Incompetent? Drunk?

It is time to read the riot act to some . . . teachers. They are just as dangerous, just as guilty of treason as the man who blows up the White House. There is a rule of the Board of Education that a teacher . . . guilty of gross misconduct may be dropped.. . . But the teacher who teaches pacifism . ... is a thousand times more dangerous . . . than the teacher who gets drunk and lies in the gutter.

This blast, one of many against conscientious objectors, was uttered during World War I by General George Wood Wingate of New York City's Board of Education. The first 19 months of U.S. participation in World War II have seen more tolerance of pacifists. But last week Florida educational authorities were comparably steamed up about a c.o. teacher. The blast came from Florida's R. P. Terry, member of Dade County's School Board. Last week he got the Board to order the trial of a c.o. for incompetence. The accused: Edward O. Schweitzer, science teacher at Ada Merritt Junior High, 35-year-old Scoutmaster and Y.M.C.A. club leader of Coral Gables. Heavyset, aggressive Terry, a veteran of World War I, American Legionnaire, Mason, Elk and lawyer, argued that Schweitzer, who has been teaching for more than a decade, has "unfitted himself as a teacher by his beliefs" about pacifism and war.

At a Board hearing in Miami, Methodist Schweitzer's mother, whom he supports, testified that he does a long daily stint in a dairy, held that this constitutes more war work than the School Boarders achieve. Also supporting Schweitzer were his principal, students, parents, friends. Some arguments:

> Principal Albert L. Isaac: "He is loved and respected by his boys."

> Several parents: their sons were studying under Schweitzer when they enlisted; he did not teach pacifism, but believed in it himself.

> A parent who works for the Air Transport Command: his soldier son was prevented by military duties from appearing to say that Schweitzer was the best teacher he ever had.

> Chinese-American student Helen Gong: Schweitzer improved wayward students' characters.

> Miami News Editorialist Francis P. Locke argued that to fire Schweitzer verged on tyranny. Next day he wrote: "A sad blow to the ideals for which we are fighting . . . flesh and blood and bones of democracy . . . torn, spilled and crushed. . . ."

The Miami Herald, on the other hand, advised Schweitzer's dismissal, though expressing respect for his convictions. Terry's co-Legionnaires at the hearing expressed no respect. Florida's ex-Vice Commander Al Lambert wanted "redblooded teachers." Miami Beach Post Chaplain Elmer Warren darkly declared: "Dade County is on trial here."

Schweitzer's chances seemed dark. Local observers thought that Terry wanted a way to recoup political prestige lost when Governor Spessard Holland ousted from the School Board Terry's henchman Russell F. Hands, who had been found drunk and naked in a Miami hotel with a woman in a like state. Terry dominates the School board.

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