Tuesday, March 6, 2007
This is a heartening follow up to Andover Teachers Union Still Trouble in Andover, wherein we learned that Tom Meyers and the Mass Teachers Association were still threatening a 1st Amendment lawsuit if the Andover School Committee went ahead with their proposed "controversial speakers" policy following the train wreck of a visit Meyers and Ron Francis wrought on the town.
Sounds as though the School Committee is ready for the fight.
Board says no to union demands
Union President Tom Meyers claimed that the policy, passed in response to the Wheels of Justice controversy at Andover High School, violated the teachers contract because it changed their working conditions. He also wanted to keep schools from notifying parents about outside speakers unless the union approved.
The School Committee consulted its lawyers about both demands before rejecting them, Chairman Anthony James said.
"That's not a matter of bargaining," he said. "That's under the purview of the administration and the School Committee."
The teachers union agreed to the notices - and the provision that students could opt out of the presentations. But in a Dec. 21 letter to the School Committee, Meyers said that in the future, the School Committee and union would have to agree to make such practices part of the teachers contract.
"This is clearly a change in past practice regarding speakers coming into the classroom," Meyers wrote in the letter, which The Eagle-Tribune obtained last week. "We believe that this is based upon the viewpoints being presented by the speakers."
Wheels of Justice speakers were supposed to visit six high school social-studies classes in October, but Anderson canceled the presentations amid concerns that Wheels of Justice would spread an extremist, anti-Israel message. Meyers, one of the social-studies teachers who organized the visit, then threatened a First Amendment lawsuit.
After consulting with school officials and lawyers, Anderson reversed his decision and allowed Wheels of Justice to speak Jan. 5. The classroom presentations went off without incident, but Anderson cut that evening's public event short when audience members yelled at and taunted the speakers.
Meyers could not be reached for comment.
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It looks like a lesson was learned. How sad that Francis and Meyers have proved that they can't be trusted to act responsibly/professionally and/or to put the students' needs above their own political desires.
Eric
If they claim the "controversial speakers" policy violated the first amendment, doesn't
keeping "schools from notifying parents about outside speakers unless the union approved" violate school management's first amendment rights?