School Newspaper Profile of an Adult Student Who Does Porn Might Get This Heroic Teacher Fired
Source – The whispers wound their way through the hallways of Bear Creek High School in Stockton, Calif. They said a senior at the school was working in adult entertainment.
Her name came up in March at a pitch meeting of the Bruin Voice, the award-winning high school newspaper, whose motto is, “The Voice shall not be silenced!”
Someone said, “There’s a girl on our campus who does porn.”
The student journalists knew what to do — a profile of the girl, or, really, the woman. She’s 18.
A writer and editor for the paper, Bailey Kirkeby, volunteered. She felt comfortable approaching the target of the rumors because both participated in speech and debate. The subject agreed to cooperate, even asking that her name be used. A legal adult, she wanted to tell her story, hoping it would quiet the whisper network. …
The profile is almost complete, set to be published in the May 3 issue of the newspaper, which is led by an all-female editorial board. … Now, however, the story is encountering resistance from school administrators. The officials are threatening to dismiss the newspaper’s faculty adviser … Kathi Duffel [who] has remained resolute in her refusal to seek the district’s approval to run the story. She says the rights of her students are on the line.
“I tell the kids, ‘Free speech isn’t free, is it?’” she said in an interview with The Washington Post. The prospect that she could lose her job — one she has held for more than three decades — brings her to tears, said Duffel, 57.
Allow to me pause for a moment and process the news that Kathi Duffel is 57. OK. I’m ready to begin. And I will begin with this 2015 profile of Ms. Duffel, for the benefit of those backwards, repressed Luddites running the Bear Creek school district:
Kathi Duffel is sort of the Norma Rae of newspapers.
She led the way as her staffers at Bear Creek High’s Bruin Voice made headlines around the world, battling for the right to report controversial news and clinching the high school equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize along the way. …
[T]he National Scholastic Press Association named the Bruin Voice the top high school paper in the nation, honoring staff with the elite Pacemaker Award for overall excellence and a Best of Show.
Yeah, you read that right, bitches. Kathi Duffel is not just another preternaturally attractive 57-year-old Journalism teacher. She’s an award-winning champion of Free Speech. The Norma Rae of newspapers. Inspiring students to go out into the world and make a difference through the relentless pursuit of the truth. Whether it’s what they’re putting in the school lunches to the scores of the Robotics competition to telling the story of the 18-year-old student who does porn.
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The public has the right to know. And by God and the First Amendment, Kathi Duffel is going to tell them. And because these Puritans on the school board can’t handle the truth that a student who happens to be a grown woman, – old enough to marry, vote and join the military – is pursuing a career in adult entertainment, they’re threatening to destroy a good woman’s 30 year career.
It’s an abomination. Worse, it’s un-American. In a nation of teachers boning their underage students, here’s someone doing the right thing, educating her kids and empowering the young women on her staff to become our next generation of journalists. And for that her job is in jeopardy.
Well I for one stand with Kathi Duffel. As all who make their living through the free expression of ideas should. And must. If she loses her job over this, those anti-speech Neanderthals will hear from me. And they will have made a very powerful enemy. Now let’s to reading that profile. It sounds like it’ll be way better than anything that was ever in my high school paper, I can promise you that.