'Crash the Tea Party' teacher resigns as his dismissal loomed

Beaverton middle school teacher Jason Levin, who founded the now notorious "Crash the Tea Party" website, is no longer a teacher. Levin resigned Wednesday in lieu of termination, said Beaverton School District Legal Counsel Camellia Osterink. District officials would not say why Levin was facing dismissal, but that it followed an internal investigation into his use of public resources and time spent at school. "There was some question whether that conduct occurred during the work day," Osterink said of Levin's work on the website. Reached today, Levin said, "My attorney has advised me not to comment." His attorney, Adam Arms of Portland, could not be immediately reached. Levin, a media lab technology teacher at Conestoga Middle School, drew international attention last spring after creating crashtheteaparty.org. The now defunct site had said it was part of a national movement to "dismantle and demolish the tea party by any nonviolent means necessary." The site encouraged people to infiltrate the tea party, then misspell protest signs, make wild claims during interviews and perform other public actions that would damage the public's opinion of the tea party...more