Although a Gilroy High School English teacher did not show
students a video of Nick Berg’s beheading in Iraq, it remains
unclear whether or not she had anything to do with the
incident.
GILROY –– Although a Gilroy High School English teacher did not show students a video of Nick Berg’s beheading in Iraq, it remains unclear whether or not she had anything to do with the incident.
The district began investigating the viewing in Margaret Ota’s Advanced Placement English class after receiving a phone call from a parent the afternoon of May 17. Officials have since completed their investigation, saying last week that Ota did not show the video. The district has not said whether she aided students in finding it or knew they were watching it, as students claim.
The district has told teachers it is inappropriate for students and may not be viewed in class.
Mark Rose, President of the Gilroy Federation of Teachers, said Ota had nothing to do with helping students get to the Web site where they watched the beheading.
“She did not facilitate it at all,” Rose said. “She said she did not know that it was going on at the time, and we’re still trying to determine what she knew, but the bottom line was that she didn’t facilitate, she didn’t encourage (it).”
Ota, a 12-year GHS veteran, did not return calls for comment.
Superintendent Edwin Diaz would not expand on the explanation in a press release that Ota did not show the video.
Melissa Johnson, a student in Ota’s class who previously told The Dispatch her teacher “helped” students find the Berg video, said Friday she would not comment on whether or not that story was true.
Another student who corroborated Johnson’s story could not be reached by press time.
“Those were students who did not know what was (happening) on the other side of the classroom,” Rose said.
The way students have described the incident, which happened on or about May 13, Ota was discussing guillotine beheadings, related to Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.” She asked students if they had ever seen the images of Berg’s beheading. Then, with the class of about 25 split into two groups, students said one group of about 10 students began searching for the video on the Internet and viewed it on more than one computer.
Rose took issue with a news story aired May 17 on KSBW, an NBC affiliate based out of Salinas, because it quoted several students who said Ota facilitated their viewing of the beheading. Also, another of Ota’s students, Veronica Phillips, is related to a reporter working at the station.
Diaz said the district’s investigation into the showing of the video in another class is still under way, but that no new investigations have been launched.
School officials across the country continue to deal with similar cases. Three Southern California and two Texas high school teachers were all suspended for showing the killing or allowing it to be viewed by students.
So were teachers from Nebraska to Arkansas. Berg, a 26-year-old independent contractor, was kidnapped in Iraq by Islamic terrorists and beheaded before his body was found May 8. A tape of the beheading was released three days later.
Gilroy Unified School District last week sent a memo to all employees telling them not to show the video or allow students to watch it because it is “inappropriate” for grades K-12. The students who watched the beheading will not be disciplined.
“As far as I’m concerned, we have no intention of issuing any discipline to students,” Diaz said.
