Campus Dispute Comes to a Head

BANNING — He swept into the desert a decade ago like Patch Adams on a renaissance kick. Next thing this Riverside County community knew, Bach and Beethoven were booming from John Maurer's special education classroom. There were Shakespeare performances, even a "Sonnet of the Day" club, and Maurer's disabled students were taking part right along with the rest of the school. To hear their parents tell it, life will never be easy for Maurer's students--but it sure was better.

And then, one day last spring, Maurer wore a hat to school, the wrong kind of hat, and the whole thing fell apart.

Maurer's relationship with school administrators has dissolved into a bitter dispute that seems to have begun with his choice of head wear and continues to separate him from his special education class.

The children, meanwhile, may be affected more than anyone. Not only have they been separated from their teacher, but they've been forced to change schools at least three times. Some of their parents say they now have to ride buses that take three hours, round trip, each day. One mother goes so far as to say she believes that the stress boiled over for her son--leading to a seizure from a heart condition that she said previously had never surfaced.

"He doesn't understand why his teacher isn't coming back," said the mother, Marcelle Shelton, a Cabazon resident whose 17-year-old son, Richie, suffers from a syndrome that attacks his nervous system. "He keeps asking me: 'Why? Why?' And I keep telling him: 'I don't know.' I think the whole thing is ridiculous."

Banning Unified School District Supt. Kathleen McNamara and Robert Nunez, the Riverside County Office of Education's assistant superintendent for personnel, declined to discuss the case, calling it a private personnel matter.

The saga began a year ago, when Maurer, now 56, was beginning his 10th year at Banning High School, between Beaumont and Cabazon along Interstate 10. A new principal, Dr. Jim Broncatello, had just arrived. With him, some teachers say, came a strict approach to education--and a policy that hats worn on campus could only be one of the school colors: white, black, green or yellow.

Maurer said he was unaware of the policy and showed up on campus one day wearing a beige hat.

Maurer said special education children, because of disabilities, often have a hard time getting enough exercise and can suffer from weight problems. So he tries hard to get them outside. To protect himself from the sun, he often wore the wide-brimmed beige hat.