Student speech

Up in the Northern Nevada watering hole of Fallon, the local teachers union continues to challenge the school district's praiseworthy decision to allow a reporter for a school newspaper to publish an article critical of a teacher.

In a statement late last week, the Churchill County Education Association pledged to "stand behind" Churchill High music teacher Kathy Archey -- whatever that means.

The hubbub centers on a story last month in Churchill County High's school newspaper, The Flash, focusing on parents who contend Ms. Archey withheld some student audition tapes from a prestigious state competition for aspiring student musicians.

"It is inappropriate and disruptive to the teaching-learning environment to air parent complaints about teachers in a school newspaper," said union president April Chester.

Really? An accurate report, on which the young reporter consulted with both her principal and a faculty adviser from the school of journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno?

Oh, the humanity!

The association claims the release of "confidential personnel records" and the printing of the article were a breach of its labor agreement and the district's policies.

"By allowing the article to run, the district ... violated its own policies assuring confidentiality of personnel matters and fair and objective teacher evaluations," the union chief said.

"This is not a teacher evaluation, this is a student article," Superintendent Carolyn Ross responded to the Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard.

She and school Principal Kevin Lords said it would have been a violation of the First Amendment had they blocked publication of the article by senior Lauren Mac Lean.

If the district actually gave the student access to the teacher's confidential personnel file, presumably the union will now have a chance to document that. Until they do, it sure looks like they're mainly trying to have a chilling effect on the freedom of the press.

"I believe the greater risk is to suppress information from the public that they have a right to know," said Ms. Ross.

If printing an accurate article on a matter of serious concern to both students and parents constitutes a "breach of the labor agreement," maybe it's time to tear the whole thing up, eliminate collective bargaining entirely and stop requiring teachers to pay union dues -- just as Gov. Jim Gibbons proposed last week.