Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for January 23, 2008 "FREEDOM WRITERS" CENSORSHIP CASE

'Freedom Writers' book could cost Perry Twp. teacher her job

By Andy Gammill

A Perry Meridian High School teacher’s attempt to follow the lessons in the popular movie “Freedom Writers” has ended with her saying she was censored and the district trying to fire her for insubordination.

Connie Heermann, a 27-year teacher, attended training last summer with Erin Gruwell, the California teacher who inspired the movie.

Gruwell has earned fame for sparking excitement in her apathetic students through writing. Heermann hoped to have the same impact at Perry Meridian.

So when Heermann returned from the training, she started talking with Perry Township administrators about using the lessons in her 11th-grade English class and talked of plans to use a book of diary entries from Gruwell’s students in her own classroom.

The book, which has been taught in other schools around the country, contains passages with racial slurs and some sexual content. At least one other district — in Howell, Mich. — has seen controversy over using the book.

Messages left for Gruwell and the Freedom Writers Foundation executive director Monday were not returned.

The “Freedom Writers” approach encourages students to write about their own experiences, to reach out to other students of different backgrounds and to work toward a future that includes attending college and taking an active role in their communities.

Heermann’s rift with district officials erupted in November, when the district moved to fire her, the latest controversy in a district trying to overcome bitter divisions reaching back to the firing of the superintendent last year and earlier controversies.

The board remains divided over the superintendent’s firing and the resulting lawsuits.

The discussion of the book echoes a debate last year when a School Board member and local ministers protested Perry Meridian’s production of the play “Ragtime” because it contained racial slurs.

Heermann, who has been placed on administrative leave, expects a hearing before the School Board.

Permission slips

In early November, Heermann collected permission slips for students to read donated copies of “The Freedom Writers Diary,” the collection of essays by students in Gruwell’s original class.

Heermann said Principal Joan Ellis gave her the nod to go forward, and she passed the books out to students. The district says permission never was granted. “I sought their approval,” she said. “They never told me I couldn’t until half my students had the book in their hands.”

At that point, Heermann said, a district administrator e-mailed her and said that she should not teach the book. The e-mail, she said, broke her heart as she saw students reading with rapt attention for the first time.

She continued with the lessons for a few days and then told students to turn their books in following an order from the principal. In the first class, 19 of 22 in the room refused.

Considered at length

The superintendent referred all questions to the School Board’s attorney.

Heermann erred egregiously on two points, said Jon Bailey, the school district’s lawyer. She disobeyed an order from her supervisors when she taught the book, he said, and she used a book in class that hadn’t been through the district’s approval process for all books.

“Anything that gets kids to write is good, but these are kids’ journals written in some very explicit language,” Bailey said. “The core issue here is, does a school district have a right to decide its curriculum content or do individual teachers have a right to take it in whatever direction they wish?”

The school’s principal, Bailey contends, was clear with Heermann all along that she could not pass out the books or use them for lessons.

He points to a letter she wrote after she was suspended in which she said she wouldn’t apologize and that she must stick to her convictions in the matter.

“They gave her great respect,” he said. “They listened to her. It was considered at great length. It was made very clear to her not to move forward.”

Heermann said the shame is that at-risk students who were beginning to embrace learning no longer will be inspired to read and write.

She has come, she said, to truly believe in Gruwell’s methods of reaching children through reading and writing that connects with their lives.

“This is not about my own self-justification or my union rights or my retirement. That is not what I’m fighting for,” Heermann said. “I want the public to know what has happened because I don’t want the students at Perry Township to continue to be disserviced.”