objecting to serving any sort of animal products like lean meats, fish, and yogurt in the cafeteria. Vegan doesn’t necessarily mean healthy. After all most junk food like chips and candy contain little to no animal products.)

vegan teacher, Dave Wawak, Fox River Grove Middle School