http://khon.com/khon/display.cfm?storyID=11758&sectionID=1155

March 3, 2006

N.J. high schoolers try Bush for 'war crimes'

Fox News and Associated Press


TRENTON, N.J. --

A mock war crimes trial of President George W. Bush at a Parsippany
high school continued Friday, despite criticism from people across the
nation who heard about the classroom exercise from a prominent Web
site and talk-radio programs.

Parsippany-Troy Hills School District interim superintendent James
Dwyer said the hearing in the 12th grade politics and government class
would continue, but a verdict by a five-teacher "international court
of justice" panel would not be rendered as originally planned.

Speaking after a two-hour meeting with school board president, the
high school principal and a curriculum superintendent, Dwyer said
Friday the project was in keeping with the district's curriculum and
had received prior administrative approval.

The class is an advanced placement elective, he said, and the lesson
explores current events and foreign policy in an interactive way.

"The focus is on the process itself, not on any outcome," Dwyer said.

Phone messages left at Parsippany High School for the course's
instructor, Joseph Kyle, were not immediately returned Friday. Dwyer
said Kyle has taught with the district for eight years.

Dwyer said he and the school's principal have received more than two
dozen e-mails and phone calls about the course since the Web site "The
Drudge Report" linked to a newspaper article about the class.

Talk-radio programs also apparently have discussed the course, Dwyer
said, and listeners contacting the district were 10-1 against allowing
the mock hearing.

But students involved in the project, which began Monday after several
weeks of research, said the decision to hold a trial over Bush's
alleged "crimes against civilian populations" and "inhumane treatment
of prisoners" was agreed upon by all 27 classmates.

Catherine Galdun, one of the student prosecutors, told the Daily
Record of Parsippany for Friday's newspapers that she would have been
upset had the trial been halted.

"I would say that we're doing this in a fair and balanced way," said
Galdun, 18.

"We're looking at both sides of it. If (critics) don't believe that's
right to do in a classroom -- to debate both sides of an issue -- I
don't agree with that."

Township Council Vice President James Vigilante, a U.S. Air Force
reservist, said he could see both sides.

"I'm a Bush fan. I don't necessarily, myself, agree with the lesson
plan, but on the flip side, I wouldn't condemn the teacher," he told
the newspaper.

Vigilante, a Republican, added, "For me, it's the right of free
speech."

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Harry