Ms Sydney McGee had been a teacher for twenty eight years. She is fifty one - and abruptly has lost her job as an art teacher. The reason for her problems is a trip with her fifth grade class to the Dallas Museum of Art. There were eighty nine students, supervised by Ms McGee, four additional teachers and over ten parents. The problem is that one of the parents of her students objected to viewing any nude art in the museum. Ms McGee has been removed from the classroom and will not have her contract renewed. At the end on last year, she was ‘on leave’. Up to the point of the museum trip, Ms McGee’s evaluation as a teacher had been superior.

It does not seem that the Dallas Museum of Art has salacious art displays. Thousands upon thousands of students have toured the museum without complaint.

This is disturbing for the lack of support for Ms McGee. Why did the school administration not defend Ms McGee? Further, if the parents of this one student found some of the displays in the Dallas Museum disturbing, then they must be apoplectic about what is in the general media. Have they seen what is on the magazine shelves, on television, on music videos, on advertising … ?

And it should not be forgotten what lesson this teaches the children. It seems that, in this school and in this school district, fear of nudity trumps art, trumps a dedicated teacher and trumps common sense.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: ms sydney mcgee, schools, art, nudity, museum, catherine forsythe