Teachers Protest Banned Campaign Buttons

MANHATTAN — John Elfrank-Dana, a social studies teacher at the Murry Bergtraum High School in downtown Manhattan, used to wear his Obama button everywhere, including school.

On Oct. 8, the assistant principal asked him to remove it, citing the “new regulation.” He obeyed, but realized the irony; he was teaching a “Participation in Government” class, but was being restricted from modeling such behavior.

Wearing a campaign button should be “a part of the education process,” he says and explains that his Obama button primarily communicates the message that “I am a voter.”

Elfrank-Dana, 51, and his peers at the teachers union, find it increasingly more difficult to engage their students in the political process and current events, while pretending to be neutral and objective, as the Board of Education demands.

According to Elfrank-Dana, the ban on campaign buttons is just another sign of “corporatization” of the troubled New York City school system to make it more hierarchical and less collegial. “The sanitizing of people expressing their viewpoints” worries him.

This conflict, as well as the free speech rights of New York City educators, was the foundation for a lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers on Oct. 10.

A week later, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled against teachers’ right to wear political campaign buttons in the city’s public schools.

The union didn’t lose on all grounds. The judge also ruled that union members have the right to put political campaign literature in members’ school mailboxes and on union bulletin boards in areas off limits to students.

Randi Weingarten, the union president, says that they already asked their members to not wear election buttons in classrooms.

“Although the court ruled against us on that issue, given that the overall decision preserves our members’ legal rights, we will wait until after Election Day to decide whether to pursue the matter further,” she said in a statement.

Elfrank-Dana has kept his students informed about the lawsuit. As a part of a class assignment, he asks them to discuss both viewpoints using an online discussion board. Students of the “Participation in Government” class, 16- to 18-years-old, vote overwhelmingly in support of teachers’ wearing their pins:

“I think it's a good thing because it shows the student how the country works, in terms of a democratic country,” writes one student. (Elfrank-Dana asked that the students are not identified by name. Their reactions are copied here verbatim, including errors.)

“If they are able to talk about politics in school what different does it make if they wear political buttons in school. It does not make any sense,” writes another.

Only one student (among the 23 participating in this class) thinks teachers shouldn’t wear election pins in school: “If they adults are wearing political pins that share their opinion it could affect they childs point of view.”

Others are blasé about the issue: “When it comes to politics I really have no opinion or interest whatsover.”

The reactions expressing apathy trouble Elfrank-Dana, who has been teaching at Murry Bergtraum for 18 years. That’s when he realizes there is little space in his students’ lives to contemplate current events. About 70 percent of the school’s students qualify for free lunch, an indicator of poverty. About one third of his students are immigrants with English as a second language. Their environment feels more and more like a prison: They go through metal detectors; they are shouted at by authorities. “It’s ‘Law and Order,’” he says.

According to Elfrank-Dana, his students — 20 percent of which are old enough to vote, he estimates — are not motivated by objectivity and neutrality of their teachers.

“You should be honest and be yourself. Students want honesty,” he says; they need role models.

After removing his button in school, Elfrank-Dana called the union to complain. He was surprised to find out the union was already challenging the Department of Education’s ban on teachers wearing political campaign pins in 1,500 public schools on behalf on four other members.

The union claimed that it had never had a student or parent complain about teachers trying to influence political decisions. These ‘what if’ scenarios have not happened in two decades, said the union’s Weingarten at a press conference the day they filed the lawsuit.

Wearing a small, square Obama pin, she stressed that it didn’t matter whether teachers supported Barack Obama or John McCain: “As voters, we should all have the right to express our views. By suppressing political expression, we are sending the wrong message to our students.”

In a statement, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said he was pleased with the court’s decision that teachers should be banned from wearing political buttons in schools.

"Keeping politics out of the classroom was our primary concern here, and our position has been fully vindicated," Klein said.

On a recent afternoon in front of Murry Bergtraum, just far enough to be able to light up a cigarette, the vast majority of the students don’t know anything about the lawsuit or the ruling.

Those too young to vote, such as Anthony Diaz or Stefanie Gonzales, say they don’t care whether or not teachers wear pins. “It’s fine,” says Diaz.

Gonzales said she didn’t see a problem with it because she sees teachers and students with both Obama and McCain buttons, although more wear Obama pins and T-shirts.

Jose Armonte, 18, wearing a “Senior 09“ button, says everyone, including teachers, has a right to express themselves.

As for him, he is not planning to vote because he doesn’t believe voting is important. “It doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter,” he says.