'You Know, Ms. Lacey, I'm a Communist'

A chill wind blows through America. An open Communist is banned from the New York City public school system because of his beliefs? Horrors! Where is the ACLU to rush to his aid?

They told me if I voted for John McCain teachers would be targeted for their political ideologies.

A former New York City schoolteacher has been banned from returning to the school system for taking students on a field trip to Cuba, officials said Tuesday.

After a three-year investigation, the New York City special investigator for schools released a report saying Nathan Turner ignored instructions not to go to Cuba and potentially exposed students to civil and criminal penalties.

Mr. Turner took a group of students from Manhattan's Beacon High School to Cuba in 2007 after New York's Department of Education and the school's principal told him to cancel the trip because of a travel ban in place by the U.S. government.

The report said Mr. Turner told the school's principal that he was a Communist and that he had to go to Cuba "to see Castro one more time before he died."

Well, Turner is certainly still free to go see his hero since apparently the murderous dictator is still sucking air. Seem he figured he had special privileges because he's a far left kook.

Educational trips to Cuba are allowed for college and graduates students, but restrictions apply for all other visitors. And some of the students who made the spring 2007 trip were stopped in the Bahamas by U.S. Customs Bureau agents upon their return.

Principal Ruth Lacey told investigators that while pressing his case to make the trip to Cuba, Turner said, "You know, Ms. Lacey, I'm a Communist."

Surely someone with such intellectual heft as Turner will be snapped up by some "progressive" school system who see no problem idolizing a thug like Castro. Better yet, why doesn't Turner go live there. I'd rather have someone like Normando Hernandez Gonzalez in this country.