Jefferson Muzzles go to political parties, school administrators

The Democratic and Republican parties and school administrators stand out in this year's Jefferson Muzzles, given annually by The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

At the 2008 national political conventions, set-aside "free-speech zones" made protesters virtually irrelevant and led to many unfounded arrests, according to the center in Albemarle County.

While the courts have upheld such zones, the center was discouraged by the "deafening silence" of both parties over the restrictions.

This is the third time the country's major political parties have garnered a Muzzle, said Robert M. O'Neil, the center's director.

"We're troubled that officials of neither party were concerned" with the restrictions and arrests at both conventions, O'Neil said.

The center, which will give the Muzzles today, has handed them out since 1992. Recipients get T-shirts.

The center's board of trustees -- with the likes of actress Sissy Spacek, Fox News Channel's Brit Hume and Boyd Tinsley of the Dave Matthews Band -- whittle 100 or so nominees down to about a dozen each year.

Schools dominated the list, earning eight of the 12 Muzzles.

In one case, a 27-year veteran Indiana high school teacher was suspended without pay after she assigned "The Freedom Writers Diary" to her English class.

Although she had gone through all the proper channels, including getting parent permission, the Perry Township School Board cited subordination in suspending Connie Heermann.

The book focuses on author Erin Gruwell's experience as a California teacher who got inner-city students to write about their experiences in diaries. Their language was often provocative and disturbing, according to the center.

In awarding the Muzzle to the School Board and school administrators, the center said officials' decisions "were poorly taught lessons on the value of free expression."

One Muzzle went to Aurora Frontier K-8 School administrators in Colorado, who suspended fifth-grader Daxx Dalton for wearing a T-shirt that read "Obama -- a Terrorist's Best Friend."

And two community colleges were given Muzzles for suppressing messages.

One happened at Yuba College in California, which threatened to expel student Ryan Dozier and have him arrested if he didn't follow the school's restrictive speech regulations. Dozier was espousing a Christian message.

At another California community college, Cypress, anti-abortion protestors were arrested three times for ignoring free-speech zones.

Scott Shenk is a staff writer for the Charlottesville Daily Progress.