January 2007

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A Portrait of Insanity

After 28 years of teaching, and just as many spectacular reviews, a North Dallas art teacher might be out of a job because she took her fifth-graders on a field trip to, of all places, an art museum! That museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the host of such events as “Van Gogh Family Day,” is home to a handful of nude statues, including a 2,300-year-old Greek funerary relief.

Although Sydney McGee’s principal gave formal approval to her plans, and McGee was joined on the outing by four other teachers, a dozen parents, and a museum docent, her principal responded to a parent’s complaint about the nude statuary by suspending McGee and immediately interviewing for her replacement. The Texas State Teachers Association and its legal team sprang into action on McGee’s behalf and won a rare buyout for McGee in November, requiring the district to pay her through May 2007.