Many of the writing assignments I teach are based on classroom
discussions and each year some of the most interesting discussions concern the
First Amendment rights of students.
Naturally, I talk
about the Tinker case, in which Justice Abe Fortas wrote that students do not
shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door. Of course, that
ruling, which was handed down more than 40 years ago, is ancient history to my
eighth graders, who know little about the Vietnam War or the protests that led
to the Tinker ruling.
So to make it up
to date and locally relevant to the students, I also use a court case from less
than 10 years ago in our neighboring community of Webb City, Missouri. A gay
high school student sued the school district after he was not allowed to wear a
t-shirt signifying his "gay pride" or one that had the logo of the
Gay-Straight Alliance organization he had belonged to at the school he had
attended before transferring to Webb City.
The student's case
was dismissed after he dropped out of school, but one of his friends, who was
not gay, took the challenge, wore pro-gay clothing, was sent home, sued the
school, and ended up with an out-of-court settlement that forced the school
district to change its policies about clothing being used for political
statements.
For the last few
years, this has been an engaging topic for my students and has resulted in some
thoughtful papers, with students making well-reasoned arguments for both sides.
I may never teach that case again.
If I even mention
the Webb City case next year, I may very well be breaking the law.
A bill filed March 29 in the Missouri House of Representatives and sent to the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee Wednesday would prohibit any discussion of
sexual orientation in the classroom.
"Not withstanding
any other law to the contrary, no instruction, material, or extracurricular
activity sponsored by a public school that discusses sexual orientation other
than in scientific instruction concerning human reproduction shall be provided
in any public school."
HB 2051 is
sponsored by Rep. Steve Cookson, R-Fairdealing, and has 19 GOP co-sponsors,
including the two most powerful leaders in the House, Speaker Steve Tilley and
Majority Leader Tim Jones (yes, the same Tim Jones who is a plaintiff in Orly
Taitz' birther lawsuits), who is poised to become Speaker of the House in 2013
since Tilley is term-limited.
The 2012
legislative session in Missouri has been an all-out attack on public schools
and public school teachers, as it has been in many states. Today, the Senate
tabled discussion on a bill that would make teachers wait 10 years to receive
tenure, the longest such time in the nation. One reason it was tabled is
because there were several Republican legislators who wanted tenure eliminated,
not amended.
But Steve
Cookson's bill is even worse. Cookson and his co-sponsors are saying that if
gay marriage, for example, or Don't Ask, Don't Tell become campaign issues in
this year's presidential election, they cannot be discussed in high school
government classes.
Laws that are
proposed in the state legislature itself would also be off-limits for
discussion.
Under Cookson's
reactionary law, teachers would be unable to address the kind of bullying that
often takes place because of students' sexual orientation.
It is likely that
Cookson's bill came as a result of the recent settlement in a lawsuit filed by
the American Civil Liberties Union against the Camdenton, Missouri, School
District, on behalf of a student who had been unable to access informational
websites about gay issues because the district's filtering system blocked them,
even while students had access to anti-gay sites and even some websites
featuring explicit sex.
The lawsuit was
settled with the district modifying its filtering system to allow access to
informational websites, but that decision was met with scorn by many in the
Camdenton community and apparently, some in the Missouri legislature.
While there are
many who could have filed the bill whose names would not have surprised me, the
fact that Cookson is the sponsor is a revelation- since Cookson is a retired
public school teacher, coach, and administrator.
His House
biography also notes that Cookson's parents were schoolteachers.
And now if this
former teacher, who has spent much of his life with and around educators, has
his way, the game will change forever in Missouri schools.
The students will
still have their constitutional rights- it is the teachers who will have to
shed theirs at the door.
These lawmakers are forgetting that Tinker specifically says, "Neither students NOR TEACHERS shed their constitutional rights to freedom of expression or speech at the schoolhouse gate.”
ReplyDeleteIt astounds me the amount of time and energy the Republican party is spending to battle this so-called "gay menace". What they are doing is discrimination and bullying itself.
Grow up Missouri lawmakers, and focus on the REAL issues that matter. Jobs, economy, crime, etc.
The first words of the bill are "Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary..." The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a "law to the contrary," because you can't ban speech based on its content unless it falls under several very narrow categories (e.g. child pornography, threats of violence). So the law basically has no effect, because it's unconstitutional.
ReplyDeleteIt is not surprising that the Republican party uses the non issues of homosexuality, abortion in the election campaign. Politics are about creating fear of the future (just like the Catholic Church has done successfully for millenia), then the only way the people can be "saved" are by voting for the "keepers of the faith". Faith and not facts, that is where the real danger lies.
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