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Ribault Students Say Protest Landed Them in Hot Water Students' Effort to Keep Teacher Was Causing Disruption, Administrators Say.

Posted on: Thursday, 20 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By TIA MITCHELL

All they were trying to do was keep their favorite teacher from transferring to another school.

Some Ribault High School students say administrators chastised them and threatened to send them to an alternative school for raising objections to the departure of Jennifer Duguid, who teaches Honors English to about 50 Ribault students.

School officials deny threatening the students but said the students were cautioned against disrupting others.

The protesters, all freshmen in the new Early College High School program, created T-shirts and posters and circulated petitions in an attempt to convince the administration to keep Duguid, who requested a transfer after receiving a poor evaluation.

"Early College on Strike," was written in red and blue marker on the front of Brodrick Watkins' T-shirt Sept. 30. "She goes, we go," was written on the back. Watkins said a security officer ordered him to remove the T-shirt.

"They always tell us to voice our opinion, but when we do they don't ever let us," Watkins said.

Interim Superintendent Nancy Snyder said Thursday she will ask Ribault Principal Steve Schyck to investigate the claims. She said students are free to express their dissatisfaction as long as they do not disrupt other students and teachers.

Snyder said protest is a part of the democratic system, and classroom lessons, such as American history and persuasive writing, often reinforce that. "It just has to be done in a appropriate way," she said.

The students organized the protest after Duguid told them she was transferring to Englewood High School to teach math.

Administrators at Ribault recently told her they did not approve of her teaching style and didn't think she was an effective English teacher.

Duguid said she initially wanted to stay at Ribault but she felt she had to transfer or risk receiving more bad evaluations and possibly end up being fired. Today is her last day at the school.

Students responded with tears when she announced her transfer plans Sept. 29. The next day, the students organized their protest.

"She gets on a level with all students and she works on a pace that all students understand what the teacher is teaching," student Bradford Hall said.

Because the nearly 50 Early College students attend classes in one wing of the school, few students outside the program were aware of the protest. Duguid was absent that Friday to handle unrelated family business.

Students said the school's vice principal, Deirdra Sutton, was visibly angry over the protest. She admonished them for hanging posters and scrawling "Save Duguid" messages on the white board.

Hall said he felt he and his classmates were exercising their First Amendment rights.

"The administration was telling us if we continue we will be taken to an alternative school for 45 days," he said.

Sutton said she did speak to the class on Sept. 30 but only after she received reports of students disrespecting the substitute teacher. When she arrived in Duguid's classroom, students were loud, disorderly and ignoring the instructor's efforts to teach, Sutton said.

"I felt that they were violating the student Code of Conduct because they were causing a major class disruption," Sutton said.

Sutton did say she removed a poster from the wall and handed it to a security guard who accompanied her. Students said the poster was thrown in a trash can.

Sutton said she didn't think the poster was appropriate for the classroom. She said she did not have any problems with the T- shirts.

Sutton said she talked to the class about the proper way to express dissatisfaction. She also sent in an assistant principal to review the Code of Conduct, including the consequences of breaking school rules. Sutton said she never threatened to discipline anyone for protesting.tia.mitchell@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4425

Source: Florida Times Union

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