You may recall my coverage of Sydney McGee’s case in October. Alongside it was a less publicized case involving the suspension of teacher Peter Panse for suggesting life drawing classes to some of his students.
It appears that the school board is backpedalling, trying to prevent the same scandal that the McGee case raised. Raising other issues to try to mitigate the ridiculousness of the claims.
An administrative law judge who heard testimony over the course of four sporadic months ruled Jan. 8 that Panse did violate the no-solicitation policy, but that the district failed to prove the teacher’s talk of nude-model drawing rose to the level of sexual inappropriateness. In his ruling, Joel M. Douglas found that the testimony of some of the district’s key witnesses was “evasive, vague and ambiguous.”
recordonline.com – Middletown art teacher Panse will return to classroom:
I think it is laughable that this claim has been elevated to the concern of “sexual inappropriateness” it was compared by the school with a liaison between a teacher and pupil. I am floored by the reaction of the school board and the extreme overreaction in this case.
We didn’t want it said that the Board of Education again turned a blind eye to the abuse of our children,“ Crescenzo said. ”We need to protect our children. We are talking about 14-, 15-, 16-year-old children and what they were going to be exposed to.“Panse’s lawyer sees it another way: ”It’s a Neanderthal administration,“ said Jonathan Lovett. ”They’ve got to be sufficiently brain-dead to be doing what they did.
Nudes draw suspension for teacher in M’town:
There seems to be a common misunderstanding that the nude figure is somehow dirty, an innately sexual thing. In fact, my personal belief is that this overemphasis on sexualizing the naked body is probably creating more damage, destroying more innocence, than treating it as a natural thing. Nudity is somewhat inevitable, with the amount online, on TV, in Art and magazines and (gasp) right here in our own homes. This hysteria over nudity is turning something natural and frequently beautiful into a tawdry and torrid thing.
Mr Panse will be returning to work in February. The students and parents rallied together in support of the estranged teacher, with one student supporting his teachings after receiving two art school scholarship offers. The nude is still one of the cornerstones of art and art history and needs to be treated with respect, not revulsion and ignorance
Tags: Art, art news, censorship, controversy, nudes, panse
Jennie's Palette 
The hysteria over nudity i think is partly due to the proliferation of the material, which claims to be art, but more often turn out to be exploitative. Of course, it can’t be said about all. I very much can agree with your opinion that nudity is natural and inevitable, and I believe most people realize that too. But people can only be comfortable in dealing with it if they are properly educated about the art, and be able to distinguish the legit from what isn’t.
Coming from a largely Catholic culture, it’s even worse here. Part of us is willing to embrace western liberality, while the other tenaciously holds on to tradition and a church guided sense of morality.