HIGH COURT LETS FIRED TEACHER SUE DISTRICT

Cockrel Invited Harrelson To Talk On Hemp Legalization

FRANKFORT - A teacher who was fired after inviting actor Woody Harrelson to
speak to her fifth-grade class about legalizing hemp will be able to sue
the Shelby County schools after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling yesterday.

The high court refused to consider the school district's plea that Donna
Cockrel's case should have been thrown out before it got started.

The justices' decision upholds a directive from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals that teachers do not lose their free-speech rights in a school
or a classroom.

Harrelson -- an outspoken advocate of industrial hemp -- made two trips to
Cockrel's classroom in 1996 and 1997. Although each of his visits were
approved by school leaders in advance, the backlash from parents was severe.

School Superintendent Leon Mooneyhan said a trial is expected in June 2003.
He said the court rulings have never touched on the matter of whether
Cockrel was properly dismissed for reasons not alleged in her suit.

In July 1997, the school board fired Cockrel, citing 17 reasons for her
termination, including insubordination and disparagement of the school's
curriculum.

The appellate court said that some of the misconduct allegations by the
school predated Harrelson's visits. However, not once before Harrelson's
visits did the school reprimand Cockrel.

Cockrel brought hemp into her curriculum as part of an agricultural class
about alternative crops.