WOODLAN - National and state free-speech groups are rallying to support a northeastern Indiana high school journalism teacher who faces firing for a dispute that began when a student newspaper published an editorial advocating tolerance of gays.
Amy Sorrell, who has been a teacher at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School for four years, was notified Thursday that the school board will vote May 1 on terminating her contract.
Administrators outlined seven reasons for firing her, including not following directives from Principal Ed Yoder regarding the newspaper's editorial policy. She was also accused of engaging in a campaign that portrayed East Allen County Schools and Yoder as intolerant.
Those accusations arose from an opinion piece published Jan. 19 in the school's newspaper, the Tomahawk, that questioned intolerance toward homosexuals.
Shortly after the newspaper was distributed, district officials said the column's content was inappropriate for an audience that includes children as young as 11 years old and that it should have been cleared first by Yoder.
Yoder said he would need to approve all future articles, a process known as prior review and generally disliked by journalism advocacy groups.
Jack Groch, the Indiana State Teachers Association representative for East Allen, said Sorrell intends to formally ask for a public hearing before the school board as well as more detailed information regarding the charges.
Meanwhile, supporters from across the nation are lining up to fight for Sorrell, who teaches other classes including AP English, and the students' First Amendment rights.
The Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for student newspapers based in Arlington, Va., is working to find a local attorney to help Sorrell in her fight, said Adam Goldstein, an attorney for the law center.
He said there are several problems with the school district's accusations.
"I'm concerned with the idea that Amy implied school officials were intolerant," he said. "I think it was censoring the article on tolerance that implied they were intolerant."
At this point, Goldstein said Sorrell would like to return to her job with the students' First Amendment rights intact.
"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."
In recent weeks, Sorrell and her students have also received support from the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Indiana High School Press Association and journalism professors and experts at Indiana and Ball State universities.
The Society of Professional Journalists also plans to continue supporting Sorrell and her students, said John Krull, president of the Indiana Professional Chapter. He said the district overreacted to the column, and continues to overreact.
"It's bad enough they took out a shotgun to kill a gnat, but the fact they keep reloading and blowing holes in the wall doesn't inspire confidence," Krull said.
Read the column in the forum section that published in the Woodlan Junior-Senior High School paper that led to the controversy
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