From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Mon May 24 2004 - 12:45:27 MDT
[Blunderov] This is so astonishing that I have taken the liberty (if that's
the right word) of posting the whole piece. This sort of thing was par for
the course in apartheid SA - but America? What happened to the 1st
Amendment?
http://atheism.about.com/b/a/086910.htm?terms=n620b
Student Poetry Critical of Bush Leads to Firing of Teacher
Agnosticism/Atheism Blog
<q>
May 20, 2004
Student Poetry Critical of Bush Leads to Firing of Teacher
Does freedom of speech extend to unpopular and critical ideas or does it
only apply to those ideas which are approved of by government and military
leaders? Most Americans might be forgiven for assuming that the former is
the case - but there are some in the government who are determined to
disabuse us of such quaint notions. If they are successful, we won't even be
able to complain.
Bill Hill writes in an editorial for the News-Journal Online about a case in
New Mexico where a student's poetry that was critical of the government led
to her mother (a teacher) being suspended and her teacher-advisor being
fired:
In March 2003, a teenage girl named Courtney presented one of her poems
before an audience at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Albuquerque, then read the
poem live on the school's closed-circuit television channel. A school
military liaison and the high school principal accused the girl of being
"un-American" because she criticized the war in Iraq and the Bush
administration's failure to give substance to its "No child left behind"
education policy. The girl's mother, also a teacher, was ordered by the
principal to destroy the child's poetry. The mother refused and may lose her
job.
Bill Nevins [faculty adviser for the poetry club] was suspended for not
censoring the poetry of his students. ... He was later fired by the
principal. ... Nevins applied for a teaching post in another school and was
offered the job but he can't go to work until Rio Rancho's principal sends
the new school Nevins' credentials. The principal has refused to do so, and
that adds yet another issue to the lawsuit, which is awaiting a trial date.
[T]he principal and the military liaison read a poem of their own as they
raised the flag outside the school. When the principal had the flag at full
staff, he applauded the action he'd taken in concert with the military
liaison. Then to all students and faculty who did not share his political
opinions, the principal shouted: "Shut your faces." ... Posters done by art
students were ordered torn down, even though none was termed obscene. Some
were satirical, implicating a national policy that had led us into war. Art
teachers who refused to rip down the posters on display in their classrooms
were not given contracts to return to the school in this current school
year.
This isn't an issue of obscenity - the poetry and posters in question were
not obscene in any way nor are the students accused of creating obscene art.
No, the only issue here is politics: students created artwork which conveyed
a political message that was critical of the current administration, the
administration's policies, and of George W. Bush. Teachers who supervised
these students were punished - not just for allowing such things to be
created, but also for refusing to censor and/or destroy the art in question.
Think about that: teachers are ordered to destroy student art that is
critical of President Bush; when they refuse they lose their jobs - and
their ability to get a new job is hindered. I don't know the name of the
commissar principal in question here, but his message to the students at New
Mexico's largest public school is clear: political dissent will not be
tolerated, you do not have a right to express viewpoints that diverge from
what the government and the military approve of, and if you try you will be
in a lot of trouble.
Why does a public high school have a military liaison in the first place?
What is a military liaison doing checking upon the poetry and posters being
created by students??
</q>
--- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon May 24 2004 - 12:46:28 MDT