Free speech fight in New Mexico

Issue 

BY BUSTER SOUTHERLEY

ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico high school teacher and Green Left Weekly writer Bill Nevins continues to fight his March 17 suspension from his teaching job.

In a letter sent to Nevins by the Rio Rancho school administration, he is accused of having permitted students to go on "field trips" to evening poetry contests without filing school forms. As these events were not under school control, and during students' own time, these were not field trips.

Strong suspicion has arisen among parents and students that the suspension was because Nevins, who coaches the Rio Rancho school poetry team, did not prevent students from publicly performing poems that opposed the US attack on Iraq and criticised the US government. Nevins was suspended soon after an anti-war poem — "Revolution X" — was performed over the school's closed-circuit TV system.

Students report that the school administration has virtually put the student poetry club out of business. They have been intimidated by school officials' interrogations of student poets and an interim coach has not been appointed in Nevins' absence.

Students state they are afraid of "what this means for free speech, not just in our school but in the whole USA". They have been forbidden to read poems aloud at the school. However, a number of New Mexico adult poets have "adopted" "Revolution X" and are reading it at open poetry sessions around the state.

Meanwhile, at least seven other New Mexico teachers have been suspended or disciplined for anti-war-related matters. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Nevins' and many of the other suspended NM teachers' cases.

A legal defence fund has been established. Donations, words of encouragement and especially poems are very welcome and can be sent to Nevins/Poetry Defence Fund, 625 15th St NW, Albuquerque NM 87104.

From Green Left Weekly, April 16, 2003.
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