ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 1, 1996 TAG: 9611010054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
Rush is right in lots of places, but teachers at Montvale Elementary School apparently think he's wrong for the classroom.
For the second time in less than a year, a Montvale teacher has taken away a copy of Rush Limbaugh writings from fifth-grader Jason Gardner. And the school has since instituted a policy that students cannot bring any reading materials from home.
That has captured the interest of the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit watchdog group for issues of free speech and religious freedom.
"Basically, our position is this goes well beyond the pale of ordinary censorship," said Rutherford Institute attorney David Melton. "In essence, they've turned this into a thought crime. They're saying he cannot sit there and silently read a book that the school has deemed to be politically incorrect.
"At this point, the school district is no longer playing the role of censor, they're playing the role of thought police."
In May, when Jason was still in fourth grade, his teacher ignited a controversy by confiscating a copy of Limbaugh's best-selling book, "The Way Things Ought To Be." The boy was reading a section on "condom bungee-jumping," a parody of condom distribution in public schools. School officials said the book was inappropriate for a fourth-grader. Jason's father, Thomas Gardner, sued the school system in federal court, but the case has yet to go to trial.
The latest incident happened Sept. 26, when Jason brought the June copy of Limbaugh's newsletter, "The Limbaugh Letter," to read during a silent recreational reading period. When Jason's teacher saw what he was reading, she told him to take the newsletter and go to Principal Ron Mason's office.
The newsletter's topic was "How to be the Best," a conversation between Limbaugh and Miami Dolphins football coach Jimmy Johnson.
According to Melton, Mason sent Jason back to class with a note stating that there was nothing wrong with the newsletter. However, sometime after that, Melton said, the teacher told Jason not to bring it back to class.
Shortly after, the school banned the bringing of any reading material from home, Melton said.
Neither the Gardners nor Limbaugh could be reached for comment. Mason, the principal, said he could not comment on the incident because of the pending lawsuit.
In October, the Rutherford Institute agreed to represent Jason and his father for free. Melton said that unless the school system comes up with a favorable resolution by Tuesday, the Gardners will take the system and the teacher to court and seek punitive damages - which it did not ask for in the original suit.
At a preliminary hearing in June, a federal judge refused to grant Gardner a preliminary injunction to allow Jason to bring Limbaugh's books and other outside reading material approved by his parents to class until the matter could be brought to trial.
U.S. District Judge James Turk said that the book was probably above Jason's comprehension level and that it was within the teacher's discretion to decide what was appropriate reading material in the classroom.
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