Teacher in gay-tolerance flap settles

Despite the wording in the headline, this was hardly a “flap.” This was school administrators denying students their First Amendment rights and teaching them just the opposite of what they should be learning in school about American citizenship.

Hope she prospers in her new position teaching English instead of What-You-Must-Think studies.

Next they'll want to start banning books that some fascist principal finds unsuitable. Welcome to Indiana, please set your clocks back 70 years.

So much for the 1st Amendement rights of educators and students!

She should get her original job back. What idiot came up with this idea?

"We already bought the tickets"-Abe Lincoln

School officials ought to be ashamed. So much for freedom of the press or free speech.

What a bunch of BS. the principal should be fired, and made to promise he will never enter a school again. Bigotry sucks.

Sorry, Hoosier Teacher. Didn't you know First Amendment rights aren't extended to gays, or those that fraternize with gays? Keep ignorance and intolerance growing strong in our schools! Homogenize our youth!

Way to go East Allen! You guys in NO WAY at all look like morons. I hope they have Ms. Sorrell's journalism job ready for her after three years (if she stays, which -- why would she stay there when they treat teachers like crap)?

By the way, look for numerous issues like this to be frequent in the future -- times and our children are changing very quickly, like it or not (I usually do not myself, being an educator).

This is an absurd abuse of First Amendment rights. Those who think that such rights shouldn't apply just because it is a school paper and "inappropriate" should think about this: that is a public school, paid for with public money. Therefore, federal laws, such as the United States Constitution, still apply. You can't force a student to leave school because they are gay. That's discrimination, and you can be sued for it. Why, then, is it okay to fire people who allow students to write about homosexuality?

grumpy wrote:

Hope she prospers in her new position teaching English instead of What-You-Must-Think studies.

Hope she prospers in her new position teaching English and Think-For-Yourself studies.

A "settlement" implies some form of admission of guilt or wrongdoing. It must have been insubordination because there appears to be nothing "wrong" with allowing and supporting the message of the student's article.

In response to Hoosier Teacher. Students writing for a SCHOOL newspaper do not have first amendment rights, namely because those rights are not granted to minors. Hopefully, you're not teaching American Government. Students and faculty must abide by the rules and decisions set forth by the administration. Should the administration have allow such a topic? Maybe, but they didn't. This teachers job is to follow the curriculum set forth by the school district and the state, that's her JOB. She is not entitled to pick and choose what topics or rules she wants to follow. The public school is a place of learning, not a forum for public debate. I live in Carmel and am expecting my first born in August, hopefully you've retired by the time my child reaches your class.

In what way was the article not suitable? Why should she be punished for the writings of another student? Why is promoting non-violence toward gay teens bad? Morons.

Wow. I can't believe she can't teach journalism for three years? Isn't that quite extreme?

Being Hoosier-Small Towns, Small Minds

We send students to school to teach them to think and write....evidently this is a new perspective....glad I went in the 70's when we did just this and it was called: Expression of Speech!!!!

Wow that's pretty sad. I went to grade school and high school not to far from Woodlan (Leo). Sad to see the community come down against tolerance and free speech.

Amazing.

Hoosier wrote:

That is BS. If I were her, I'd tell them to take their job and shove it up their collective puritanical as*es.
Only in hillbilly Indiana....

...Thanks for your racist biggoted remark. Your comments speak volumes about your hatred for Indiana residents. Now go away.