Spokane7
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September 8, 2010 in City
Shadle Park teacher on leave over hip hop song
A high school teacher in Spokane has been placed on leave for allegedly handing out the lyrics to a hip-hop song that criticizes the education system on the first day of school.
Spokane schools spokeswoman Terren Roloff said Wednesday the district was investigating the allegation. She said it was too early to say if the teacher, who was not publicly identified, will be punished.
On Thursday, the school district sent out a news release saying that the teacher will remain on paid leave until an investigation into the incident is complete. The profanity in the song’s lyrics was the issue, not the criticism of the education system, the release said.
Neither Roloff nor the release specified the song by the hip-hop group Blue Scholars, but the members of the Seattle duo said the song was called “Commencement Day.”
The song is an indictment of the education system, featuring several swear words.
The group said Wednesday on their Twitter account that it “recently got an email from a student in Spokane.”
“A teacher at Shadle Park HS was suspended for playing our song ‘Commencement Day’ in class,” the group tweeted.
Prometheus Brown, emcee for Blue Scholars, posted on his personal Twitter account that other students in the class contacted him and that he was going to “find out more info and find a way to support this fine educator.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: A previous headline on this story incorrectly stated that the teacher was suspended. The teacher is on paid administrative leave.
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ogdensk on September 08 at 3:55 p.m.
Great song but the lyrics may not be the best for school. This teacher should have know better. Does he or she allow students to talk that way in class. I doubt it. But still a good song.
JayNW on September 08 at 4:34 p.m.
before I comment on how appropriate this was- we should know the “why”- what class and what was the purpose. Just b/c there is profanity, or bad language in of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, maybe there was a real lesson behind it.
force_vector on September 08 at 4:39 p.m.
Hopefully the lesson here is for the teacher. When you are an educator to a diverse group of students who may come from a home where profanity is met with consequences, good judgement is finding a different way to make your point.
Truth1 on September 08 at 4:42 p.m.
Great lyrics and great song for the young minds of the new generation. And teachers should not show films or literature with profanity? The Catcher in the Rye, Ulysses, Slaughter House 5? This Hip Hop duo is extremely educated and their lyrics are rhythmical literature at its finest. Challenging the curriculums and institutions that indoctrinate this reoccurring conservatism that maintains this status quo is innovative, and should be recognized as so. To address this as a case of defiance where punishment may be involved is absurd.
tdimond on September 08 at 4:50 p.m.
This is a 12th grade english class… I think they have heard all the words before! The lyrics are real life…in any and all communities!
worthasecondlook on September 08 at 5:28 p.m.
How about N.W.A…..
karl2002 on September 08 at 5:32 p.m.
In looking for a quote that would express my thoughts about the misguided administration at Shadle repressing a free exchange of ideas in a senior level english class, I could not use my first choice from Lenny Bruce as it probably would be considered obscene. This was my second choice:
“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of all censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell.”
—George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession
ericdx on September 08 at 6:04 p.m.
I’m not a big fan of hip-hop, but there is more then a little truth to that song. I think that the message has hit a little too close to home for some of the administrators at Shadle Park, especially since, in theory, a 12th grade English class is about how to express opinion with the written word in a manner befitting an educated adult. I think the school administration is afraid that some of those young men and women might just write cohesive criticism of their 4 years at Shadle, and how badly those years were managed by administrators that are overpaid.
normsy on September 08 at 6:33 p.m.
I think my favorite part of all of this is that by putting the teacher on leave this became a story. Had they just talked to the teacher after the day was over, nobody ever knows about this. But now a good portion of Spokane high schoolers will end up hearing this song, and it may very well become an unofficial anthem of the Shadle class of 2011.
Ed Byrnes on September 08 at 7:32 p.m.
Momentarily setting aside the case law that generally allows school administrators to do things that they want let’s think about two questions:
How many things, sensitivities, identity politics and such will we allow to effectively erode our First Amendment rights?
To what extent do we want our students indoctrinated rather than educated?
History, which tends to repeat itself, indicates that totalitarianism more often is a creeping process rather than a punctuated moment of deprived of liberty.
To quote H.L. Mencken “All government, of course, is against liberty.”
LAOshea on September 08 at 9:58 p.m.
Ok….so I’m in the class that he taught and it is an english class. He gave us this song because we are seniors and he wanted us to get a different perspective on what life may be like after school. He warned us all about the profanity and that it may offend others before he played the song. If anyone had a problem with that they were warned and would have been allowed to leave the room. This is ridiculous.
Ed Byrnes on September 08 at 10:38 p.m.
LAOshea: Thank you for adding your most relevant perspective. Could you discuss for us, your readers, what the proportion of indoctrination versus critical thinking is in a typical high school class these days? This is an honest question that I do not know the answer to and I promise it is not any sort of baiting on my part.
LAOshea on September 08 at 10:57 p.m.
ebymes: ok…not meaning to sound dumb…but do you think you could maybe rephrase that question? i want to answer it but to be honest im not sure what your asking…
Truthhurts on September 08 at 11:38 p.m.
I went to read the lyrics after reading this article.
How embarrassing for the administrators to censor it. How lacking in irony they must be to verify the very lyrics they wish to prohibit.
District 81 has not actually made students work in decades, and yet they must sit there and only hear profanity from each others, and on their Ipods, but never in an educational context.
Lordy.
normsy on September 09 at 4:04 a.m.
LAOshea: Don’t worry, it’s an unanswerable question. ebymes wants to know how much you go through in a day is indoctrination, as opposed to things designed to get you thinking critically. The problem is that you can’t possibly know that, given you are the one they are trying to indoctrinate, or trying to get to think. Given that one can never truly know when their teacher is trying to indoctrinate them, it’s an unanswerable question.
eagleproducer on September 09 at 8:57 a.m.
