TEACHER FIRED FOR PROMOTING HEMP GETS $70,000 SETTLEMENT

FRANKFORT -- A former teacher will receive $70,000 from the Shelby
County School District to settle a lawsuit she filed claiming she was
wrongfully fired for promoting the legalization of hemp.

The settlement with Donna Cockrel, formerly of Frankfort, was reached
Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Frankfort where jury selection was
to begin in the suit filed in 1997.

Cockrel came under fire in 1996 when she invited actor Woody
Harrelson, an industrial hemp advocate, to talk to her fifth-grade
students at the Simpsonville Elementary School about his cause.

Accompanying Harrelson were a retired banker and hemp farmers from
nations where it's a legal crop. This topic related to Cockrel's
agricultural class about alternative crops that could preserve the
environment. But hemp is controversial because it can be smoked,
causing marijuanalike effects. Cockrel also taught about other fiber
crops.

Harrelson made two trips to the Simpsonville school in 1996 and 1997.
School officials approved both visits.

In July of 1997, the school board fired Cockrel, listing 17 reasons,
including insubordination.

Cockrel is now teaching in Detroit.