Cascade High free speech dispute inspires scholarship

Published 11:40 pm Saturday, February 16, 2008

Supporters of a fired Cascade High School journalism teacher are raising money for a scholarship that will be awarded to students who stand up for the First Amendment.

“It makes me feel like the last 22 years of my life at Cascade High School has been one full of purpose and love,” said Kay Powers, who was fired last fall for her role in helping students publish an underground newspaper.

The English and journalism teacher was placed on administrative leave in June and fired in November after a consultant hired by the Everett School District concluded that Powers helped students publish “The Free Stehekin” with district equipment and on school time despite being warned not to do so.

Powers has appealed her firing and has requested an open hearing that is scheduled to begin April 16.

She has more than her job on the line. After firing Powers, the Everett School District filed a report with the state’s Office of Professional Practices, which could lead to the revocation of her teaching credentials. District officials said they were following legal requirements in filing the report.

Powers’ supporters, including teachers, former students and parents, argue that the penalty is excessive and that the teacher worked hard to make students independent thinkers who respect the right to free speech. Nearly two dozen of her backers kicked off a scholarship fund in downtown Everett earlier this month.

“When the fight for free speech gets close to home, it gets less theoretical and sometimes people don’t have the chutzpah to stand up for their First Amendment rights,” said Karen Shoaf Mitchell, Cascade High School librarian. “We want to make things better for the future.”

Mike Therrill, a government and history teacher at Cascade, said the goal is to expand the scholarship in the years ahead from Cascade High School to the Everett School District to nationwide.

“The scholarship is a respect for the First Amendment freedom of the press,” Therrill said. “Kay sees it as being much bigger than her.”

Despite the legal battle ahead, Everett School District leaders said they have no problem with the scholarship.

“Any time a group of people get together to pull together funds to help students go on to college, that’s a good thing,” said Mary Waggoner, a school district spokeswoman.

In the termination letter, Superintendent Carol Whitehead outlined several reasons for Powers’ dismissal, saying the teacher violated district policies and Whitehead’s personal directives by allowing students to use school resources during school hours for an independent publication.

Several Cascade teachers say the penalty was too harsh.

“It is perceived by faculty as having been very out of proportion to any alleged events,” said Kari Averill, a history teacher who worked with Powers since 1987.

The Everett School District last year settled a lawsuit with two former Everett High School student editors filed in 2005 after administrators demanded to review each issue of that school’s student newspaper, The Kodak, before publication.

After the demand, students at Everett and Cascade high schools published newspapers off school grounds. Cascade High’s student arts and literary magazine, Tyro, also went underground. Powers was adviser of the school-sanctioned Stehekin and Tyro before the lawsuit.

Both The Kodak and The Stehekin are part of journalism classes at Everett High School and Cascade High School this year.

Powers, 65, said she hopes to win at her hearing in April and return to teaching.

“I plan to teach until I’m 70,” she said. “I always have.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.