Teacher plans to hire lawyer to fight forced reassignment

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

A North Las Vegas teacher whose Black History Month play became a source of controversy said Thursday he plans to hire an attorney and fight his forced reassignment to an alternative school.

Ron Turner, a first-year social studies teacher, said he was notified by Clark County School District officials at 2 p.m. Thursday that he would not be allowed to return to Canyon Springs High School.

Turner, who has been on paid administrative leave since last week, said he was told to report to work at Jeffrey Academic Center, an alternative program for chronic truants and students with behavioral problems.

"I'm not going," Turner told the Sun in an interview after he addressed the Clark County School Board during the public comment portion of Thursday's meeting. "I don't regret writing the play, I don't regret any of this ... but my job is in jeopardy."

Canyon Springs administrators asked Turner to revise his play, "I've Got to Keep Moving," and remove racial epithets. He refused, sparking a debate over free speech that culminated with more than 100 students staging a rally outside the school on his behalf.

At the School Board meeting, members of the community, including leaders of a Las Vegas Nation of Islam mosque, attended to show their support for Turner.

"You have a teacher who desires to give a more accurate, unfiltered depiction of our experience and that teacher is told he is a distraction," said Duke Muhammed, a minister with Nation of Islam Mosque No. 75. "A School Board should never be afraid to have the truth told to its students."

Lester Lewis, who ran unsuccessfully for a School Board seat in the last election, said he was disheartened that the district would try to suppress Turner's efforts.

Enthusiastic black male teachers are enough of a rarity without overzealous administrators chasing them away, Lewis said.

Confidentiality laws prohibit district administrators from speaking publicly about the circumstances surrounding Turner's reassignment, said Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia. A confidential analysis will be prepared for the School Board to review, Garcia said.

Clark County School Board member Denise Brodsky said she wanted the opportunity to read Turner's play for herself or even watch a videotape of the students rehearsing. She compared the controversy to Steven Spielberg's 1993 film "Schindler's List," which graphically depicted World War II concentration camps and the Holocaust.

"When it (the film) came out it was a big controversy, nobody wanted to hear about it or remember those things happened," Brodsky said. "But we have a responsibility to talk about things even when it's upsetting, because that's reality."