“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.”—Sinclair Lewis
Okay, now advocating tolerance in US schools is controversial.
An Indiana teacher has been suspended from her job because in her role as student newspaper adviser she did not censor a student opinion column that advocated tolerance for people “different than you.”
In the Woodland Junior-Senior High School newspaper, The Tomahawk, tenth grader Megan Chase wrote:
“I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they’re just different than you.”
Now the school district has recommend that teacher Amy Sorrell be fired because she did not alert school principal, prior to publication, regarding the “sensitivity” of the material.
Read on for the AP wire story:
Teacher’s Job on Line for Student Column
By TOM COYNE
Associated Press Writer
WOODBURN, Ind. — The column in the student newspaper seemed innocent enough: advocating tolerance for people “different than you.”
But since sophomore Megan Chase’s words appeared Jan. 19 in The Tomahawk, the newspaper at Woodland Junior-Senior High School, her newspaper adviser has been suspended and is fighting for her job, and charges of censorship and First Amendment violations are clouding this conservative northeastern Indiana community.
At issue is whether Chase’s opinion column advocating tolerance of homosexuals was suitable for a student newspaper distributed to students in grades 7 through 12 and whether newspaper adviser Amy Sorrell followed protocol in allowing the column to be printed.
Media advocates say the debate has deeper ramifications.
“This is a real threat to quality student journalism if an adviser can be removed for not having censored a perfectly legitimate story that there was no legal reason why it shouldn’t have been published,” said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.
School officials in this community of 1,600 residents, 10 miles east of Fort Wayne, say the issue isn’t First Amendment rights but a teacher’s failure to live up to her responsibilities. They contend Sorrell should have alerted Principal Ed Yoder to the article because of the sensitivity of the material.
“The way we view it is the broad topic of homosexuality is a sensitive enough issue in our society that the principal deserves to know that it’s something the newspaper is going to write about,” said Andy Melin, assistant superintendent of secondary education and technology.
Melin said Yoder would have allowed the article to be printed but likely would have suggested some changes.
Sorrell has been placed on administrative leave and the school district has recommended she be fired. A public hearing is scheduled April 28, and the school board expects to vote May 1.
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, argued that students have access to much more mature material in the school library and on the Internet.
“Advocating tolerance is controversial?” she said.
Chase’s column, which she wrote after a friend told her he was gay, said society teaches that “it is only acceptable for a boy and a girl to be together,” which makes declaring one’s sexual orientation difficult.
“I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society,” she wrote. “I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they’re just different than you.”
She said she was surprised by school officials’ reaction.
“I didn’t think it was any big deal,” Chase said of the column.
Sorrell, 30, said she showed the principal four stories about teen pregnancy, including an opinion piece advocating teaching safe sex practices over abstinence education, for the same Jan. 19 issue because she thought that “was going to cause the stir.”
But she acknowledges she never mentioned Chase’s column. “There isn’t anything controversial about tolerance,” she said.
Stan Pflueger, president of the Fort Wayne chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbian and Gays and a graduate of the school district, said he was disappointed with the school system’s reaction.
“The spirit of the article is just asking people to consider what your previous beliefs were about this particular subject,” he said. “There’s a difference between tolerance and agreement.”
But resident Jim Bridge took a tougher stand.
“We all have rules that we have to abide by and it appears that she hasn’t chosen to abide by the rules,” Bridge said. “I own my own business and anybody that did that to me would be fired on the spot. She knew it had to be controversial.”
Sorrell, the daughter of a newspaper editor, said she thought she knew what was acceptable in the school district where she has taught English for four years.
“I’d still make that same judgment,” she said.
___
April 22, 2007 – 11:10 a.m. Copyright 2007, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/School_Newspaper_Flap.html
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Wow, full-court press against the teacher who – by their judgment – made a small mistake, and sounds like she will lose her job over it. No ifs, buts, or maybes.
