Officials Wary of Placing Faith in Teachers' Judgment

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

Protests from community members and pressure from district officials didn't stop Mike Dunlap from delivering a lesson to his 10th grade World Cultures class last month. During a day the local teachers' union set aside as a teach-in on capital punishment, the Oakland, Calif., teacher and his students discussed the justice system, stereotyped images that police officers and urban residents have of one another, and the pending fate of some death-row inmates.

Mr. Dunlap concluded that a thoughtful and balanced discussion on such serious issues--and his right to teach them-- was important enough to ignore the groundswell of public debate the event had stirred up. In the end, the Oakland Technical High School teacher decided, administrators would have to trust he would use his expertise and good judgment in presenting an appropriate lesson.

"It is our responsibility to take these things on," said Mr. Dunlap, 51, who has been teaching at the school for seven years. "If anyone gives me a controversial issue, I'm not going to dodge it. I'm going to use it for all it's worth...