Rally for Tamara Hoover

RALLY FOR TAMARA HOOVER
Monday, June 26, at 7PM
AISD headquarters: 1111 W. 6th St.

Parents, students, teachers and community supporters will join Tamara Hoover and any other AISD employees that feel unjustly targeted by subjective, moralistic standards Monday evening outside of the AISD Board of Trustees meeting.

The FIRST AMENDMENT applies to TEACHERS TOO...Even if they are supposed to be “held to a higher standard.” (unfortunately, without the salary to match)

Austinites will come speak at, and rally outside of, the AISD Board of Trustees meeting to call for a school district that judges teachers by their TEACHING, by their skills and by their dedication to their job, and to bring the warning to ALL TEACHERS: YOUR JOB COULD BE ON THE LINE if someone finds something on the internet about you that they don’t like.

Tamara Hoover, an Austin High School art teacher, is currently being threatened with termination due to some nude photos of her found on an art photographer’s website. The District is apparently pursuing criminal charges and claiming that she was an ineffective teacher. SHE HAS DONE NOTHING CRIMINAL! And with the outpouring of support she is receiving from fellow teachers, students and parents alike, it is hardly likely she is an “ineffective” teacher…in fact, the Board itself had recently recognized her as an “outstanding teacher.”

Her termination is based on these photos subjectively being assigned as "inappropriate material" posted on a website. The policy such an act is said to violate is also HIGHLY subjective: the “moral turpitude clause” that prohibits "base, vile, or depraved acts that are intended to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of the actor." Whateever your interpretation of this clause, since Ms. Hoover wasn’t the one that pointed her students to the photos, she has violated NO policy. IN FACT: it is a fellow teacher, Gayle Andrews, who had a student bring up the photos on the internet for her whole class to view and who is NOT facing any discipline.

The final decision to terminate Ms. Hoover will come in August— she is appealing and asking for a hearing prior to that. They have yet to get her input or her side of the story. Monday night, supporters will ask them to set a date for her hearing so she can have her day in court!

"The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit — a spirit that demands self-expression." - Tamara Hoover

austinist
austin chronicle

UPDATE: Jazz artist Harold Smith is auctioning off one of his paintings on e-Bay with the proceeds of the sale going to Tamera. Bid here

UPDATE 2: eBay cancels the auction.