Teacher Settles With EACS: Amy Sorrell to Relocate to Heritage, Teach English, Not Journalism.

By Ese Isiorho, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Apr. 27–Amy Sorrell will continue teaching, but not journalism and not at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School.

East Allen County Schools Superintendent Kay Novotny put her on paid leave March 19, two weeks after her journalism class refused to print a new district policy in the paper making principals publishers and all material subject to review. The policy was implemented after a column from sophomore Megan Chase published Jan. 19 in The Tomahawk, the school newspaper, urged tolerance of homosexuals.

Sorrell, 30, was scheduled to have a public hearing Saturday to explain why she should be allowed to keep her job. Instead, her lawyer, Pat Proctor, and EACS attorney, Tim McCaulay, agreed Wednesday night to settle the matter, McCaulay said. Part of the settlement allows Sorrell to teach English at Heritage Junior-Senior High School, from where a teacher had transferred to Woodlan this week. She taught journalism and English at Woodlan.

“I believe Amy made the right decision,” said Indiana State Teachers Association representative Jack Groch.

He said he expected to fill the New Haven High School auditorium — which can hold about 1,000 people — for Saturday’s hearing. Members of the Society of Professional Journalists, officials from the Indiana High School Press Association and teachers from around the state were to come by the busload.

The school board was then supposed to decide at its meeting Tuesday whether Sorrell would be allowed to keep her job at Woodlan.

As part of the settlement, Sorrell will receive a written reprimand for insubordination for refusing to print the district’s new policy naming principals publishers of school papers and for failing to inform EACS administrators of her students’ decision not to publish the March issue of The Tomahawk. They contended the pages came back too late for print after Principal Ed Yoder reviewed it. The reprimand will be removed from her record after one year assuming there are no other incidents.

“I believe every time you do a settlement, there’s a little give and a little take,” Novotny said.

Sorrell, who has worked at Woodlan for four years, will begin serving an unpaid, five-day suspension May 1 as part of the reprimand. She will then be put back on paid leave for the remainder for the school year.

“I do not agree with the reprimands that have been issued against me,” Sorrell said in a written statement. “However, due to my personal financial circumstances, I am not in a position to contest the disciplinary action contained in the written settlement agreement between myself and the school administration.”

The settlement, signed by Sorrell and Novotny on Thursday afternoon, requires Sorrell to issue a statement that reads: “None of the actions that I have taken or comments that I have made from Jan. 23, 2007, through April 25, 2007, were intended to suggest that the administrators of Woodlan Junior-Senior High School have been motivated by intolerance towards homosexuality. …”

Novotny said that, from the district’s perspective, the issue has always been a personnel matter, not one of tolerance or the First Amendment.

“As we looked at the whole thing, it was somewhat discouraging to us. My hope is that Amy understands the conditions and will return to the classroom next fall.”

Sorrell said Thursday’s settlement was not the way she thought the three-month battle would end, but she’s glad it’s over.

“For my own part, I look forward to working with the administration, teachers and the students at Heritage Junior-Senior High School,” Sorrell said in the statement.

“Heritage is an exceptional school, and I am certain that teaching there will be a rewarding experience.”

Chase’s opinion piece received an award at Ball State’s Journalism Day a week ago, according to Assistant Superintendent Andy Melin.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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