This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I mentioned in Wednesday's column the harassment teachers in Jordan School District received from some parents with too much time on their hands and who probably get all their news from Fox.
Here is the rest of the story and a shout-out to the district for standing up to right-wing micromanagers and protecting academic freedom.
I wrote about a Herriman High American government teacher who was in the cross hairs of some parents for displaying a Barack Obama poster on the opening day of school. He took down the poster due to the harassment, mostly from one parent who cited conservative commentator and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin as his source for why the U.S. president's likeness shouldn't be displayed in public schools.
The parent, ironically, described himself as a patriot.
The school's administration kicked the issue up to the district's superintendent and legal department, which concluded that since Obama was the duly elected commander in chief and it is not a presidential election year, it is appropriate to display a poster of him in an American government class.
The teacher promptly put the poster back up.
I wrote about a Bingham High English teacher who was targeted because of her reading list. The gripers said some of the books were pornographic and contained dark themes.
After the complaint, the books in question remain on the district's approved list.
Bingham, you might recall, is the high school that raised the hackles of Utah Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka when she learned, two months after the fact, that the drama department performed a student production of "Dead Man Walking," which explores the death penalty.
The play had been approved by a committee of parents and teachers, but Ruzicka's outrage prompted the district to change the parameters for how student-produced productions are cleared.
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The rest is history • Jordan District social-studies specialist Pam Su'a recently asked high school history teachers if any of them use Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."
None use it as a formal textbook, but some lecture from the first chapter, which talks about Columbus and the raping, pillaging and enslaving that occurred when he came to the Americas.
The teachers say they use that to demonstrate different historical perspectives, but one parent didn't like the volume's "socialist, leftist" nature. He complained to school board members, who made an inquiry about the book's use.
Su'a insists, however, that the district's history teachers have her full support in the way they are using different textbooks to show different perspectives.
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Ignored the red flags? • At least 20 Arena Football fans bought season tickets from the Utah Blaze for this year — despite the fact that the team did not take the necessary steps to participate in the league and, therefore, has no season.
The ticket buyers should have known better, since the Blaze's financial problems were publicized during the season last year. I wrote in June 2013 that the team was kicked out of EnergySolutions Arena because the franchise was $120,000 in arrears on its rent payments.
The Blaze were let back into the arena after coming up with a payment, but the team's money woes remained apparent among rumors that players had not been paid.
Even though the Blaze knew as early as last September they wouldn't be playing this year, they continued to sell season tickets.
The Utah Division of Consumer Protection announced this week that it had reached a settlement with the Blaze's parent company, Turf Toe LLC, requiring it to provide a list of season-ticket holders and pay the division a $6,873.50 fine, which the division will use to repay those fans.
The settlement was reached after the division cited the company under the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act.
Francine Giani, executive director of the state Department of Commerce, urged those who bought season tickets to file a claim with the division by Sept. 30 to get a refund. She said the division knows of 20 victims, but there are more.