Last week, Kay Powers, a 22-year veteran high school English teacher was informed that she had been terminated from her job at Cascade High School in Everett, Washington. The grounds were that she was aiding and abetting a group of student journalists in publishing their school newspaper The Free Stehekin. When I was a student at CHS, I was on the school newspaper. But we just called it The Stehekin. The reason they added the "free"? They had to take the school newspaper underground.
Here's the article from the Everett Herald, continued downstairs.
Teacher loses job for helping student newspaper
By Eric Stevick, Herald writer
EVERETT -- A Cascade High School teacher has been fired by the Everett School District for helping students publish an underground newspaper with district equipment and on school time.
...
Powers, an English and journalism teacher, was placed on administrative leave June 1 for her role in students' use of school equipment to put out the Free Stehekin newspaper.
She has appealed the decision and asked a hearing officer review the case in public.
"I hope I get my job back," Powers said Wednesday. "I'm missing teaching. This is the first time since I was 5 years old I didn't start school in September."
Powers, who has taught at Cascade for 22 years, declined to discuss the specific charges against her.
"The specifics are going to come out in the open hearing," Powers said. "Obviously, I'm confident or I wouldn't be asking for an open hearing."
Some press attention was paid to Everett recently during a two-year court case in which the school newspaper editors of Everett High, Cascade’s district rival, sued the principal and district for censoring their public forum by instigating prior review. The case settled out of court with both sides claiming victory. But the way the settlement has been explained to me is that while the district does have the right to prior review (being able to see and comment on the newspaper before it hits the press), they do not have the right to prior restraint (stopping the student editors from printing the newspaper or any articles within).
To avoid censorship, during the long litigation, some students from the journalism class at Cascade decided to take the paper underground. Rules were established. No school time or resources could be used in the publication of the paper. A secure bank account was established. But instead of supporting this exercise in free speech, the district simply waited for someone to step out of line.
Last year, the 17-year-old student editor, David Whittemore, was caught by school officials downloading an e-mail from a district computer to his personal laptop. For this he was given a ten-day suspension and threatened with being denied his variance to attend the school from out of district. And Kay Powers, the teacher helping these kids, was placed on administrative leave.
Now, after months of waiting, she has received a letter of termination. The administration’s charges: using school time and resource for the newspaper, driving a student in her car, and a few more minor infractions. She has been fired, essentially, for helping her students print a newspaper.
I had Kay Powers as my Creative Writing teacher in high school. I was also the editor of the Tyro (now Tyro Libre), the literary magazine. I was also a four-year veteran of The Stehekin. There are few things I am prouder of in my life than the paper we produced. We won national awards. I was able to learn persuasive writing and how to ask the right questions. And I was able to learn to work with people, learning when to cooperate with and when to challenge each other. And we learned to write and to love writing, which is what any school endeavor should be about.
In my day (1989-1993) the newspaper operated under a very specific editorial policy. We were a public forum, by and about students. We did not suffer prior review. The students published the paper, period. We did allow the principal to read and comment on the paper before publication. But it was an act of courtesy, not a mandate. And we had a principal then who understood the importance of our autonomy. I was not privy to those discussions, but I never felt pressured or censored by the administration.
Times, sadly, have changed.
Kay Powers is an extraordinary teacher. I saw her open the minds of burn-out seniors, taking her class for an easy A who found it not quite so easy, but were inspired to work for the grade anyway. She is an iconoclast, a free-thinker, a bit of hippie. But she’s also one of the smartest and most engaging teacher’s I have ever had. Nothing matters more to her than justice and fairness. That’s why, I’m sure, she was driven to help the students publish their newspaper. And it’s why the district wants her gone.
I’m in Los Angeles now, not Everett, Washington. I a no longer a part of that community and I ache to think what is happening there. There should be no age restriction on free speech. If we teach our children to allow their words to be reviewed by grown-ups before they can say them, what kind of grown-ups will they turn out to be? "Fox News Viewers" is the easy joke and also, in essence, the truth.
I am writing this diary for several reasons. One is simply to share my outrage. Another is to find out if this story is getting press anywhere outside of Everett. But the main reason is to ask for some guidance here. What can I do, 1,000 miles away, to help create public awareness for Kay and her students? This feels like a huge story to me and I’m not sure if it’s my emotional attachment to this woman and her community or it’s because this is such a stark reminder of the real costs of living in Bush’s America.
The main thing right now is to get Kay a public hearing. I am hoping some local Kossacks will agitate for that. The only thing Kay asked me to do was something I was already planning on doing: writing a letter the editor of the newspaper who published the story, which I’ll print below. It would be great of others were are moved by the story do the same.
Kay Powers is the kind of teachers they make movies about. She’s a little brash, a little out of the ordinary, but she’s also thrilling to watch teach. If this were a movie, I would probably cast Susan Sarandon in the role (with Andy Serkis as a motion-capture reptile as Superintendent Carol Whitehead). But the problem is that the movie has no ending. We’re stuck in the second act. Now is the time when the students and the community rally to save her job. I know that in this day and age, that’s a lot to ask for. But I have to have hope. That’s something a great teacher, like Mrs. Powers, can give you.
Text of my letter to the editor of the Herald.
I had the great fortune to be taught by Kay Powers in my years at Cascade High. She is a singular teacher, the kind that opens her students’ minds and excites them about learning, reading, writing and participating in our society. Her recent termination by the Everett School District is a blight on an institution I was proud to be a part of for 13 years. My experience as a journalist in school, from the four years I spent on the Stehekin to my time as editor of Tyro, the literary magazine, prepared me more for life out of high school than nearly anything else I did in school. We were lucky, in my time, to have an administration that understood the value of student journalism and maintaining the public forum it provides our young people. It was good for us as budding journalists, the student body and the community at large. That Mrs. Powers was fired for helping her students exercise their free speech rights speaks ill of the district administration and ultimately the community members which allowed them to attempt to silence their children.
For 22 years, Kay Powers has been opening her students’ minds and instilling them with a love of language and culture. She has helped make Everett an extraordinary place to grow up. The community owes her their gratitude. The fact that taxpayer money is being used to fight against the free speech of our young people is a disgrace. The people of the school district community as well as Kay Powers are due a public hearing to discuss her termination and its cause.
My Name
Cascade High Class of 1993
Los Angeles, CA / Mill Creek, WA