Retractions and Reactions

[elfs]

Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, there's a "clarification" of the Rio Rancho New Mexico poetry slam story.

It didn't happen.

Both the Rio Rancho High School district and Ms. Butler, the student whose poem supposedly sparked this whole shebang, issued statements describing the Daytona Beach News-Journal's article as without substantial merit.

It's a made-up story with some vague relation to real life. Yes, there was an incident in which anti-war posters were torn down-- at a different high school. Yes, the teacher who taught poetry at Rio Rancho is on administrative leave, but the student who wrote the poem herself writes that it is not for reasons associated with her, or any students' that she knows of, writing. Yes, the principal said the phrase "shut your face," but he did so because it happens to be a line in the poem.

Whichever of these stories is true, remember: it's always a lot more complicated than the newspaper column makes it out to be.

Comments

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Um, Elf, I think you haven't done enough reading in this area. I did some more, and there's a lot to believe that neither side is presenting much in the way of the truth. For one thing, this started happening back in March of last year. You can look here: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=11940 to get some more info. The teacher who claims to have been fired has already filed a lawsuit against the school as of September of 2003, so he obviously felt he had something to present about the school. And the school was asked to make an official comment about it back then and refused to do so. Only now, when it's become a big thing, have they finally decided to make a comment and include a statement by the girl too. She supposedly published this statement in several editorials in local papers, but I can't find them online yet. Also, there is no question she backs up that someone on the staff with military background complained (can she tell the difference between a military liaison and someone who is staff?) and the staff immediately went searching.

There's no question that the editorial that was written Bill Hill and published by the Daytona Beach News-Journal was inaccurate...quite a bit. However, that does not mean (1) that the core incident in question (a quelling of the first amendment rights of free speech of some students and the teacher because of some poetry) didn't happen, and (2) that the school isn't lying too. Note that from what research I was able to find so far, the school's official statement is the only place I've been able to find that says that the poetry slams have *not* been canceled. No one else seems to back that up.

Couple of other interesting places to look:
http://groups.msn.com/ChironReview/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=301&LastModified=4675418155940759269
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=20030525131211.02144.00000274%40mb-m23.aol.com&rnum=1

Several things are certain. Bill Nevins was suspended, then later fired. And he was suspended shortly after this poem caused Morrell to have a hissy fit (Courtney confirmed it). And Tripp's explanation that the school fired Nevins because he didn't fill out paperwork for a field trip properly is full of shit.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Else-net I have seen mentions of the Volokh Conspiracy website which suggest it's a particularly unreliable source, for anything.

It has its own tendency to political spin.

My own experience of the media is that it is pure chance whether they report a story accurately. One of our local newspapers still hasn't realised that a local cinema has been taken over by a new management company, and has a new name, in great big reassuring letters.

I can get very cynical about the press. And schools.