Teachers union and ACLU-MA claim school officials are stifling fee speech

The Andover, Massachusetts teachers union and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU-MA) claim school officials at Andover High School (AHS) are stifling free speech because they cancelled a talk by speakers critical of the U.S. and Israeli governments. Tom Meyers, the union’s president, and number of social studies teachers had invited two members of Wheels of Justice (WOJ), a group of peace activists, to speak to an assembly of 200 students. Mr. Meyers alleges that AHS’s principal cancelled the assembly after receiving complaints about WOJ. He contends that it was the first time AHS canceled a talk in his 21 years of teaching at the school. WOJ’s speakers planned to discuss the criticisms of the war in Iraq and Israel's treatment of Palestinians. "I find it highly problematic that a few people, because they don't like the ideas of the speaker, feel they have the right to shut that person down," says Mr. Meyers.

However, Leonard Kesten, the attorney representing Andover School Committee, has stated that no permanent ban has imposed, but rather school officials have postponed the talk to make sure the discussion will be appropriate for high school students. He also points out that even if the speakers are banned no First Amendment violation will occur because "[a] high school is not a soapbox in the park … [n]ot everybody can just come in and say what they want." ALCU-MA staff lawyer Sarah Wunsch, sent a letter to Mr. Kesten arguing that the First Amendment does not permit the government, including public school officials, to engage in viewpoint discrimination against speakers. Rabbi Robert S. Goldstein, one of the community members who urged AHS officials to cancel the speaking engagement, says he did so not because WOJ espouses a pro-Palestinian view but because the group's views are extreme. Ron Francis, one of the AHS teachers who helped arrange the WOJ assembly and is a pro-Palestinian activist in the community, characterizes the school's decision as "political discrimination tinged with racism." "The Zionists, by that I mean people who support a Jewish privileged state, the Zionists don't want people to be educated about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians," says Mr. Francis.