Brooklyn Middle School Ordered To Remove Obama Poster

Last Edited: Wednesday, 15 Oct 2008, 11:48 AM EDT
Created: Wednesday, 15 Oct 2008, 10:49 AM EDT

Inspirational poster or openly partisan politics? That is the question over a large poster featuring Sen. Barack Obama that was on display over a middle school in Brooklyn.

The New York City Department of Education has reportedly ordered MS 61 in Crown Heights to remove the poster. The Gladstone H Atwell School is located a few blocks east of Prospect Park.

One teacher, who requested anonymity, told the New York Post, "I consider it a form of electioneering."

The Post says the action continues the DOE's crackdown on politically charged expression in schools - as the teachers union defends workers' rights to wear partisan campaign buttons in class.

The union filed a lawsuit in federal court last Friday, arguing that the crackdown violated teachers' rights to free expression. But Schools Chancellor Joel Klein disputed that claim in papers submitted to the court yesterday, arguing that the prohibition "preserves and protects the rights of students to be free from partisan view of teachers in the classroom."