The Idea Men are Plotting…

Teacher loses job for helping student newspaper

By Eric Stevick, Herald writer

For this blog response, I think I am tapping into some interesting boundaries.  I received a blog response through RSS to this article.  Upon reading it, there are tons of responses to Monica Guzman’s entry.  But before I look at some of those, let’s take a look at the article.

At Cascade High School in Evert, Washington, Kay Powers, a 22 year veteran teaching English and journalism, was placed on administrative leave for helping students produce an outside publication using school property during school hours.  Basically her dismissal is based on these 5 things which will be condensed.

1. Powers was told not to let school resources be used by students for independent publications.
2. Powers was told newspaper must be published not during school hours and away from the premises without school materials.
3. Powers allowed students to:
   1. Skip class to work on it.
   2. Violate school policies.
   3. Mishandle money collected by students.
4. Drove students in her car without parental permission and allowed students to be in her classroom unattended after school, weekends, and on evenings.
5. Didn’t cooperate with the district’s investigation.

I think that I need to talk about the reasons for dismissal.  I can remember riding with my teacher to go out for lunch.  The thing is I wasn’t the only person who ever did that, lots of other kids did it as well.  I can remember working on independent movies in my cinema classes that weren’t for school during school hours.  My friend and I even used the computers in cinema class to create a T.V. show for the local cable channel for our internship, which showcased the work of our fellow students’ media ability.  We would work on it during a class period that there was a class.  The school knew that we were doing it but we never got in trouble.  I can remember staying after school to work on projects then just locking up and leaving once I was done.  So many people did it and it was never a problem.

Maybe there are some other issues that took place at this school.  Maybe stuff was being stole that is why no one could stay after like I was able to.  Or maybe there are just strict rules that need to be followed here.  But, when we look at the other things like letting students skip class, violation of school policies, and her non-cooperative attitude, I suppose there should be some punishment.  She is being rather insubordinate to the superintendent.  I figured that cooperation toward a superior is important, especially after 22 years of teaching.  I don’t think she should have been fired unless there are other factors that have not been mentioned.  She should receive some kind of probation from equipment or she is not able to teach journalism for a while.  Firing seems way to steep.

Union officials tend to think that the punishment is too harsh for Powers.  Mike Wartelle, a regional union representative states that:

“I just think the superintendent’s decision clearly lacks proportionality.”

Superintendent Carol Whitehead seems to think differently.  Her only quote was:

“My job is to protect students,”

Powers was the advisor of the 2 papers (Tyro and Stehekin which are both student arts newspapers) before this lawsuit came up.  Before this law suit, there was a little fiasco in 2005 which was just recently settled.  The school district demanded to review each issue of The Kodak, which was a school newspaper.  Due to this, Tryo and Stehekin have now gone underground.  This is where the entire problem lies, I presume.  The school doesn’t want students to work on once sanctioned papers during school time.