(MintPress) – In light of the divisiveness created by the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a middle school teacher in Michigan is puzzled as to why she was fired for what she says was organizing a fundraiser for the Martin family with her class.
Brooke Harris, the 26-year-old charter school teacher, approached the district about allowing the students to pay $1 to wear a hoodie to school for a day in a showing of solidarity and support with the Martin family. After being denied, Harris said she was fired for the instance. The situation draws a similar parallel to teachers who were fired for civil rights activism during a time when race relations in America were strained.
The issue has stoked debate over whether Harris was promoting activism in the classroom and encouraging students to take a side in light of the shooting event in which no charges have yet been filed. Superintendent for the district, Jacqueline Cassell, did not offer a reason for Harris’ firing, but said it was “not the time in the school year” to distract students from academics.
Harris said she did nothing wrong, and even followed protocol when inquiring with the district about the fundraiser. The Associated Press (AP) reports that students at the school can regularly host fundraisers that allow them to “dress down” for a day. Harris’ fundraiser was denied by Cassell, but Harris was not fired immediately as she was motioned by Cassell during the school day to meet in her office, which resulted in Harris’ initial suspension.
“I didn’t tell the kids, ‘Let’s go and do it anyway,’” Harris said. “I was actually, literally, in the process of talking to my kids about what we could do instead when (Cassell) requested the meeting with me and told me that I needed to let it go.”
Harris was suspended, and then later told to stay away from the school, firing her, while dropping off prizes for students. Harris said Cassell “wouldn’t let me defend myself.”
“I just want a reason,” Harris said. “She’s got my phone number, and I’d appreciate if she’d tell me what I did wrong.”
Not alone
The fate of Harris is something Jonathan Kozol experienced during his time teaching in the Boston Public Schools system in the early 1960s. In response to the school’s demographics and segregation, Kozol taught students about poems written by Langston Hughes, a social activist who played a role in the Harlem Renaissance.
“I was a fourth-grade teacher in a deeply segregated school in Boston where nothing in the curriculum had anything to do with black children. So I picked up a copy of the collected poems of Langston Hughes,” Kozol recalled in a 2007 interview. “I hadn’t heard of Langston Hughes at Harvard; I heard about him from the mother of one of my students. I read a few poems in class and later I was charged with “curriculum deviation.” I was a white guy with a Harvard degree, so I didn’t suffer. I went on to teach in the Newton public schools. But the children suffered. That experience radicalized me.”
Hughes helped pioneer the Harlem Renaissance cultural movement that saw predominantly black writers tackle issues of racism and stereotypes through artistic means such as music and various forms of writing. Hughes and other writers promoted racial and social integration into communities across America, as well as progressive and sometimes socialist viewpoints.
But the movement was quickly undermined by the Great Depression and assumptions were made about the relation of the movement with the economic and social crises America found itself in. When recalling the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes wrote: “Negroes – Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day – They change their mind.”
Kozol said teaching the works of historical writers such as Hughes forced schools with all-white populations to expand their visions of equality and face the nation’s most troubling cultural practice head on: Racism.
“Our nation’s oldest sin and deepest crime is the isolation of minority children – black children, in particular – in schools that are not only segregated but shamefully unequal,” Kozol said.
Kozol taught for several many years after being fired before leaving the teaching profession and focusing more time on his writing. He now writes about the education system in the United States.
In 1964, noted civil rights activist and teacher Gloria Blackwell was fired from her role as a third grade teacher because of her central figure role of activism in South Carolina. Her civil rights work garnered national attention and a visit from Martin Lither King, Jr. and was honored in 2011 with a Martin Luther King Lifetime Community Service Award.
Barbara Woods, author of “Working in the Shadows: Southern Women and Civil Rights” hailed Blackwell and a pioneer who was unfairly treated and fired for advocating the overall wellbeing of all races in the US.
“Not only did [Blackwell] put her body on the line at civil rights demonstrations, but she also served as a role model for other women who were too frightened to challenge the traditional role that the community had set aside for female behavior,” Woods wrote. “She encouraged the youth because she was a teacher standing up for her rights. She was jailed, maligned, ostracized, and fired from gainful employment because of her activities on behalf of others.”
In a more recent event, an Ohio biology teacher was fired for preaching the bible in class after a 2011 court ruling that upheld a decision by the superintendent. John Freshwater often quoted the bible during lessons that touched on evolution or homosexuality. He also openly displayed the bible on his desk.
Freshwater argued that he has a constitutional right to preach the bible in class, but those laws are limited to students and not teachers or school faculty. Ohio law does not allow the teaching of creationism in its public schools. While the aforementioned victims of firings were not in violation of the law, Freshwater continued his push when The Rutherford Institute – a Virginia civil rights group – said they would appeal the court’s decision because they feel they would have a better chance of winning a first amendment battle in an unbiased court.
“The lower courts are very difficult to get by because they do uphold local school boards almost unanimously,” said institute president John Whitehead in an interview with the Huffington Post. “We’ll have a better chance in an appeals court which will have more distance away from the school board and the local community.”
Support for Harris
At a rally organized by the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Harris appeared wearing a blazer with a hoodie underneath. Dawud Walid, executive director of the chapter, said the lesson students take away from the denied Martin fundraiser is detrimental and will hurt students.
“It taught the students who tried to organize and tried to raise their voice in terms of social justice that they will be repressed,” Walid said. “Instead of empowering our children … the Pontiac Academy is actually teaching children to internalize oppression and internalize racism.”
Walid said the group stands behind Harris and is prepared to fight a legal battle against the school district to reinstate Harris.
“We’re ready to protest, we’re ready to march, and we’re even ready to give you legal counsel,” Walid said to Harris at the rally. “If we can’t settle this in the streets nonviolently, then maybe we need to settle it in the courts of law.”