AFFIRMED: Teachers As Citizens
A Case Study by Maggi Smith Hall
In the words of Albert Einstein, "The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it." And so it has been with hundreds of public school teachers who discovered that, when they criticized their school system, they experienced retaliation in the form of scurrilous attacks and physical threats.
It happened to author Maggi Hall, beginning with a simple letter to the editor of her local newspapers. Little did Hall realize that her complaints criticizing her school district's inappropriate expenditure of funds would result in harassment, intimidation, and termination. The covert attempt to punish her included the use of public funds to follow and photograph her--a well-planned conspiracy that included school board members and administrators, a minister, strangers, supposed friends, and fellow teachers.
AFFIRMED: Teachers as Citizens illustrates Hall's struggle to keep tax money where it belongs--for the education of our children.
"I should have heeded my husband’s apprehension and our friends’ advice, but I wanted that house. Because Ron and I were public school teachers and supported public education, we ignored our friends’ warnings and enrolled our daughters in Marion’s school system. A year later I transferred to the Marion system from Florence where I had developed two educational programs: the itinerant learning disabilities program and a self-contained middle school class for emotionally disturbed juvenile delinquents. In Marion, I was assigned to two schools as a learning disabilities clinician. Within weeks of my transfer, my first encounter with the establishment made me acutely aware that the warnings of our friends were accurate."
This extraordinary story begins in a small southern town with a letter to the editor of the newspaper by a citizen requesting access to public records. It ends years later at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond Virginia.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Maggi Hall is a native Floridian from Jacksonville. She holds a BA from Stetson University and a Masters in Learning Disabilities. During her 30 years as an educator she developed two SC educational institutions: The Marion County Museum and SC’s second environmental education center. She also directed the SC Rural Arts’ Program for Marion County. For these endeavors she received the SC State Archives Award for “Adaptive Restoration of an Historic Facility” for restoring the longest operating public school in the state, the National 1993 “Environmental Women of Action Award for SC” from the National Wilderness Society, and the 1995 “Education Conservationist Award” from the SC Wildlife Federation.
As an environmentalist she was featured on two national television documentaries, “Conserving America: The Rivers” funded by the Richard King Mellon Foundation for preserving a SC river and “When A Tree Falls” for halting an interstate connector through wetlands.
As a preservationist she began a restoration project in downtown DeLand, The Garden District. For this she received the 2005 “Teresa & Bob Apgar Faith, Hope, & Charity Community Service Award,” the 2006 “Florida Trust for Historic Preservation Individual Achievement Award,” the 2006 “Florida MainStreet Outstanding Economic Restructuring Program,” and the 2006 “Florida City Citizen of the Year.”
She is the author of five books: Flavors of St. Augustine: An Historic Cookbook; Images of America: St. Augustine; Images of America: DeLand; The College Series: Stetson University; and AFFIRMED: Teachers as Citizens.
