<Begin Segment 18>

TI: And so when you got in trouble, what, what was the form of the trouble?

RM: Oh, they invited me over to Boeing to see a film called, "Communism on the Map" and "Operation Abolition" and to use it in my classes, and I refused.

TI: And Boeing was important because they were a big funder of the, of the school district?

RM: Oh, gee. We didn't have hardly any levy, maybe three, four middle levy in the district above the normal. Because Boeing insisted, well, they, they went all out to support the Renton school district, and sort of "tail wagging the dog" on curriculum here, and I was invited to view these productions, and I said, "No." "This idea that they overthrew the, would overthrow the United States from within," I said, "was hooey." I said, "They used military force," and I said, "the Red Army is huge, and they would use it on us if they thought they could get away with it." I said, "But I don't think that their ideology would hold up."

TI: And so, and so Boeing didn't like that, but Stan Thompson...

RM: Said, "You just keep teaching the course." And he, and I got in trouble on student speakers one time, another time. I censored a profane speech, sent the kids all back to the classes. There were 2,500 students at Renton High at the time, and I made 'em go back to class. And the, the person giving the speech was, father was on the school board, and he said, as I went up the steps, the principal said, "There's going to be trouble over this." And he said, "The board, school board," said, "I'm sure they're gonna meet and demand that he be allowed to give the speech and everything." He said, "You don't have to worry." He said, "I'm gonna go there, and they have to take me out of this before they talk to you." He did that, and there was an old teacher, in his seventies, up at the top of the stairs, and as I came up to go to my classroom, he said, "Goodbye, Mr. Chips." [Laughs] It was a wonderful sort of end of the... but he did, he stayed to that. I don't know if the school board, they may have had a meeting, but the superintendent did call me, and, "Say, we're in trouble here on this issue of the student speeches." And I said, "He was giving a speech that I, I thought that he didn't -- " I said, "He strayed from what he said he was going to say, and I'm not going to, I didn't allow it." He said, "Well, you don't have to worry. You'll never be on the speech committee again." [Laughs]

TI: [Laughs] That's funny.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.