Teacher fired for screening Elizabeth
Filed under: Drama, Celebrities and Controversy, Politics
Atlanta high school teacher Ed Youngblood was forced to resign from his job last week after showing Elizabeth, the 1998 telling of the Queen Elizabeth saga staring Cate Blanchett, to an advanced British Literature class. The film is rated R; according to a spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Public Schools, Youngblood got sacked because he failed to "ask for a local review of the film prior to showing it, nor did he
allow parents the option of opting their students out of the viewing." Youngblood's response? "I didn't think about it being R-rated [because] it's such a good movie." Most reasonable people would agree with him on that one – Elizabeth, after all, earned seven Oscar nominations and won several BAFTA awards. After having taught at the school for 37 years, Youngblood said he was given five minutes to decide if he wanted to "resign" or get fired; he chose the marginally less damaging former option. His former students are up in arms – they mounted a protest yesterday with the hopes of getting their beloved teacher reinstated – but the school board, as of yet, has remained firm. 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-16-2005 @ 10:16PM
Pretty_Patches said...
It seems over the top just for a movie. I wonder if there is more than meets the eye? It seems a week with out pay would have fit the crime and a pink slip in his folder.
Donna A.
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11-16-2005 @ 10:50PM
zut said...
riiiiight, because high schoolers have never seen "R" movies before. if this had happened in a middle school i might understand the problem (although i agree with pretty_patches) but high school? gimme a break.
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11-16-2005 @ 11:44PM
jer said...
I think making a big deal out of this is ridiculous. He broke a rule, and must face the consequences.
If this rule wasn't in place, and he showed a movie which caused complaint, the school would be liable for damages, and last time I checked, schools don't have enough money to teach kids stuff, let alone pay off crazy lawsuits.
Anyway, it sucks that the man lost his job over something kind of retarded, but you can't go bending a rule just because "it's a good movie." The ratings board doesn't take whether something is a good movie into account when it sets the rating of the film, and the schools policy involves the ratings.
People need to stop making such a big deal out of stuff like this.
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11-16-2005 @ 11:46PM
sam said...
Is there a rule at Cinematical that all "movie news" has to be political in nature? Or leftist-leaning political in nature, to be more precise? I just sort of want, you know, movie news. I don't really need to hear these "reporters" leaning everything they post toward the left. Like that "Jarhead" review. And all the anti-Walmart movie "news". It's not like I'm right-leaning or anything, or a "fundamentalist Christian" etc etc. I dunno, I guess I was kind of wanting straight movie news with maybe some humor; but all this political-leaning stuff is really a turn-off, especially since 90% of all the writers seem to be very left-leaning.
I dunno. Maybe I came to the wrong place. I just want funny news, I don't want to be preach to. Or someone preaching in the disguise of "news".
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11-17-2005 @ 2:08AM
Morgan said...
Most of those kids have seen a lot worse than rated R movies, but that doesn't make him Teacher of the Year for failing to notify parents of something that, to some people, is a serious matter to be left to parents. To most people? No. Does it matter? No.
It doesn't matter if it's one kid, or maybe none this time, it's not the teacher's prerogative to decide, and he should lose his job for not respecting the kids and parents he works for.
People can think it's overreacting all they want. It's not, and it's not news either.
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11-17-2005 @ 8:18AM
karina said...
Sam - we did 25 posts yesterday, on everything from Jet Li to Harry Potter to Fantastic Four. I couldn't find any "preaching" in any of them, but yeah - we're a blog. That means our writers inject their own ideas into the content. If you just want "movie news", you might want to try http://www.variety.com.
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11-17-2005 @ 8:25AM
Peter said...
One can only assume that none of the students of British literature had actually ever read Shakespeare or they would already have been exposed to far worse than anything the film offered. How silly can you get?
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11-17-2005 @ 10:22AM
Darryl said...
All the articles say "high school" what is that actually grade? anyone know?
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11-17-2005 @ 10:48AM
Scott Weinberg said...
The teacher made a mistake by showing an R-rated movie to a room full of minors. That's as clear as day. He made a boo-boo, absolutely.
But to fire a 37-year veteran for THAT? Absolute bullshit.
He shoulda locked the doors and said "Well, shit. I'm gonna get fired anyway, so we're also gonna watch THREE KINGS, AMERICAN HISTORY X, and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. Anyone need to pee first?"
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11-17-2005 @ 10:50AM
nilblogette said...
On the Nov 8 voting, every single ad in favor of increasing the number of probationary years for teachers to become permanent employees was that one teacher recently showed his class an R rated movie. When you consider that his class could have been high school students, and the R rated film could have been something like ELIZABETH, that argument feels pretty flimsy.
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11-17-2005 @ 11:22AM
Christopher Campbell said...
Couldn't they just be embarrassed, admit the wrong, apologize and move on? The fact that anyone would sue over this is a shame. Do we need to hang people for everything?
There is similar news from Cyprus today:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051116/od_afp/cyprusfilmoffbeat_051116165905
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11-18-2005 @ 12:04PM
Martha said...
Mr. Youngblood was a valuable assest to our school and allowed us to reach our untapped potentials. He is an amazing man and even better teacher. His class has let each and everyone of his students better himselves for life and college.
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11-17-2005 @ 1:21PM
Mike Klein said...
While I think the punishment is overkill--I do get a little sick and tired of teachers taking up class time with a movie and calling that education. Is there really not enough British Literature to take up the time?
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11-17-2005 @ 2:16PM
Targ8ter said...
No matter how good the movie is, or how much we think the kids might have liked it, or how unfair the school board might be to a 37-year veteran... we don't get to decide what these kids can and cannot see. That's not the jurisdiction of blog commentors, school boards, lawyers, principles, activists, talk show hosts, filmmakers, pastors, politicians, journalists, or teachers. That is the responsibilty of parents, which, unfortunately, is often waived by contract or disclaimer.
If parents have authorized teachers show films within certain rules, then teachers must abide by those rules. If they break them, there are penalties. It's very simple and very straightforward. There doesn't need to be any wallowing around in the directionless moralism of how good a film may be before its rating is no longer applicable.
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11-17-2005 @ 8:49PM
Becky said...
In response to Darryl's question, the class was a senior college prep British Lit class. 17 and 18 year olds. Who in actuality are legally old enough to watch R-rated movies anyway. Hmm.
-SGHS alumna
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11-17-2005 @ 10:28PM
Senior at SGHS said...
It was actually honors students, not college prep.
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11-18-2005 @ 10:12PM
Finished.Law.School said...
Liberals...
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12-12-2005 @ 5:34PM
Brush said...
I wonder, do they fire the students that leave the campus for an appointment without a permission slip from the parents? Is there a reprimand policy for this failure to follow rules? AND, how would the parent's that oppose what the teacher did feel if some of the Honor Student's did just that and were permanently expelled. Would they be ok with the student's high school year suddenly ending because they failed to follow policy and procedure??
Just wondering.... I now plan to see the movie ELIZABETH just to see what all of the hype was about....
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