The proposed agreement calls for Sydney McGee to be paid for the rest of the school year and prevents her from suing the district. It also stops her from working in Frisco ISD in the future. Dr. Reedy said the deal would eliminate further interruptions for the district, which has been the subject of a national media firestorm in recent weeks.
Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas
| Local News:
The controversy and embittered battle between the Frisco School district and Sydney McGee may be coming to a close. The school is ready to settle, presenting a deal which will compensate McGee but will still, unfortunately, pander to the parents of the poor, traumatized child who caught a glimpse of a nude sculpture.
McGee’s records have been made public with excellent scores throughout until this recent year when a new principal joined the school. This battle has become petty with issues of clothing, field trip planning and more as the school has desperately tried to find legitimate reasons for firing McGee. What it has not considered is the social implications of ‘protecting’ this child. Will children be allowed to continue visiting art galleries? will nude art be vilified as a result? What is the cost of this deal?
Frisco ISD officials said Thursday they expect that the school board will accept some “minor” revisions proposed by Sydney McGee and her lawyer for a final settlement agreement that would sever her ties with the district.
Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas
| Frisco News:
Teachers are supposed to expand the minds and abilities of the children in their care. McGee clearly tried to do this by exposing them to art. Panse tried to do this by recommending life drawing for his students. Nudity is not evil, or inherently sexual. it won’t rot children’s brains or turn them into sociopaths. Maybe the real issue at stake is the fear that the minds of our young might be expanded, and then they might start questioning, creating, learning – and who knows where that might end?
Tags: art news, controversy, fired teacher, nudes
Jennie's Palette 
Hi Jennie — great blog,
I’m amazed at the pettiness on display here, you’d think these people might do more good by focusing their attentions on the high levels of violence children are exposed to through: t.v, movies, video games even music … seems to me this is much more likely to damage young people than exposing them to images of human beings in their natural state. Thanks for the link, it’s a mindboggling story.
cheers,
Dave
I am appalled that they would allow a nude sculpture in a museum. That kind of material belongs in a porn shop. *buys porn shop*
Now just send them all over to my shop at …..
*takes delivery of sculptures, puts them on ebay, becoming instant billionaire*
Thanks!
oh, and… no looking at naked animals either, that is “not religous” or whatever they call it. frickin christian wackos. double you tea eff?!?!?!?
The first reply reminds me of a southpark episode. In the episode, Butters (one of the boys) is killed when all of the kids steak and play with knives, throwing stars, and other weapons stolen from a carnival.
Also, One of the boy characters is caught sneaking around naked (because he thought he was invisible).
The entire town goes haywire about the naked kid, and totally forgets about the dead one.
Bloody wowsers! Can we just pack them all into a big space ark and send them off to some deserted planet? I suppose the problem with that would be that the poor kids of the kill-joys would be stuck on a world with no alternatives.
I wonder why they focus so much more on sex (okay a nude is just a nude but they see it as necessarily sexual) than violence. Don Chipp speculated that prudes object so much to sex because they are poor performers in bed. There may be something in that…
I remember walking around a college campus on an elementary school field trip, and all us kids laughed at a naked male statue. The teacher explained that it was a form of art dating back milennia. Our 12 year old minds still laughed at it, but at least we had some respect for it. Somehow I doubt we suffered from it at all– if anything we would have suffered more from an irrational reaction by adults. (If adults think it’s bad, then why is it in a college courtyard? We should throw rocks at it because Mrs. Smith says it’s bad.)
Us non prudes can’t figure out what the fuss is about. Seems like an oppressive insanity, from a group so freaked out that they are difficult to communicate with. Hard to communicate with people who burn books and believe that “wrong” ideas are the seductions of the devil.
They are working hard to save the children the joys of libido, to be righteous and avoid staring into the wrong hidden corners of their being.
I’m not sure how to subert such fear, other than suggest that unless there adult sanctions displays of nudity, then little boys and girls will play doctor. Libido is like a spring. If you push it down, it will always boing back up somewhere, and keeping it constantly pushed down leads to all sorts of strange outbursts. Look at any sexually repressed society in any culture and you don’t find much less sex, you only find it pushed into strange corners and the quality of it going down.
xsplat.wordpress.com
yya great info.
thanks!
My dear
Your work has pleased me that I wish for you the guidance
A plastic artist
Fackri
Well atleast ppl have started, to make children make their own decisions rather than turning them ignorant to everything they will need to face in the future.
I have recently become a nude muse for basic life drawing classes…Iam learning alot and Iam told Iam good at modeling .Iam a a mother of 2 .My youngest is two.This has been and is growing into a great confidence in myselfTo see my body from a bird eye few..sculped into an incredible painting…wow..iam besidemyself.the things I was insecure about when I looked at my body from, naturaly, a down ward posistion..well oviously being that my head is on top of my body..I should be looking down… but from this view my body is kinda unattractive,…well no its not really /These beautiful minded artist made me a true beauty hahaha
The whole issue is idiotic.
People have been born naked for at least a 100 years, so it can’t be all bad.
i’ve heard about this story in swedish newspapers i think.
i know that the us and a is quite strange when it comes to education in some cases, but sometimes even i am absolutely stunned by the anti-naked/sex/anything feelings in the middle-aged-christian usa.
but on the other hand, i know that it’s just the same in other places of the world. i study cultural studies in england, and even then tutors, even though they work with adults, don’t like talking/lecturing about nudity of sex, just because it might offend somebody…
it’s a sick world when the naked body is considered bad or not natural…
The real travesty here as that everyone continues to believe this is about a child’s nude sighting at a museum when that is not the case at all.
I’m not one to typically defend the establishment, but this entire thing is pretty unfair for the school district. Their hands ARE tied with regards to what they can say while Ms. McGee is free to accuse at will. Let’s try not to forget that this isn’t the first time this particular teacher has suspiciously left a school district. School districts don’t typically take asking a teacher to leave lightly. The fact this is the second time this has happened to the same instructor should tell you something. Some links with some more actual information:
http://www.courier-gazette.com/articles/2006/10/07/mckinney_courier-gazette/news/newsa2.txt
http://www.friscoisd.org/news/mcgee_response_06oct.htm
http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_278190717.html
If you believe nudity is so good,then why are you not nude in the above picture? Just a little sarcasm because i can.
Nudity and sex and completely different things and if you are too dumb to figure that out then you do not deserve to have a opinion.
End of story…
Axe goes looking for another place to cause some mischief.
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reminds me of a Herman comic where two kids are watching TV and one says to the other, ” I can watch all the crime and violence I want as long as they keep their clothes on”.
Neath
we are all born naked I believe its adults who often act like the children…and our kids are unaware of any negitive attitudes tward sex or sexuallity unless pressed by adults..so stop feeling guilt and stop passing along the guilt let your children understand their own comfort level…and all growing children should also have plenty o privacy .
Good site!!!
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