Northwest High School students are rallying around a teacher who resigned after he showed a film in his class that some students found objectionable.
Northwest R-1 School District officials have not released the name of the teacher, but students and members of the community say that Rob Maxwell, a language arts and journalism teacher, resigned after the controversy involving the film.
A Facebook page named “Bring Back the Max” includes an online petition with several hundred signatures requesting the instructor be allowed to return to his job at the school.
Maxwell also was a boys cross country and track and field coach.
He could not be reached for comment.
Although she wouldn’t name him, Katie Cothron, the school district’s community relations coordinator, confirmed that a teacher resigned after showing the film in his class.
“One student walked out and another student reported it to administration,” Cothron said. “They felt uncomfortable.”
The film shown during Maxwell’s literature in film class is named “Trust” and is rated R. It is about “a teenage girl who is targeted by an online sexual predator” and is raped, according to a summary on the IMDb website.
“This was a movie that was shown without the district’s knowledge and is not in line with our curriculum,” Cothron said.
She said parents of students in the class were asked at the beginning of the semester to sign a waiver that they understood some adult content would be shared in the class.
Cothron said as far as she knows there were no complaints from parents about the film.
“At the end of the day, we have to protect our students and that is a leg we will stand on. We have to protect our kids,” she said.
The instructor said he had not previewed the movie before showing it to the class, but took a recommendation from a student to show the film, Cothron said.
“It was a bad choice and he regrets it,” Cothron said. “The movie was shown on April 18, and the staff member notified us of (his) resignation April 24.
“It was an amicable parting. None of us wanted it to end up like this.”
Cothron said April 27 that the district had not received any petition calling for the teacher’s return.
She also said the teacher sent a message to his students to focus on their academics and not him.
Cothron said the district is reviewing its policies and procedures for media presented in the classroom.
“That is something we are doing immediately in response to this,” she said.
The film “Trust,” which debuted in 2010, was directed by David Schwimmer, who reportedly fought to have the film’s R rating changed to PG 13 because of the content’s relevance to teenagers. He refused, however, to remove any of the controversial scenes, and the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating board stood its ground and the R rating remained.
Maxwell began teaching at Northwest High School in 1999 and taught English I, II and III and Journalism I and II.