Teacher, School Spar Over Nude Claim

(AP)  Like the artwork that teacher Sydney McGee insists she was fired for letting her students study, her former school says there's more to her dismissal than is apparent at first glimpse.

McGee, who taught elementary school in this sprawling Dallas suburb, has drawn national sympathy and disbelief since claiming she was let go last month because a parent complained that their child saw a nude piece during a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art.

Eighty-nine of McGee's fifth-graders toured the museum during the April trip, which McGee concedes likely included nudes but was arranged as a chance to see Picassos and Piet Mondrians.

"It's not a place of pornography, it's art," said McGee, 51, who has taught for 28 years and lists Oxford University among her graduate studies.

Her dismissal has stirred up familiar stereotypes of Texas conservatism run amok and the intemperate prudishness of suburban life.

The Frisco school board suspended McGee, with pay, on Sept. 22 for the remainder of the school year, and the superintendent has said he will recommend that her contract not be renewed. District officials have vigilantly maintained that the decision stemmed from separate personnel issues and not one child's exposure to a nude artwork, which has never been identified.

But as public attention has intensified, school officials are trying to defend their decision in a back-and-forth they say puts them in "an extreme disadvantage ... due to issues of employee privacy and ethical considerations."

On the school district's Web site last week, administrators posted that "we have tried very hard to take the high road" and said they asked McGee for permission to make her personnel files public. In a memo to McGee dated almost three weeks after the field trip, Fisher principal Nancy Lawson lists performance concerns that include not updating lesson plans and wearing flip-flops to work.

McGee's attorney, Rogge Dunn, said he would approve the disclosure if the district superintendent and McGee's former principal also disclose their personnel files.

Dunn said he is reviewing what legal options McGee might have. He downplayed news this week that McGee accepted a buyout of nearly $8,300 at her last teaching position in nearby McKinney, saying the documents, which include parents' complaints about her teaching, don't reveal the reason for the buyout.

"That doesn't mean you're bad at your job," Dunn said. "This doesn't change anything."

McGee said she arranged the field trip with Lawson's encouragement and toured the museum twice before taking her students. She said she decided against having the class examine a Mayan exhibit because its virgin sacrifices and bloodletting scenes were too "esoteric" for the students.

"We have a lot of sporting things in Frisco, with the soccer and the baseball," McGee said. "But not a lot of those kids go to the museum."

[avigil2]

The parent of the student who complained deserves an "F" for obstruction of an impressionable, young mind. Nudity, tastefully shown, is nothing to be ashamed of. And to the Baptist mom in Texas, please use spell check.

[oxyopia_]

Texas is an overwhelmingly Republican state. What does that have to do with anything? Well it is so obvious that people who vote republican do so because it is easier than thinking things out for themselves. They learn from their Republican leaders that it is okay to change the facts and outright lie to achieve their desired results regardless of how it affects citizens. Hence there is a strong correlation.

[peaceforusa]

We should start a petition condemning the schoolboard for their participation in this complaint and push to have this teacher reinstated. Although she may not want to work for this district after her unfair treatment.

Suffer the children

[cantshutup]

if i had a dime for every time some parent interfered in our school i could retire...these are the same parents who won't discipline their kids and expect teachers to fix them...the same parents who have an excuse every time the kids are late...the same parents who expect their kids to be treated like superstars and don't respect the time and efforts of teachers...who think they know more than people specifically educated for educating...don't get me wrong, parent involvement is crucial, but for all the dimwits with time on their hands...please stay home!!!

[jack_bauer11]

Dude...this is ***. I agree that this is the kind of parental interference that drives people away from the profession.

This is garbage.....it is a museum.....

Some parents are just stupid!!!

Sincerely,
Jack Bauer

Director,
CTU-Los Angeles

[btesar1]

My wife and I are both recently retired from public school administration--both of us were principals for more than 20 years. This is exactly the kind of parental interference that drives people from the profession. Certainly teacher don't have to take kids on field trips at all, so this teacher's initiative should be commended. Meanwhile, the flip-flops and lesson plan argument is an obvious red-herring. Too bad for the teacher, and probably for her students, too.

[mommoelling]

I a Baptist mom in Texas. Some artwork that is tastefully done is ok with me. Some "artwork" isn't. What she took the kids to see wasn't bad. I see a sue happy mom. Not to mention she was probley already sparring with the princple. Plus, If a parent is really that worried she should have taken the responiblity to check it out first. Children are the responiblity of the parents! Even when you send them to school.

[theyelladawg]

Unfortunately in this kind of bureaucratic bungling, there's more to this story than is being told. On the one hand you have a teacher with 20+ years experience and Oxford graduate studies who personally reviewed the museum collections prior to taking her students there (and made a professional decision about what they would - and would not - see. On the other, you have allegations that (apparently after the fact) that the teacher didn't follow an apparent dress code and didn't have proper paperwork. First, we need ALL the facts (so punish the writer). THEN maybe we can determine what the REAL issues are. A fifth grader harmed by a nude painting (in a museum)? Let's get a GRIP! Any fifth grader worth his (or her) salt can find something more salacious on a school or library computer with a 30-second Google Images search. Who's kidding who(m) here? It sounds more like a pissing match between a principal and a teacher that's gotten WAY out of hand. Score one for the bureaucrats - maybe?

[peaceforusa]

These parents need to be fired from living in Texas.
I see $$$ signs written all over this. And the schoolboard fell right into the hands of the complaintants.
I would rather have my child see a nude work of art in a museum, then have him see that pile of *** rated videos/magazines these people probably have stashed in their house.
If they don't want their child seeing this stuff, then don't let him go on any more field trips. And if they don't want him to be exposed to any outside influences, home school him, and then oppress his freedom of speech for speaking his mind, then lock him in a closet for looking out his window as a woman in a bikini rollerblades down the sidewalk...Geez I think now we are fringing on child abuse... People are truly messed up these days.. The parents who filed the complaint and the schoolboard for firing this teacher are all nutcases...

[shotupmurtha]

It's my opinion that the parent of this child wasn't offended in the slightest by the nudity in the museum. No, he/she saw an opportunity to make some money by filing suit. The administration should've rallied behind the teacher and supported her but, no! They saw that it would be cheaper in the long run to ruin this woman's career than to have to go to court!