Tolerance is controversial.........

" There isn't anything controversial about tolerance"
Amy Sorrell


The Jan 19th appearance of a student's editorial in the Woodlan Junior-Senior High School newspaper, The Tomahawk has led to the newspaper's advisor and high school instructor's suspension and a fight for her job. It also has school officials in that small community facing serious concerns from others in regards to censorship and First Admendment violations. School officials in the small, conservative town of Woodburn IN, a town of approximently 1,600 residents and located 10 miles east of Fort Wayne contend that Amy Sorrell failed to alert Principal Ed Yoder to the sensitive material contained within the article published and suspended her with pay as of March 19th.
The source of this debate is centered on an opinion column that many have stated is a very thoughtful advocacy of tolerance of homosexuality. Megan Chase, a sophomore at Woodlan, was prompted to write her column after a friend of hers told her that he was gay.

" I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today's society," she wrote. "I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they're just different than you."

Sorrell, an English and journalism instructor at Woodlan and the advisor for The Tomahawk, stated that she had shown the principal four stories about teen pregnancy, including an opinion piece intended for that same Jan 19 printing that advocated teaching safe sex practices over abstinance education because she felt they might cause a stir. She acknowledges that she never mentioned Chase's column because of the belief that tolerance isn't controversial.
The school's reaction and handling of this matter has led many to state that there are much deeper ramifications to their decision.

"This is a real threat to quality student journalism if an advisor can be removed for not having censored a perfectly legitimate story that there was no legal reason why it shouldn't have been published."
Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, Arlington VA

Several have argued that the spirit of the article was tolerance and that students have access to more mature material in the school library and on the internet including, Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Commitee for Freedom of the Press and Stan Plfuegar, Woodlan graduate and President of the Fort Wayne chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. There are those as well within the community that defend the school officials belief that Sorrell didn't follow the rules by her own choice.
A public meeting had been schedualed for April 28th and a vote by the school board was expected to be held on May 1. The statement from her attorney, Patrick Proctor, that "The school administration has said in no uncertain terms that she's not going to be given a journalism position" has led Ms Sorrell to sign an agreement acknowledging she neglected her duties as a teacher and was insubordinate in refusing to obey school official's orders.
Amy Sorrell it would seem was forced to trade her belief that tolerance was not a controversial topic and a thoughtful opinion column from a student with this view was something that 7-12th graders should be allowed to read, for the opportunity to teach English at a different high school.
Schools I have always believed, are a place to learn.... when did learning tolerance for others become a subject to spark controversy and be branded as something that should not be read by students? When did it become acceptable for a student's opinion about tolerance to become intolerable and worth violating First Admendment rights?