Affirmed

<I>I should have heeded my husband's apprehension and our friends'advice but I wanted that house. Because Ron and I were public schoolteachers and supported public education we ignored our friends'warnings and enrolled our daughters in Marion's school system. A yearlater I transferred to the Marion system from Florence where I haddeveloped two educational programs: the itinerant learning disabilitiesprogram and a self-contained middle school class for emotionallydisturbed juvenile delinquents. In Marion I was assigned to two schoolsas a learning disabilities clinician. Within weeks of my transfer my firstencounter with the establishment made me acutely aware that thewarnings of our friends were accurate.</I></p><p>Almost four decades since the landmark decision in <I>Pickering v. Boardof Education</I> 1968 many teachers still cannot criticize their schoolsystem without fear of retaliation. When author Maggi Hall a veteranpublic school teacher wrote a letter to the newspaper in Marion CountySouth Carolina criticizing her school district she didn't realize that oneday she would be called upon to defend the cornerstone of democracyitself-the First Amendment. <I>AFFIRMED: Teachers as Citizens</I> is her amazing story of determination.</p>