Teacher Freedom

“Final Legal Exam Sought for Idea of Academic Freedom” (May 13) is deeply disturbing. The fact that the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that “teachers have no rights to free speech and academic freedom” is reminiscent of the attacks on educators in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy prior to World War II. Hitler and Mussolini knew full well that they could not seize control of their nations’ governments before they first stifled free and open inquiry in their school systems.

Without academic freedom, America’s schools will also cease to be educational institutions that create the foundations for a democratic society. They will instead become cogs in an American fascist machine that has already crushed, or is threatening to crush, many of our other rights and freedoms. Thomas Jefferson, Harry Truman and many other American presidents must be rolling over in their graves.

DENNIS M. CLAUSEN

Escondido