I’m pretty sure I know which teacher that has been suspended and he is one of the few in the district who produces lessons of this sort that allow students to think for themselves and develop critical thinking faculties when encountering all forms of media. The teaching of language arts, in order to remain relevant to adolescents, needs to include their voices and voices they encounter in the world they inhabit.
Stowell would naturally not endorse the message in this song because the lyrics explain a condition prevalent in her schools: An abysmal graduation rate and even students who do graduate are ill prepared for higher education or the job market. Suspending a teacher who exposes that reality to his students is not only an affront to all educators who try to get students thinking critically, it is more than likely illegal and a breach of contract. Teachers have academic freedom, a first amendment right to present district curricula within a framework of their design. The lyrics in the song are age appropriate and contain language that is repeated in many district approved text. I’d have probably warned parents that I was planning on using the song, explained the context in how it was being used, how it is part of a larger unit of learning aimed at developing critical response to all media and offer an alternative (as in the plethora of non fiction material documenting the reality portrayed in the rap song) for students of parents who still object to the song.
Typical knee jerk district administrati reaction to what should have been handled in the building and never gone beyond his department head. You’ve got WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY bigger problems than this, Nancy. Why not use all that supposed talent you posses for which you are paid handsomely (near 200,000 including bennies, more than Governor Gregoire) to improve your graduation rate instead of hassling a teacher who actually produces results and students who can think for themselves.
elanath on September 09 at 11:22 a.m.
As the parent of a teenager who just started highschool in Spokane, I hope the teacher is quickly reinstated and allowed to use this song in class. I am going to make sure my new 9th grader has a chance to listen to it.
I support efforts by teachers that foster critical thinking, and those that invite students to look ‘behind the curtain’ at the mechanisms and motivation behind their schooling.
annarz on September 09 at 12:27 p.m.
I am not happy with hearing that a teacher was suspended because of a song that he was using to teach. High schoolers use profane language on a daily basis. If parents don’t like it, then it would be better to just lock them in their basement and hide them from the real world. Teachers need to be able to not have to sugar coat everything, otherwise students will never see the big picture. Hey world, reality is out there, you’re going to have to come to terms with it sooner or later. Don’t like it? Too bad theres no way for you to stop it.
arroyoribera on September 10 at 12:58 a.m.
I know the suspended teacher very well from a variety of contexts. He is one of the most intelligent, creative, passionate, inspiring and important teachers in the area. He needs to be returned to the classroom immediately with his students, though his temporary absence is once again giving his students a true education — about authority, about censorship, about social control, about “approved” curriculums, and about courage.
His commitment to community, truth, democracy, peace, and education (in its truest and best meanings) is evident in how he lives his life. I would walk the road to truth with this man any day of the week. Whether it was his bold and rich voice on a local community radio program he hosted or his storng leadership and clear analysis in campaigns for economic community justice and democracy, he is giving to his students what life has been given him to give in return — a free and open mind. What better gift for students.
All this hoopla over “Commencement Day”? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRkhiFmsPHU
The profanity means nothing. We live in a profane society where profanity abounds. Profanity is the first word these youngsters will hear if they get off a bus at military boot camp, the last word they will hear before their legs are blown off by a roadside bomb, and the words that will echo through their minds for a lifetime after they kill an Afghan civilian. It is the words they will hear at the football games and in the frat/sorority houses they will attend at WSU or U of W. They are the words that they will hear (or have already heard) yelled at them by local police and sheriff’s deputies as they are cuffed or thrown to the ground (or worse), whether they are guilty or not.
The true profanity is what too often passes for education and critical thought in our schools and our public discourse. The real profanity is the stultifying, monotonous, fast food education that is too often sold as “preparing our kids for the modern world”. If that is the case, why is our drop out rate in Spokane so high (one in three students)?
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/feb/21/levy-would-finance-dropout-rate-battle/
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_spokreview-dropout_rate.htm
The threat is not the profanity in this song. The threat is the message is the song. The threat is the truth. The threat is youth who can think their way out of the box of the trap and the nightmare that all of us are now living in — a failed economy, a two party ruling class consensus which represents virtually none of us, a country fighting disgraceful and illegal wars in various corners of the world, a society where record numbers line up for welfare.
I offer the following by way of tribute to this teacher, my friend, whose goal is to strip the mask of ignorance from the eyes of his students and to open their minds to think for themselves, and to all those who like him dream and act on behalf of a better world.
http://www.blip.tv/file/3478328/
David Brookbank
eagleproducer on September 10 at 10:17 p.m.
Thank you, David Brookbank.
I can offer no better defense for this educator and his choice for including the text of this song for his Senior level students. They are young adults who deserve a truthful presentation of public education in Spokane and their nation.
D Statler on September 11 at 9:11 a.m.
Must be a great teacher! He was given a extended summer vacation. I am guessing this administrative technique goes beyond this teachers time off.They are probably the first to expell their problem kids and reward them for bad behavior also.(one in three drop out rate sounds kinda inflated) The teacher should have been hacked and sent back to class! I am impressed with the comments in this thread. Challenging our students and administrators in these tough times is critical to survival of public education.Thanks to all that think beyond the box!
littlebit629 on September 16 at 2:22 a.m.
I graduated from Shadle a couple of years ago and although I never had the teacher who the article is about, all of my friends who did happen to have him always talked highly of him. It’s pathetic that one person who happens to be offended by lyrics has to nearly ruin a good man’s reputation as an educator. Apparently the parent has never heard curse words, and has never stepped one foot in a high school building because those type of words are tossed around easier than a salad. I’ve heard the administrators of that school use such words.