School officials agreed Tuesday that a West Linn teacher crossed a line when he used sexual vulgarity as part of a classroom lesson on censorship.



Michael Diltz, an Athey Creek Middle School teacher and librarian, wrote two profane words on the board in front of eighth-graders last week as a part of a districtwide "Banned/

Challenged Book" project that explores the limits of free speech. Diltz was using the words to illustrate how language can often lead to the banning of books, said Assistant Superintendent Thayne Balzer.



Reached at the school Tuesday, Diltz said school officials had not authorized him to discuss the incident but expressed dismay at the fallout. "I just wish it hadn't backfired like this," he said.



On Monday, parents objected at a school board meeting. School board members said they supported the banned-book program but not Diltz's use of the objectionable words. Superintendent Roger Woehl agreed. "We still don't think it was good judgment to use the language," he said.



In past years, teachers have not used profanity as part of the project, and the objections to last week's lessons were the first regarding any aspect of the program, Woehl said.



Last week, Athey Creek Principal Carol Egan issued an apology to parents through an e-mail list.



"It was meant to provoke student understanding and experience how words, taken out of context, can lose their significance. When taken out of context, an author's words can move a community to ban that author's book from a school library," Egan wrote.



The district refused to comment on any administrative actions with Diltz, who is in his second year at Athey Creek and his fifth within the district. Woehl called him an excellent teacher.



Several parents phoned in their support for the teacher, with some supporting the actual lesson, said Woehl.



Students and parents leaving school Tuesday had mixed reactions.



"It's probably inappropriate, but it's probably nothing that they haven't heard before," said Shannon Anderson, the mother of an Athey Creek eighth-grader.



Terrell Eaton, another parent, regretted that she had not complained after hearing about the situation. "I was surprised and upset," she said. "I thought he could have taught that lesson in a different way."



Eaton's son, Ellis, thought the lesson was a bit "odd," but he wasn't offended. "I thought it was fine," Ellis Eaton, 14, said. "It was kind of funny."



The banned-book curriculum, which the district has taught for 10 years, requires students to read a book that has been banned or challenged outside of the district. Afterward, students write an essay that argues why a book should or shouldn't be banned.



The books range from Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" to E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web."



-- Nicole Dungca



