<<  -- 8 --  Madeline Jenkins Millard    FAUST AND THE 'FREE WORLD'

Three weeks after the board meeting, Waggoner had yet to learn her fate. On 9 March 2006 she confronted Superintendent Sauter. 'I finally phoned him and said: "Mr Sauter, the last thing I received from the school was February 18th. At the school board meeting you had 53 parents who were there fighting for me to be back in the classroom. Fifty-three against six." And I said: "'Dr Sauter, why then am I not back in the classroom? What is your reason for not having me back in the classroom?"'

'And he said, "Well, it would be too disruptive."'

'And I said: "Disruptive for whom?"'

And he said: "For the parents."'

'And I said: "Is that what we're concerned about here? The parents?"'

'Well it would be disruptive for the students as well.'

'And I said: "Are we not concerned about the education of these kids?" And that's where I left it. For him to think it would be too disruptive for the parents! The six parents?'

Technically, Waggoner remains a paid employee of the Bennett school district although she is not allowed to return to the classroom. 'I'm still an employee and I will be until August and then they'll be done,' she explains. Fortunately, she does not reside in Bennett and should soon escape the Bennett Six's scope of influence. Legally, she is free to start looking for another position, and she is doing so.

At this writing, a movement to recall the school board is afoot. 'If they do not revoke that school board, you're going to see more problems,' Waggoner predicts. 'The school board does not come up for election for another two years, so you've got to get a new school board. You have to! They are trying to obtain information on how to go about it. They need to find out. If they care about their school and they care about their town, they do. This is Dr Sauter's last year and look at the mess he's made! I know there have been only two applicants for his position. For other principal positions, as many as 50 or 60 people apply. And what teachers are going to go out there? They're not going to be able to get good teachers or administrators.'

Anne Culver, Professor Emerita, of the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music, wrote to the Rocky Mountain News: 'Tresa Waggoner is facing the greatest danger of all: the anti-art philistinism of the uneducated who use their religious beliefs as sledgehammers on the rest of us. The message appears to be: Teach what you like, as long as it's not controversial, doesn't question those in power or authority and, God forbid, doesn't leave out the Christmas carols! The "free world?" It's not in the classroom.'