Fired EACS newspaper adviser receives 1st Amendment award

Amy Sorrell, former newspaper adviser at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School in Woodburn, Ind., received the Mary Beth Tinker Award on May 16 for her battle with East Allen County Schools over an opinion article one of her students wrote advocating tolerance of homosexuality.\nTinker presented the award to Sorrell at the annual William H. Karchmer awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., as part of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project.\nThe award was named after Mary Beth Tinker, who in 1965, at 13 years old, wore a black arm band to school to mourn soldiers killed in Vietnam. Tinker was suspended from school, and in 1969 the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, was the first to grant First Amendment rights to public high school students.\nAndy Melin, assistant superintendent for East Allen County Schools, was in charge of revising a controversial editorial policy for East Allen County Schools, which include Woodlan. \nThe policy declared the high school principal as the publisher of the newspaper and denied the right of the adviser or students to seek legal assistance. \nMelin, who was also newspaper adviser at New Haven High School in East Allen County from 1989 to 1993, said he questioned whether Sorrell deserved the award.\n“There are a lot of teachers out there that are very strong advocates of student press rights and Mrs. Sorrell happens to be one of those individuals, and that’s great,” Melin said. “But I’m not so sure that there’s anything that’s happened in this case that would make Mrs. Sorrell stand out over all of the other journalism advisers that advocate as strongly as she does.”\nThe award-winning opinion column that sparked controversy at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School was written by 15-year-old sophomore Megan Chase. The column, which won a “superior award” at the annual Ball State University Journalism Day on April 20, urged students to be polite and respectful to one another, regardless of sexual orientation. \nChase’s column ran in the January 19 issue of Woodlan Junior-Senior High School’s newspaper, The Tomahawk. Ten days later, Principal Edwin Yoder placed the newspaper staff on prior review. This was the beginning of a controversy involving the American Civil Liberties Union, Indiana High School Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Student Press Law Center, who helped provide Sorrell with a pro bono attorney.\n“I feel very strongly that students have a right to write about sensitive issues,” Melin said. “But it’s the faculty, adviser and principal’s role to ensure that nothing happens for the writer or the school that makes things difficult.”\nOn March 19, Sorrell was fired from her position as the school’s journalism teacher and as The Tomahawk’s newspaper adviser and was placed on paid leave from the school system. Last month, the East Allen County school board reached a settlement agreement with Sorrell that involved her transfer to Heritage Junior-Senior High School to teach English, and restricted her from teaching journalism for three years, starting in the upcoming school year.\nSorrell said she is looking for other ways to stay involved in journalism, and she might try to find another position with a different school system or at the college level.\n“Had I been in some different financial circumstances, I would have kept on with it, if I could have afforded not to have an income,” Sorrell said regarding possible legal action against the school district.\nA settlement was reached just days before a scheduled public hearing Sorrell requested on her behalf. The hearing was canceled as an act of “consideration” for the witnesses preparing to speak, some of which were East Allen County School employees, Melin said.\n“The hearing would have been potentially in front of hundreds of people and the majority would have been there under the wrong idea,” Melin said. “They would have thought the issue was about First Amendment rights and tolerance of homosexuals, when really it was about insubordination of an employee.”\nMelin also said the school board was “extremely over-justified” in its case against Sorrell, based on the U.S. Supreme Court case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, which made administrative prior review legal in public high schools.\n“My concern in this case is if (Sorrell) in fact won the award based on the situation that occurred at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School, I’d have some preservation because there was absolutely no censorship; the article that Megan Chase wrote was published,” Melin said.\nMany First Amendment advocates still disagree with the decisions of the school board and administration of East Allen County Schools. Melin said the school system has received phone calls from people across the country, raising complaints and speaking out against the issue.\nBut Sorrell believes censorship occurred when the prior review policy was enforced.\n“I think that a lot of us have a different idea on what prior review is, and most of us in the journalism community feel that prior review is a form of censorship.” Sorrell said. “Although it may be legal under Hazelwood, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily right or good for students learning about journalism.”