Guilford Board of Education Accepts Teacher Nate Fisher’s Resignation

This piece in the Hartford Courant brings the facts, quotes from Nate Fisher, and a healthy dose of derision over the whole matter of a high school teacher resigning after giving a student a copy of Eightball #22 as a make-up assignment. One revelation in there that I hadn't seen before is that Fisher assigned the comic, later re-released into a stand-alone hardcover by Pantheon, because it was something that might allow the student to more quickly catch up. Another is that there might be two investigations as a follow up, and still another is that at least from Fisher's lawyer's perspective, labeling the book as pornography when it was clearly not pornography colored the entire affair and severely limited options for the 29-year-old non-tenured teacher.

That last notion just kills me, because the pornography designation was on the face of it wrong, and should have been the first item of business, and all the back and forth with people wailing about parents having the obligation to be protective of their children as if anyone on earth was contesting this idea drowned out what should of been an industry-wide, assumption-shattering, voice-as-one protest to this awful, unfair, dangerous and flatly false label.

Although it's done now, I think that based on what we know this outcome sucks, in no small part because it is not an outcome based on what anyone learned but instead was inexorably determined by what a few people were quick to presume. One hopes that any investigations into Fisher's conduct based on this perfect storm of overheated stupidity comprised of upset parents, lazy press people, and the fear-of-lawsuit-handcuffed administration figures enjoy all the success of a Vinko Bogataj ski-jump. It would also be nice if people make good on those glimmers of behind the scenes work on Fisher's behalf to help him find a new job or to provide as full a defense as possible if anything more dreadful comes up.
 
posted 10:22 pm PST | Permalink
 

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