Bill Nevins, a high school teacher in New Mexico, is awaiting his day in court. His crime? He taught poetry and he had the stupidity to believe in the First Amendment.

Last year, Nevins--who taught poetry and who sponsored his school's poetry slam team--was fired because one of his students, at an open mic event, read poems that criticized the war in Iraq and the administration's failure to fund "No Child Left Behind." The school administation accused the student of being un-American, of course. The principal asked her mother--also a teacher--to destroy her child's poems. The mother refused, and her job is also in danger.

Nevins was suspended for not censoring his students' poetry before it was performed. Later, he was fired.

It gets worse. Nevins was offered a job by another school, but that school cannot hire him until his former school, Rio Rancho High School, sends over his credentials. The principal of Rio Rancho refuses to do so.

And it gets even worse. The principal and his thugs also tore down art that they deemed "un-American," and the art teachers who didn't censor their students' work were not given contracts to return to the school.

The case is pending in federal court. And though there is little doubt that the principal and other administrators will be found in violation of practically everything there is to violate, several lives have been made miserable, much income has been lost, and--perhaps worst of all--students have been taught, once again, that in this country, it doesn't pay to voice your convictions.