Free Speech in New Mexico

[Paul Finkelman]

Daytona Beach News-Journal Online (http://www.news-journalonline.com)


http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN62051504.htm



Hard lessons from poetry class: Speech is free unless it's critical


By BILL HILL

Last update: 15 May 2004

Bill Nevins, a New Mexico high school teacher and personal friend, was 
fired last year and classes in poetry and the poetry club at Rio Rancho 
High School were permanently terminated. It had nothing to do with 
obscenity, but it had everything to do with extremist politics.

The "Slam Team" was a group of teenage poets who asked Nevins to serve 
as faculty adviser to their club. The teens, mostly shy youngsters, were 
taught to read their poetry aloud and before audiences. Rio Rancho High 
School gave the Slam Team access to the school's closed-circuit 
television once a week and the poets thrived.

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 was suspended for not censoring the poetry of his students. 
Remember, there is no obscenity to be found in any of the poetry. He was 
later fired by the principal.

After firing Nevins and terminating the teaching and reading of poetry 
in the school, the 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." What a wonderful 
lesson he gave those 3,000 students at the largest public high school in 
New Mexico. In his mind, only certain opinions are to be allowed.

But more was to come. 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.

The message is plain. Critical thinking, questioning of public policies 
and freedom of speech are not to be allowed to anyone who does not share 
the thinking of the school principal.

The teachers union has been joined in a legal action against the school 
by the National Writers Union, headquartered in New York City. NWU's 
at-large representative Samantha Clark lives and works in Albuquerque.

The American Civil Liberties Union has become the legal arm of the 
lawsuit pending in federal court.

Meanwhile, 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.

While students are denied poetry readings, poetry clubs and classes in 
poetry, Nevins works elsewhere and writes his own poetry.

Writers and editors who have spent years translating essays, films, 
poems, scientific articles and books by Iranian, North Korean and 
Sudanese authors have been warned not to do so by the U.S. Treasury 
Department under penalty of fine and imprisonment. Publishers and film 
producers are not allowed to edit works authored by writers in those 
nations. The Bush administration contends doing so has the effect of 
trading with the enemy, despite a 1988 law that exempts published 
materials from sanction under trade rules.

Robert Bovenschulte, president of the American Chemical Society, is 
challenging the rule interpretation by violating it to edit into English 
several scientific papers from Iran.

Are book burnings next?

Hill is a retired News-Journal reporter.



-- 
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
Tulsa, OK   74104-3189

918-631-3706 (office)
918-631-2194 (fax)

paul-finkelman at utulsa.edu

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