Here’s how a Valley teacher explains impeachment in his classroom

PHOENIX —  A Glendale teacher says he has to be careful about how he teaches students about the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday announced the probe, which concerns a phone call in which Trump asked the president of Ukraine to look into claims of misconduct against former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.

“The problem I run into is, you got to be really careful in how you teach it,” Bryan Rossi, history and government teacher at Mountain Ridge High School, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Wednesday.

“There is such an intensity right now with partisanship and you have to be careful in the way you present the information in an unbiased way.”

Rossi explained what his lesson plan this week will look like.

“We’ll start with the introduction of Pelosi’s speech, showing a clip of that, and then go into the background of the impeachment process and the history of impeachment,” he said.

“Then we will talk about some of the accusations today that have been made.”

Rossi described this as an incredible moment to teach, but with that comes great difficulty.

He said there have been times where parents have called the school and accused of him of being biased in the classroom.

Rossi said he sticks to the history books and does not state his personal beliefs. Rather, he presents the facts, compares them to historical events and often opens up a classroom discussion.

As for what his students know right now about the impeachment process? He says the conversation used to not exist, but they are getting more involved.

“It used to be that they didn’t know anything about politics,” he said.

“Now with social media, they know what’s going on and are engaged with current events.”

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