LEWISTON – Parents and local Republicans flooded the school system with calls and e-mails Tuesday after College Republicans released a statement charging the high school violated a student’s right to free speech.
School officials say they didn’t do anything of the kind.
The College Republicans say school officials are avoiding the truth.
Each side is calling the other unprofessional.
The spat started last week when 17-year-old Brent Bowen, founder of the high school’s Republican club, began handing out copies of the Maine College Republicans’ free newspaper during lunch. Both sides say a teacher stopped Bowen and asked if he had permission to distribute the papers. The teacher’s name was not available.
“I knew that there was no policy, and I said that I didn’t really need permission,” Bowen said.
When the teacher persisted, Bowen got an assistant principal’s approval and returned to the cafeteria with his papers.
That’s where the two sides split.
In a statement sent to media outlets and Republicans across the state, College Republicans alleged that a group of teachers confronted Bowen and threatened to suspend him if he didn’t stop. Although he wasn’t involved in the incident, Chairman Nathaniel Walton said the story came straight from Bowen and into the news release. In the release, Bowen is quoted as saying a faculty member ripped up several newspapers after hearing he had permission to give them out.
In the news release, College Republicans called the teachers’ behavior “unprofessional” and “reprehensible.” The group urged an investigation.
Distributed Tuesday, the release caused an immediate flood of phone calls and e-mails to school officials. By afternoon, people had bombarded a Republican Web site with comments about the incident. One school official heard about it on the radio.
High School Principal Patrick O’Neill said he had no idea the newspaper incident had even happened until a copy of the news release landed on his desk.
“I thought, My God, I can’t believe I’m reading these things.’ I called Brent right down,” O’Neill said.
After talking with Bowen and the teacher involved, O’Neill said he was satisfied that only a single teacher challenged Bowen that day in the cafeteria, and that she never threatened him with suspension. He believes no papers were ripped up in anger, although a few may have been thrown away as cafeteria workers cleaned up.
Although the school has no formal policy on free student handouts, he said teachers often approve items before they’re distributed to make sure they aren’t pornographic.
“I guess (Bowen) did the right thing, and I think we did, too,” O’Neill said. “I think this thing has been blown out of proportion.”
School Committee Chairman James Handy took it one step further, calling the news release “offensive” and “inflammatory.”
“Clearly the generators of the press release didn’t have all the facts in front of them,” Handy said.
But Walton stands by the release and the story, even though he wasn’t involved.
“They weren’t there. The press release is an account of a student’s experience. I think that’s more reliable,” said Walton, a friend of Bowen’s. “Of course (school officials) don’t think this is right because it’s something they don’t want to deal with.”
Bowen, for his part, changed his story during the course of the day. In a phone call from school Tuesday, he said he didn’t know the teacher who challenged him, he wasn’t sure whether other teachers had ripped up his papers and he was pleased with the administration’s recent response to the situation.
Out of school, with Walton by his side, he said he was familiar with the teacher through friends who took classes from her. He said he believed teachers did rip up the newspapers.
He also changed his opinion about the school’s response.
Bowen said he was happy with O’Neill’s quick response, but he was not happy with the school’s response overall, he said in his second interview on Tuesday.
“I’m frustrated with the administration,” he said.
He wants the teacher warned about her actions. He wants the school to adopt an academic bill of rights so that students will feel more free to express themselves.
O’Neill said he supports free speech in the high school and might agree with a bill of rights. But he has also contacted the College Republicans and asked them to meet with him and Bowen.
“I’d like to sit down with him and Brent and get to the bottom of this,” he said.
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