An Indiana teacher who used a much lauded bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, to try to inspire under-performing high-school students has been suspended from her job without pay for 18 months.
The effective book ban by the school authorities in Perry Township has outraged teachers and education reformers.
The Writers Diary, a series of true stories written by inner-city teenagers, was put together by a teacher, Erin Gruwell, and has been celebrated as a model for transforming young lives. It was made into a film with Hilary Swank last year.
Connie Heermann, a teacher for 27 years, sought permission to introduce the book to her students last autumn after attending a training workshop held by the Freedom Writers Foundation. “If you read the whole book you will see how these inner-city students grow and change and become articulate, compassionate, educated young people who want to do something good in their lives despite the environment in which they were raised,” she told the Guardian. “I thought my students would very much relate to those kids.”
Her head agreed and Heermann got written permission from nearly 150 parents, but the Perry Meridian high school board urged her to wait for its decision.
Teachers’ union officials say that a single board member objected to swearing in the book. The school board member allegedly persuaded the other six officials to ban Heermann from teaching the book. It remains available in school libraries.
Heermann and the union say there was no explicit ban on the book when she handed it out to pupils on November 15. But later that day she received an email from the board advising her not to teach the book. “That was the pivotal moment of my life, when I saw how my students were taken with the book, how they loved it, and then I am told not to let them read it? I said no,” she said.
After being threatened with dismissal, Heermann was eventually suspended. The union is deciding whether to take the case to court.
The school board denies book banning and accuses Heermann of insubordination. Barbara Thompson, the school board president, wrote in an email yesterday: “She knew she had defied her supervisors’ direction in her work and that her defiance was ‘insubordination’ and ‘neglect of duty’.”
When caring teachers are suspended, and the school board are idiots, it’s no wonder our childrens’ learning is suspect.
From Tom Heermann, husband of suspended teacher
Dear Morgan:
I want to thank you for again posting this tragic story on your (new?) blog.
Connie was asked by the Indianapolis Museum of Art to host a “conversation” on censorship in Indiana. The event is tomorrow night, starting at 6 p.m.
The Freedom Writers movie will be first shown in entirety, then Connie will speak and answer questions.
This is her first “paid” speech.
(I wrote you an email, talk later.)
Tom Heermann
better known now as husband of Connie
Tom – Not a new blog just another one of the four I have.
Hope the event went off with a big bang!
Will read the email you alluded to and get back to you at your ’smiley’ email address over this weekend.
Hang in there!
Morgan
Turns out school boards are not supposed to set educational policy. They are only supposed to take care of the money. Maybe if we forced them to stick to their part of the deal, and let the highly-trained educators teach, we could avoid tragedies like this!!
institutrice – Right on. Thanks for the comment.