The response sure shows how ‘intolerant’ this community is.
How sickening when in the USA, so-called land of freedom and diversity, people are still living in the dark ages. I kept thinking of Galileo when I read about how she was forced to apologize and sign a document, which she could not afford (financially) not to do. Are we living in the dark ages, or what? What a beautiful thing the 10-year old had to say. What kind of message does this send to her? The problem is not homosexuals, it’s the intolerance. Thank you for this blog.
Just wanted to say “Kudos” to Amy Sorrell and to the tolerant students at Woodlan Junior High School. Don’t let the old intolerant farts of Indiana & the world get you down. Some day they will all be dead and we will not have to deal with their stupidity anymore.
Maybe the GLBT community should hold a national march or “gay day” in their little hamlet to open their minds a little. It would probably be the biggest economic boom for them since they got those recycle bins. I bet they’d be more accepting of gays and lesbians then.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of our great Country when a small minded Principal the likes of Ed Yoder can hide behind an obscure, petty and transparent rule to harrass a fine teacher like Amy Sorrell.To argue that Sorrell be fired because “she did not alert school principal, prior to publication, regarding the “sensitivity” of the material” is an insult to every hard working teacher in America. Everyone should stand behind Ms. Sorrell and squash this petty nonsense. Wake up America before it’s too late.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of our great Country when a small minded Principal the likes of Ed Yoder can hide behind an obscure, petty and transparent rule to harrass a fine teacher like Amy Sorrell.To argue that Sorrell be fired because “she did not alert school principal, prior to publication, regarding the “sensitivity” of the material” is an insult to every hard working teacher in America. Everyone should stand behind Ms. Sorrell and squash this petty nonsense. Wake up America before it’s too late.
School shootings are becoming a popular way for a student to get even with others for pain that they feel, because of bullying and intolerance. Amazing! A teacher trys to teach tolerance, and is stopped. Where is the teacher’s union on this? This school board should be ashamed!
I am reading the Amy Sorrell story from New Jersey, as someone who is about to publish a similar story, but in fiction—and my outcome was the same.
A teacher-newspaper advisor targeted by unhappy parents, including school board members, for allowing students to run a controversial story, is reassigned from high school to middle school. I reassigned the teacher in my story, on the suggestion of a former superintendent of schools, because it appeared to be a credible outcome. My teacher allowed students to run a sex test in the school paper without consulting her principal, during a time when sex education was being debated statewide.
The major difference is that my story, called The Sex Ed Chronicles, takes place in 1980, not today.
When I started on my story, I spoke with teachers in my hometown in New Jersey who had taught me 30 years ago. They made the same arguments as Ms. Sorrell: that a high school paper was a student forum and students were entitled to freedom of expression—as long as the writer made no comments that were disrespectful to classmates, teachers and school administrators or disruptive to school activities. My former speech and debate coach told me that it had been only recently that her principal had asked for final approval on student work in the school paper and literary magazine. Recently–as in the 21st century—even though this had not been required of an advisor during the late 1970’s.
I read Megan Chase’s column. She wrote nothing that would have offended anyone, even some one who is, for whatever reason, opposed to homosexuality. She presented an argument and backed it with facts, as a responsible journalist is supposed to do. I read no challenges to her column from parents or classmates; no one proved her wrong in any forum of public opinion, in least in the various articles I read online. I read only one objection from a parent who was not connected to the school district and it was not about the content of the story, but that her teacher did not follow the rules—to get approval from the principal before the story ran.
In Ms. Sorrell’s story, and mine, the principal wants the power of being publisher–but not the full responsibility.
I bet that Ms. Sorrell would have been fortunate to work with a principal/publisher who would have defended Megan Chase, if any one, parent or classmate had attacked her or her column. In that role, he would have followed through on Ms. Chase’s message of tolerance. He would have done the same as a publisher in the professional media would have done.
I can only guess that he was not willing or ready to do it.