A First-Grader's Free Speech

Walter Fitzgerald is a bright first-grader in a small public school in Robort, Tennessee. Young Walter is like other children his age, except for an above average brain in a head covered with a shock of red hair. The salient circumstance that separates Walter from his classmates, in a socially conservative area, is his family. Walter lives with his biological mother, Patricia and her lesbian lover, Katherine Mooney. Walter's mother generally keeps to herself and jealously shields her family's privacy, but rumors abound in any small town.

Walter's first-grade teacher created an academic incentive for her young charges. After students reached a certain level of reading proficiency, the students were permitted to read aloud to the class a short passage of their own choosing. When Walter earned his opportunity to read aloud, he elected to read a short passage from Rainbow Families, a child's book on tolerance. Without going into age-inappropriate graphic details, the book is a short parable for primary school children on acceptance and the equal validity of all familial, loving relationships.

In 1996, any tolerant acquiescence that may have existed in the Robert community evaporated when the teacher examined the passage Walter chose to read. Walter's teacher stopped Walter from reading the passage and Walter returned home at the end of the day, crestfallen, eyes gleaming with tears.

Walter's mother argues that First Amendment rights are not yielded at the classroom door and that the prohibition of Walter's otherwise age-suitable reading was content-based and a violation of Walter's rights. The school board retorted that, "teachers should be able to control the educational environment ... Some one has to decide what is taught. It should be the teacher who decides — not the parent standing on the sidelines."

There was talk that perhaps Walter was put up to his reading by a politically motivated mother. The mother reports that an exasperated principal told her that, "I have enough trouble with Jews." The principal denies making the statement.

Thus far for Walter the Constitution remains an unfulfilled promised. He and his family have not received redress from the courts. The Federal District Court ruled against Walter and the ruling was subsequently upheld by the Circuit Court of Appeals. At least until an appeal to the Supreme Court concludes and perhaps longer, Walter must keep his ideas to himself lest he corrupt his fellow students.

The above story reads like a classic tale of intolerant social conservatives using political power to enforce their narrow and unthinking vision on others. It is certainly a tale, a tall tale. The outlined sequence of events to did not happen.

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