News
2007-04-03
Journalism
teacher may lose job for printing pro-gay article
A northeastern
Indiana high school journalism teacher could lose her job
after permitting the school’s student newspa
A northeastern
Indiana high school journalism teacher could lose her job
after permitting the school’s student newspaper to
run an editorial that advocated tolerance toward LGBT
people. Amy Sorrell, who has been a teacher at Woodlan
Junior-Senior High School for the last four years, was
told Thursday that the East Allen County school board will
decide on May 1 whether she should be released from
her contract for failing to follow the newspaper's
editorial policy, reports the Associated Press.
The controversial
article appeared as an op-ed piece in the January 19
edition of the Tomahawk. Shortly after the
newspaper was distributed to the student body, district
officials deemed the piece inappropriate since the
audience included students as young as 11.
Additionally, the district officials said per editorial
policy, the article should have been approved by
principal Ed Yoder before it was published.
Jack Groch, the Indiana State Teachers
Association representative for East Allen, told AP
that Sorrell intends to ask for a public hearing
before the school board prior to its decision.
AP reports that national and state freedom
of speech groups have come together to fight for the
First Amendment rights of Sorrell and her students.
The Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for school
newspapers, has already begun locating an attorney to
represent Sorrell, said attorney Adam Goldstein.
Goldstein also said that Sorrell simply
wants for her students' First Amendment rights to
be acknowledged.
"It's not as if there was a controversy about
this newspaper that led to these actions by the
district," he said. "There was silence from the
community and then a controversy created by the district's actions."
Other groups lending their support to Sorrell
and her students include the Indiana High School Press
Association, the Indiana chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union, and journalism professors at Indiana and
Ball State universities. (The Advocate)
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