Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

May 29, 2009

Student disagrees with TCAPS on Rush call

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE

TRAVERSE CITY -- A Traverse City high school student disputes findings and statements by school leaders who probed comments he made about a teacher to a conservative national radio host.

But a classmate contends in an e-mail sent to administrators that Mitchell Harrison's on-air description doesn't truthfully depict what happened that day.

It's a debate that surfaced a month ago with a phone call to radio host Rush Limbaugh, a case considered closed despite students' contradicting stories.

Harrison, a senior at West Senior High, called Limbaugh's program after a video production class April 30 and reported that his teacher reprimanded him for 10 minutes in front of classmates for reading Fox News' Web site, according to a transcript.

Harrison, 18, said he was told he was "only allowed to read BBC and stuff of that nature," the transcript from Limbaugh's show states.

Traverse City Area Public Schools administrators investigated and took no action against the teacher, Charles Rennie. A week after the incident, Superintendent James Feil told the Record-Eagle the matter was resolved and "the short end of this is, as it's been reported, it's not true."

Harrison and his parents, Brad and Judy Harrison, maintain that the events as described are accurate.

Initially, they didn't plan to go public and turned down interview requests from Fox News and The Washington Post. But they said they wanted to tell their side after reading comments from Feil and school board member Dave Barr in the newspaper.

Harrison said he listens to Limbaugh daily, and when he called did not give his last name or the name of his high school. Nor did he identify Rennie, the teacher, who declined comment for this story.

"I wasn't trying to pinpoint my teacher," Harrison said. "People call with these stories all the time."

Yet at least one classmate challenged Harrison's version.

Four days after the incident, a freshman in the class sent an e-mail to school principals and Feil that stated Rennie was "calm and collected" and many of their peers were not in the classroom at the time.

The Record-Eagle obtained a copy of the student's e-mail through the state's Freedom of Information Act.

"He said that the BBC was a better option because they remained neutral instead of leaning to the right or the left," the letter reads. "In fact, he talked about how MSNBC and other such programs were biased as well as FOX (sic), and how they weren't completely accurate, either."

A 2008 personnel evaluation, also obtained through FOIA, indicated Rennie "maintains caring, respectful, and equitable relationships with students. He supports students in developing skills to respond to inequity and disrespect. ... Also, he monitors behavior while teaching and during student work time."

A May 6 memo Feil sent to the school board said Rennie "did not yell at or bully the student."

Harrison did not allege he was bullied, and he said no one told him he did anything wrong. Harrison remains in Rennie's class.

Barr, who did not speak with Harrison's family, told the paper in early May it seemed Harrison was seeking "15 minutes of fame."

He said last week he based his statements on information he heard from Feil, including that Harrison partially changed his story and his parents were "embarrassed."

Feil said last week he doesn't know "whether the parents were embarrassed or not."

The family said the conversation with Rennie might not have lasted 10 minutes, but that it still occurred. They retained a local attorney, but have not decided what will happen next.

"We're not embarrassed by what he did," Brad Harrison said. "We're proud of him for being able to stand up for what he believes in."

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