In 1925 the Tennessee legislature voted to ban the teaching of evolution in all public schools. This decision led to the storied Scopes Monkey trial of Inherit the Wind fame. John Thomas Scopes deserved to go to trial-and perhaps even to lose his job-because his actions in the classroom violated state law.
But Al Wilder, a language-arts teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., got fired last March despite not breaking a single state law and without a trial. His so-called crime was showing the R-rated 1976 Bernardo Bertolucci film 1900 to a class of seniors.
In the Jefferson County school district, using a "controversial learning resource" without prior approval constitutes a district policy violation. Ron Mitchell, the school's principal, explained that the film "contains several things that our community could find objectionable, including full, frontal nudity, multiple-partner sex scenes as well as violence. I could not believe he hadn't discussed it prior to showing it."
It took 11 months after Wilder's firing for a hearing on the matter to begin. At last week's hearing, Wilder's lawyer claimed the school had no history of enforcing a prior-approval policy, an assertion backed by the testimony of 20 students.
Hardly the Italian cinema's answer to Showgirls, 1900 is a four-hour epic that documents the rise and fall of fascism between the turn of the century and 1945 in Italy. The highly lauded film traces how political ideologies-namely socialism-evolved in the face of the modern communications boom. The story spans three generations of struggle between capital and labor through the eyes of the residents of the Emilia Romagna region.
Burt Lancaster, Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, and Donald Sutherland all grace this cast. The film's serious nature and educational content is impossible to deny. Yet a teacher lost his job for showing it to a class of seniors.
Most high school seniors in this country are 17. That means, according to the Motion Picture Academy of America, that they are old enough to see R-rated movies of their own accord. Somehow, the higher-ups in Jefferson County still found the material inappropriate for a classroom of students who could have rented the movie upon furnishing a driver license.
Principal Mitchell's main objections to the movie are its nudity, sex, and violence. But what threat can onscreen exposure to these things onscreen really pose to a bunch of suburban, second-semester seniors? These carnal elements routinely lure adults to the theater, and no doubt have the same attractions for seniors who, for all intents and purposes, are adults when it comes to gaining admission at the local triplex.
Wary of the potentially offensive content, Wilder proposed a library assignment to any students who felt uncomfortable watching the movie. You can imagine how many jumped (none) at that offer.
Nonetheless, the district has treated this man as though he strapped his students to their seats and mercilessly subjected them to hardcore pornography. In fact, Wilder showed his seniors a film no more risqué in content than half the movies they probably watch on cable when neglecting their homework.
Wilder's official title was "language arts" teacher. He taught a class on political rhetoric, logic, and debate. These specific subjects are not the stuff of statewide curriculum. That Columbine High School features such offerings suggests that the school district is far from collapsing with poverty. Littleton may not be the plush suburbia of Clueless, but it's not going to make anyone forget about South Central Los Angeles. To think that seeing an R-rated film would corrupt these students is ridiculous. They all have middle- to upper-class economic backgrounds, and if they resort to misbehavior or crime it has nothing to do with what films they watch in a classroom.
Look to yourself as an example. Who among us didn't see R-rated dreck like Police Academy, Porky's, or Animal House a little prematurely? In contrast, these students saw one of the best films of the last 20 years, whose content they were legally and mentally mature enough to digest. Twenty of them testified to that at their teacher's hearing. But Wilder lost his job because he entrusted them with this responsibility.
Clearly, the school board did not have as much faith as Wilder in the maturity of its now-departed graduates. A year later, the teacher awaits his fate. Before we leave for break, a hearing officer will recommend either dismissal, retention, or probation for Wilder. Over the 11 months, Bertolucci himself and director Martin Scorsese have joined with other, less prominent artists in signing a petition asking Colorado Governor Roy Romer to intercede. One can only hope that in this case, the Governor's clemency will not be necessary.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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