http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/538p22.htm

(note: photo of Bill Nevins up on webpage)

Military hand in attack on free speech

BY BUSTER SOUTHERLY

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — On May 1, poet, teacher, youth poetry coach
and Green Left Weekly writer Bill Nevins received a terse notice from
the Rio Rancho School District informing him that he has been fired from
his Rio Rancho High School (RRHS) teaching position, effective from
August. Reasons for his termination were not stated. Nevins has
requested an explanation.

Nevins was suspended on March 17 from his job as a humanities teacher
and coach of the RRHS Poetry Team/Write Club. RRHS is the largest public
high school in New Mexico, built with funding from the Intel Corporation
in the late 1990s. Nevins' suspension came soon after a student poetry
club member read “Revolution X”, an anti-government, anti-war
social-commentary poem, over the school's closed-circuit TV system.

Following Nevins' suspension, student poets were questioned by the RRHS
administration and their poems were “investigated” for “profanity and
incitement to violence”, according to the student author of “Revolution
X” and other student writers. The Poetry Team/Write Club has been
disbanded. A scheduled school program featuring social commentary by
professional and student poets and musicians was cancelled by the RRHS
administration.

The firing of Nevins is a blow to the outspoken student poetry movement,
which was inspired in large part by the Poetry 180 national program
launched by US Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Poetry 180, for which
Collins has produced both a web site (<http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180>)
and a book, encourages high school students to “turn back to poetry” by
reading at least one poem each day over their school public address systems.

Nevins has renewed his request to the American Civil Liberties Union for
support, despite a May 5 letter to Nevins from ACLU New Mexico director
Peter Simonson (<aclunm@swcp.com>) stating that, so far, the ACLU
“investigation of your case did not uncover direct evidence of
retaliation”. Many observers would say that the evidence of retaliation=20
is more than obvious.

In a letter published on May 7 in a local New Mexico newspaper, RRHS
student Courtney Butler, author of “Revolution X”, stated: “During the
fall semester at RRHS I wrote a poem entitled `Revolution X'. I, along
with other students, delivered poetry in the Performing Arts Center at
the high school. We received praise from staff and students in the
packed auditorium. Early in the spring term, I read my poem again on the
school announcements. This poem is a social commentary. It comments on
how our society claims to value education, but in actuality spends
energy, time and resources on other things, such as war.

“A staff member, who has a military background and military mindset,
complained about the poem, saying it was an anti-war speech... Due to
the complaint, the administration asked for a copy of the poem... I
delivered it to the RRHS administrators when I got back from spring
break because they wished to read it. They read it, looking for two
things: profanity and incitement to violence. They found neither.”

The staff member who complained about the reading of “Revolution X” has
been identified by the administration as Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence
Morrell, identified on the RRHS web site
(<http://www.rrps.k12.nm.us/rrhs/Counselors/page8.html>) as the school's
military liaison officer, a school guidance counsellor and member of the
administration's appointed staff development committee. Morrell is
notorious for his bellicose pro-war, pro-Bush pronouncements over the
school's communications system. He is also known for his vigorous
recruitment of students into the US military.

It is suspected that Morrell's demand that action be taken regarding the
reading of the poem led to Nevins' suspension and termination, the
banning of public poetry reading at the school and the destruction of
the RRHS Poetry Team/Write Club.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has declined comment on the RRHS
poetry case. Richardson, a Democrat, is being widely identified in the
US media as a likely US presidential candidate in the near future.

From Green Left Weekly, May 21, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page: http://www.greenleft.org.au/