Student's editorial costs newspaper advisor her job
DRAIN, Ore. -- Free speech rights for high school journalists are at the center of a debate that has cost a North Douglas High School teacher her job.
Loradona May will not be back at the school next year. May serves as the advisor to the school's newspaper, and her contract is not being renewed after a controversial student editorial was printed earlier this school year.
In October, a student wrote an editorial about enforcement of the school's new dress code.
In it, a teacher was quoted as saying "I agree with the policy. I don't want to see where your babies come from."
Students said the article set off a debate between May and school administrators about what was appropriate in the school paper - and if student work could be censored.
"There was no obscenity, no one was really being hurt, there were no legal reasons for me to cut any of that," May said.
Then in February, the school board sent May a letter saying her probationary teaching contract would not be renewed.
In the letter, they said she improperly influenced students to defy school policy.
"We are seeing good qualified teachers across the country lose their jobs because they dare stand up and for their students," said Mike Hiestand, an attorney for the Student Press Law Center.
He said stories like May's are not uncommon.
Oregon is one of seven states where the laws give students have almost complete editorial control over school newspapers, Hiestand said. He said administrators can only censor newspapers in extreme cases.
"There is nothing at all unlawful about the story I read," he said, "but unless the speech falls into one of those categories that is unprotected, the Oregon law protects students in their right to make their own editorial decisions."
Sarah George, an editor on the paper and a North Douglas senior, stands behind her teacher.
"She just has been telling us our rights, and it seems to me our rights are not fully included in that school board policy," she said.
This past Monday, May was scheduled to have a public hearing to appeal the school board's decision. At the last minute, she decided not to pursue the appeal.
Instead she asked the school board for a letter of recommendation.
North Douglas superindentent Dan Forbess said because this was personnel issue, he could not speak extensively about May's contract.
"She was heard and the board did not take any further action on the action that they had previously done on the action of a non-renewal of a probationary teacher," he said. "Other than that I can't comment on anything because it was all discussed in executive session."
Even though May won't teach at North Douglas next year, she said everyone involved has learned an invaluable lesson about free speech.
"I mean it was editorial, it was one little thing, and it had a lot of power," she said. "Maybe in this instance it wasn't the outcome anybody wanted or expected, but it had power behind it."
