Peggy, you said, "Just because I got paid state money to teach didn't mean that the state owned me, nor the Board of Education where I once worked."

They may not have owned you, but you certainly had to teach a specific curriculum and am sure were well aware of those areas in which you could not deviate without being called on the carpet and facing some repercussions. And teachers without tenure are even more sensitive to this. There is no doubt that money talks... and can buy silence. It's never hard to find where the strings are attached.

sheryl