This is a partial transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” March 2, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Welcome back to “Hannity & Colmes.” We told you a few minutes ago this was the scene in Aurora, Colorado, earlier today where students walked out of classes at Overland High School after an audiotape was made public of geography teacher Jay Bennish ranting to his students.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENNISH: He started off his speech talking about how America should be the country that dominates the world, that we have been blessed, essentially by God, to have the most civilized, most advanced, best system, and that it’s our duty as Americans to use the military to go out into the world and make the world like us. It sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say.
We’re the only ones who are right. Everybody else is backwards, and our job is to conquer the world and make sure they all live just like we want them to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLMES: Now, this teacher has been suspended by the school district, but late this afternoon his attorney announced that he will file a lawsuit in federal court tomorrow morning claiming that he was only exercising his First Amendment rights.
Joining us now is a student who recorded that tape and started this whole controversy, Sean Allen.
Tell us, Sean, first of all, why did you record this? Did you know this person was going to say some outrageous things? And is that why you had a tape recorder running?
SEAN ALLEN, STUDENT WHO TAPED TEACHER: Well, for all of my classes, I find it’s easier to record lecture notes in class so then I can later use those lecture notes for a test. This just happened to be one of the days that I was recording.
COLMES: You know, we had a teacher on the other night, or we did a story about a teacher, who put religious messages on a school bulletin board. The court ruled that, if it’s the school, it’s part of a curriculum. It’s not free speech. So I took that position on that case, so I want to be consistent. I feel the same way here.
You have to respond to the school board and the curriculum and use, as we say here at FOX News, some fairness and balance. But the school is saying that they are looking to see if it’s isolated, to see if there is a breach of policy, suspended him in the meantime. They want to resolve parent complaints. So are you happy with the way the school is handling this?
ALLEN: I am very happy with the way that the school is handling this, going into an investigation and getting, you know, both sides of the story, not just my own. And I’m very happy with the quick time that they have responded to this. So, overall, I am very happy, and I’m very confident that the school district will do the right thing in this situation.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Sean, was this an isolated incident?
ALLEN: No, it was not. He did this pretty much everyday or every other day.
HANNITY: And he’s a geography teacher. Did you learn any geography in the class? Did he ever talk about that?
ALLEN: About 20 percent was devoted to actual geography. About 80 percent of it was devoted to most of his personal politics and treating them as fact.
HANNITY: And that shrill sort of tempo that he had here, that’s very common?
ALLEN: That is absolutely very common.
HANNITY: Now, you don’t want him fired, interestingly enough?
ALLEN: I do respect him as a teacher. As a geography teacher, I feel that he’s very knowledgeable in geography. My opinion is starting to sort of shift on that situation.
I believe he should be reprimanded and he should be able to answer for this, but I have also gotten calls from a lot of parents that say they have called in two months ago to complain about this teacher and nothing had really been done.
HANNITY: I also heard some of the other tape. He raised the — who’s the most violent nation on Earth? He said the United States of America, correct?
ALLEN: Yes, he said the United States of America is the most violent nation on Earth.
HANNITY: “The American flag is no different than the Nazi or Confederate flag to some people,” correct?
ALLEN: Yes.
HANNITY: He said that?
ALLEN: Yes.
HANNITY: He also made excuses for Al Qaeda bombing America. The CIA has an office in the trade center, the Pentagon, that they’re military targets. Seems to be a justification there. Is that how you took it?
ALLEN: In class, I really felt like he was trying to justify why Al Qaeda attacked us. And apparently, in the eyes of the terrorists, we are the true terrorists.
HANNITY: And he makes excuses there, but he basically concludes that Israel is the terrorist nation, even though they’ve been victimized, and said we illegally invaded a sovereign country. He said that, too?
ALLEN: Yes.
HANNITY: What was the — did you ever try, and battle him, or confront him? And, if you did, what was the result?
ALLEN: Well, on the recorded tape, that was pretty much to the extent of how I questioned his situation and things like that. But overall, he was a pretty intimidating teacher to confront, just with his body language and the things he said and how he said them.
HANNITY: I don’t have a lot of time, Sean. I want to thank you for something, because kids have suffered under this indoctrination for years. I get tons of calls to my radio show, lots of letters about it.
Now every left-wing teacher knows that there might be a Sean in their class that might be recording their statements. Now, if they are so confident to say it in front of a captive audience of students, young students, then they ought to be able to debate them publicly. So I want to applaud you. You may have done more for the educational system than anybody has done in years.
And I say thank you.
COLMES: All right, Sean, thanks for being with us.
ALLEN: Thank you very much. Thank you guys for having me.
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