Journalism
teacher may lose job for printing pro-gay article

A northeastern Indiana high school journalism teacher could lose her job after permitting the school's student newspaper to run an editorial that advocated tolerance toward LGBT people. Amy Sorrell, who has been a teacher at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School for the last four years, was told Thursday that the East Allen County school board will decide on May 1 whether she should be released from her contract for failing to follow the newspaper's editorial policy, reports the Associated Press.

The controversial article appeared as an op-ed piece in the January 19 edition of the Tomahawk. Shortly after the newspaper was distributed to the student body, district officials deemed the piece inappropriate since the audience included students as young as 11. Additionally, the district officials said per editorial policy, the article should have been approved by principal Ed Yoder before it was published. Jack Groch, the Indiana State Teachers Association representative for East Allen, told AP that Sorrell intends to ask for a public hearing before the school board prior to its decision. AP reports that national and state freedom of speech groups have come together to fight for the First Amendment rights of Sorrell and her students. The Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for school newspapers, has already begun locating an attorney to represent Sorrell, said attorney Adam Goldstein. Goldstein also said that Sorrell simply wants for her students' First Amendment rights to be acknowledged. "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." Other groups lending their support to Sorrell and her students include the Indiana High School Press Association, the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and journalism professors at Indiana and Ball State universities. (The Advocate)