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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch
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To: one_less who wrote (46799)5/20/2004 5:42:16 PM
From: E  Read Replies (1) of 89467
 
Oh, of course. I agree with that. There will be two stories presented. I could generate a case for the principal out of my head. It might bear no relation to the true motivation (suppressing the expression of certain views that enraged him (just a wild guess) (high school students like to be outrageous and tend to think they're a lot smarter than they are), but it'll be something. Maybe to do with the urgency of the desirability of keeping all issues with political content out of school including as subjects of poems. Precedent, don't you know.

What IS that military liason business? Why is he reading poems to the students? Why is he involved in the school's cultural programs and academic classes?

Edit:

I got a PM with this note. I bolded what will no doubt be part of the 'angle' of the principal's defense:

ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico high school teacher and Green Left Weekly writer Bill Nevins continues to fight his March 17 suspension from his teaching job.

In a letter sent to Nevins by the Rio Rancho school administration, he is accused of having permitted students to go on “field trips” to evening poetry contests without filing school forms. As these events were not under school control, and during students' own time, these were not field trips.

Strong suspicion has arisen among parents and students that the suspension was because Nevins, who coaches the Rio Rancho school poetry team, did not prevent students from publicly performing poems that opposed the US attack on Iraq and criticised the US government. Nevins was suspended soon after an anti-war poem — “Revolution X” — was performed over the school's closed-circuit TV system.

Students report that the school administration has virtually put the student poetry club out of business. They have been intimidated by school officials' interrogations of student poets and an interim coach has not been appointed in Nevins' absence.

Students state they are afraid of “what this means for free speech, not just in our school but in the whole USA”. They have been forbidden to read poems aloud at the school. However, a number of New Mexico adult poets have “adopted” “Revolution X” and are reading it at open poetry sessions around the state.

Meanwhile, at least seven other New Mexico teachers have been suspended or disciplined for anti-war-related matters. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Nevins' and many of the other suspended NM teachers' cases.
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