Some more followups
JISHOU, HUNAN — Here’s what I’ve been able to glean from the ‘Net about a few other school-related stories I have followed.
Brittany McComb — This Nevada high school senior defied school authorities in 2006 and gave a valedictory that mentioned not only her own Christian devotion but encouraged others to follow Christ too. School officials pulled the plug on her microphone, but she continued to deliver the address. With the support of the conservative Rutherford Institute, McComb filed a civil rights suit in US District Court that July against the school district and the individual school officials. She appeared on Hannity and Fox on cable TV, and ended up a darling of the Christian right. As of Dec. 2007, the case was stalled in the US Court of Appeals, so it may be a while before anything noteworthy happens. McComb is currently a student at Biola University, a Bible-based institution in California.
Tericka Dye — A much loved science teacher in western Kentucky, Dye lost her job in 2006 after it got out she had appeared in a few porn movies as “Rikki Andersin” more than decade before. She appealed her dismissal, but lost. She got her moments of fame when she appeared on Dr. Phil. Dye left the Paducah area, and at last report was working elsewhere under a different name.
The Cocoa Beach Peace Shirt Coalition — In late 2007, a group of high school students in Florida decided why not wear peace-related shirts on the same day every week? What’s the harm? You would have thought they were plotting the overthrow of the US government. School officials tried to ban their shirts. Fellow students called them traitors. Some created a rather ironic counter-revolutionary group that wore confederate t-shirts to school. (The South was all about peace 147 years ago.) The students still wear their peace shirts to school, but also still have to put up with taunts and misunderstanding of their message.
Daphne Beasley — This Memphis principal hit the headlines last spring when she outed a gay high school couple to everyone, including the boys’ own parents. It seems she was trying to set down rules about public displays of affection and asked her staff for the names of couples to monitor. The list of names somehow ended up on a school bulletin board, and Beasley and her bosses got a no-nonsense letter from the American Civil Liberties Union advising them of their civil rights violations. Beasley is no longer principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College High School, judging from their website. I am not clear where she is now or what the outcome of the ACLU letter was, however.
