Refusal to Fight Won’t Cost O.C. Teacher His Job

Schoolteacher John M. Dickinson, an Air Force Reserve lieutenant who was jailed for refusing to fight in the Persian Gulf War, will not lose his teaching credential because of his act of resistance, state officials announced Tuesday.

Dickinson, 35, an Irvine resident who teaches fifth grade at Jackson Elementary School in Santa Ana, was thrilled and relieved to learn that the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing decided not to revoke his license on the grounds of “moral turpitude.”

“It’s a victory for the freedoms and rights our country really stands for,” said Dickinson, who learned Tuesday of last week’s ruling by the commission. “I feel good. The little guy won one. This is about freedom of speech, freedom of belief--not just in what’s politically popular, but what you really believe in.”

Dickinson, whose imprisonment made him one of Amnesty International’s 28 American prisoners of conscience, had returned to his classroom last fall after serving 5 1/2 months in military jails. But he had been bracing for the loss of his livelihood since March, when the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing informed him it would evaluate whether to revoke his license for moral turpitude.

“ ‘Moral turpitude,’ ” Dickinson said with a chuckle. “I thought that was the strangest irony of twisted wording. What I did was very moral. Maybe not popular, but moral. And here they were calling it immoral.

“I teach children, and I didn’t want to go kill children. If I was a drug abuser or had committed sexual assault, then I can see a possible connection to my role in the classroom. But all I said was, ‘I’m sorry, my conscience says I can’t kill, I can’t be a part of it,’ and all of a sudden I have a moral turpitude problem.”

Nanette F. Rufo, coordinator of legal and professional standards for the commission, which polices the conduct of the state’s 250,000 credentialed teachers, would reveal no details of the decision in Dickinson’s case, but confirmed that a seven-member committee of teachers, administrators and lay people had chosen to take no action against him.

Rufo said the commission reviews every case in which a teacher is convicted of a misdemeanor or felony to see if the nature of the offense relates to the person’s fitness to teach. Only two or three such inquiries a year result from military offenses, she said.

Joining the military reserve years ago, Dickinson had been told by a recruiter he would never see combat. His work in the reserves had consisted largely of domestic aid, such as helping fire and flood victims and looking for lost children.

Soon after the Persian Gulf War broke out, Dickinson, a devout Catholic, filed for conscientious-objector status, based on his deep-seated belief in nonviolence. But before he could get his legal strategy together, he was ordered to ship out, and when he failed to appear, was declared absent without leave.

In a court-martial, Dickinson--the only commanding officer to go AWOL during Operation Desert Storm--pleaded guilty to that charge and to missing a troop movement. He was sentenced to a jail term of one year, but about half of it was commuted so he could tend to his ill wife. Dickinson was also dismissed from the military.

Maj. Patrick Rosenow, staff judge advocate at March Air Force Base in Riverside County, where Dickinson was assigned, said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the actions of the credentialing agency. But he said that unauthorized absences from the military by its officers are serious offenses.

“This is a case where an individual broke military law,” Rosenow said. “He chose to do something that under military law was a crime, and the command responded in accordance with the law.”

Dickinson is appealing his conviction in military courts, contending that he should not have been ordered shipped out before he could fully argue his conscientious-objector claim.

Carol Sobel, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who represented Dickinson in his bid to keep his teaching credential, said his case had the potential to stifle constitutionally protected debate on major issues by teachers. That would set a poor example for students, who are taught that American citizens are free to speak their minds, she said.

“Exercising his conscience has nothing to do with his ability to teach students in a classroom, and it should not be turned against him and used to strip him of his right to earn his living,” Sobel said.

“He is a moral person. In a very important sense, he’s the model of the kind of person who should be in our classrooms. He acts on a very moral belief. He holds the best interests of this country at heart.”

Marion Pack, executive director of Alliance for Survival, an Orange County peace group, said she considers Dickinson’s victory a triumph for all who oppose violence.

“It’s a relief that in a world so racked by violence, someone who believes in nonviolence can stand up for what they believe in,” she said.

Dickinson said the experience has changed him forever, providing him glimpses of both the best and worst in human nature.

He cited the neighbor who put aside her own differing political beliefs to care for his ill wife while he was imprisoned, and the Quakers who showed up nightly with cooked dinners as the family’s income dwindled. There were also hostile letters and phone calls.

Dickinson also said he has not and will not discuss the case with his students, because he does not believe it is proper to bring his personal beliefs into the classroom.