Teachers Win Tentative OK for Academic Rights in Vista

Teachers in the Vista Unified School District have won tentative approval for an extensive academic-freedom clause in their contract that would shield teachers from community pressures when they tackle controverial topics.

The clause would allow teachers to “introduce lawful political, religious or otherwise controversial material” that is relevant to a course.

Union representatives said the clause is necessary and cited three separate incidences last year where small groups of parents attempted to alter school curricula by confronting the teachers involved.

“This does not give the teachers carte blanche by any means whatsoever,” union president Tamara Drean said. “But it basically ensures that nothing can come from a small minority in the community and be implemented.”

Over the past year, parents in Vista have objected to the use of the novel “Candide” by Voltaire in a high school English class, the content of an anti-substance abuse program called “Here’s Looking at You 2000,” and the inclusion of a spelling program for elementary school children called “Wizards.”

Although more than a quarter of the school districts in the state already have similar academic-freedom clauses in their contracts with the faculty, this is the first time since collective bargaining with teachers began more than a decade ago that the issue has arisen in San Diego County.

School officials in the county hailed the pending adoption of the clause as giving teachers “solid ground to deal with controversial issues.”

“You’re not left in the position to have to wonder if you will be supported by your principal,” said Hugh Boyle, president of the San Diego Teachers Assn., the second-largest teachers union in the state.

Other education activist said recent pressures from conservative groups in the county have intimidated teachers into avoiding controversial subjects and materials.

“There is a lot of fear. Teachers are very sensitive to the will of parents, the will of the school board and the will of the administration, and there are groups that are getting more influence in the community that have a particular agenda, and they are strongly advocating one particular point of view,” said Poppy Dennis, a member of the Mainstream Voters Project and a teacher in the La Mesa-Spring Valley school district.

“A policy is needed to clarify that teachers can’t be penalized (for addressing controversial issues) so they can feel free to teach without fear,” Dennis said.

Some teachers at Vista Unified felt harassed by parents who approached them, vociferously opposing some of the materials being used, Drean said.

A parent of a student at Rancho Buena Vista High School had objected four months ago to graphic language in “Candide,” a book on the district’s recommended, but not required, reading list, school officials said. The book is not being taught this year.

Some parents also objected to the program “Here’s Looking at You 2000,” arguing that the program did not state that drug and alcohol abuse is wrong, but rather showed the effects of such abuse and left the decision in the hands of the children, Drean said.

The “Wizards” program at Beaumont Elementary School used a fantasy world as a motivational technique in learning how to spell. Children earned points for correct spellings to reach different levels such as giant bees and wizards. Some parents argued that the program promoted satanism, Drean said.

Some parents and school board member Deidre Holliday also attempted to implement a family-life program that was “completely shame-based and contained incorrect physiological and psychological information in it, beyond the issue of values,” Drean said.

Holliday declined to comment for this story.

School district staff and board members emphasized that the clause does not preempt parents from expressing their opposition.

“It acknowledges that teachers who are following the district curriculum shouldn’t be open to criticism. If members of the community don’t like the content, then they can go through the established procedures to change that curriculum,” said Peter McHugh, Vista’s assistant superintendent of personnel.

Nationwide, the issue of academic freedom in schools has experienced a resurgence in the last year, said Carolyn Wallace of the National Education Assn.

“It’s an old issue that is coming back to life again. For a long time, teachers have had to endure having their books and supplies being censored because of how parents feel about what is being taught,” said Wallace, who expects to see more, stronger academic-freedom movements in K-12 education.

Over the last five years, the number of instances where books or other materials have either been banned or attempted to be banned by parents has grown, educators say, and efforts such as academic-freedom clauses are the response by teachers to protect themselves.

“It’s not surprising because teachers in almost every subject area are coming under fire when controversial topics are raised, whether that’s evolution in science, contraception in family life or literature in English,” said Michael Hudson, vice president of People for the American Way.

“This is the way for teachers to inoculate themselves against sectarian attempts to challenges in the curriculum, and it’s very legitimate because of the increased frequency of curriculum challenges,” said Hudson, whose organization has documented a 58% increase nationwide in the number of school curriculum challenges over the last five years.

Although the academic freedom clause ensures teachers’ rights as educators, it also comes with responsibilities, said Alan Proffitt of the California Teacher Assn.’s task force on extremist attacks on public education.

“If you have the right to express your opinion in the classroom, you also have the responsibility to express the other side as well,” Proffitt said.

The conservative organization Citizens for Excellence in Education, one of the groups that Drean said she feels is trying to unduly influence teachers, said it welcomes the clause.

“What we are in favor of is that the policy is going to allow teachers to express their own religious or political viewpoint, and so far all the Christian teachers have been shut out” from expressing their viewpoint, said Robert Simonds, president of the Orange County-based organization and president of the National Assn. of Christian Educators.

Simonds did object to the part of the clause that stipulated that no teacher “will be unlawfully disciplined or have his/her contractual rights violated . . . because of his/her lifestyle,” saying that it would “protect homosexual activities by teachers that often lend themselves to recruitment of students.”