Students from Lawrence High in Lawrence, Kansas, created a Facebook page entitled “Save Mr.Latham, Lawrence High History Teacher” after their history teacher, Mr. Latham, was allegedly “non-renewed” for being a political conservative. The result:

The Facebook page now has 1,857 fans from all over the world and Fox News covered the story of alleged political discrimination on its morning show, Fox & Friends. Local television and radio stations have also picked up on the student’s online effort to expose what they believe is an injustice and the kind of political discrimination they don’t want their school administration to engage in.

We hope that other national mainstream media providers pick up this story and show the same conviction to fairness as these students. We hope, but don’t expect that to be the case.

So, in that spirit, we thought we’d provide a rationale for media providers who aren’t attracted to a story about discrimination against a political conservative to cover Mr. Latham’s struggle, anyway.

Why should they? Well, they should cover this because the story isn’t really about political bias as much as it is about young people using technology to challenge authority on moral grounds. If these teenagers successfully use the internet to shame their school board into treating their teacher with dignity and fairness, it should send two messages. On one level, people will read the message: “Don’t try to push around conservatives in education anymore because they’ll fight back.” But, on another level, people and young people in particular will learn that they don’t need President Obama or cookie cutter causes to “empower” them. On the contrary, with a Facebook page, a little sweat equity, and a cause that is just, they can make a difference in something they care about and protect someone they care about from injustice.

We’d like to think that a story with a theme like that would appeal to reporters and gatekeepers regardless of their politics or allegiances. Even if we’re wrong about that, we know we are right to congratulate the students behind “Save Mr. Latham.” Great job and good luck at the June 22nd school board meeting!

[Just as a note: I think that both conservative and liberal teachers would do themselves a solid and be more effective in building rapport with a higher percentage of their students if they keep their personal political affiliation a closely-guarded mystery.]

Technorati Tags: conservative, daily uprising, facebook, grassroots, history teacher, Lawrence High, Mr. Latham, online advocacy, political discrimination