THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080564
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
An Elizabeth City Middle School teacher was told to leave her eighth-grade classroom and resign this week after starting to show her students ``Schindler's List,'' a movie about the Jewish Holocaust.
Johnette Cook, who had taught at the school since 1992, acknowledged Thursday that she was ordered to resign Tuesday after failing to follow school policy covering the viewing of films.
``This is not a personality issue, it's an education issue,'' said Cook, 32. ``It's not a personality issue, it's a censorship issue.''
The critically acclaimed movie by director Steven Spielberg is based on the true story of a businessman who convinced the Nazis to let him employ Jews in his factory, thus sparing 1,100 of them from concentration camps in World War II.
Shot mostly in black and white, the R-rated ``Schindler's List'' includes sexual content, violence and nudity.
``Throughout the entire study of the Holocaust, I had always made references back to the film and its depictions of different elements'' of the Holocaust, Cook said. ``It's the closest thing we have to actually being there.''
Cook, who lives in Virginia Beach, admitted she did not receive permission from school officials before airing the first installment of the three-hour-plus film on Monday.
The Elizabeth City-Pasquotank school system has a detailed list of guidelines for the selection of instructional materials and media resources. Approval from a media advisory committee is among them.
Cook did, however, send home parental permission slips. Students without permission to see the film were excused from class.
Very few students missed the movie, she said.
Cook, who teaches literature and communications, said her 13- to 15-year-old students have read ``The Diary of Anne Frank'' and took a February field trip to the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C.
``There is nothing in `Schindler's List' that would shock you after being in the Holocaust memorial,'' said Michael Palfrey, a parent and supporter of Cook.
``I think what they did to her was bad, but even worse than that was what they did to the kids,'' Palfrey said Thursday. ``To come in and yank her out like that was damaging to those kids.''
School officials learned of the planned showing Tuesday morning after the host of a radio talk show advised them the program's main topic would be a discussion about the viewing of the movie at the school.
``That's when we officially found out that the film was being shown, apparently outside the parameters of the selections process,'' said Charles White, the school system's public information and community affairs director.
Cook had planned to quit her teaching post today because of her husband's job relocation.
Nonetheless, students were very upset - some crying in class - when they were told Tuesday that Cook was leaving sooner than expected.
``Everybody took it hard and was really shocked,'' said Michael Palfrey Jr., 13.
``She was one of the most dynamic teachers I've ever met in my life,'' he added.
Palfrey said the class saw only 20 minutes of the film before Cook was dismissed. ``We really didn't see all that much. The worst thing was drinking and smoking,'' he said.
Cook defended the nudity in the film and at least one sex scene, even though the students never got to see them.
Jewish prisoners were routinely stripped naked as a form of psychological abuse by the Nazis. And the sex scene between Oskar Schindler and a mistress, which the teacher debated showing, demonstrated Schindler's flaws.
Cook said she was particularly upset with being taken from her students without an explanation initially. A counselor on Wednesday informed the class Cook had left on her own accord.
``I did go willingly, but I would never have gone if I wasn't asked to,'' she said.
Both Diane Bradford, the middle school's principal, and school system administrator Carlton Thornton declined to comment Thursday, citing confidentiality in personnel matters.
``She did leave early,'' said Thornton, the assistant superintendent of personnel. ``But beyond that that's all I can say. This is a personnel matter, and you have to make sure you protect the rights of employees.''
Cook said she still stands by her decision to air the movie.
``I do have courage, and I do stand up for what I believe in,'' she said. ``And I do think this was a good thing to do.'' by CNB