"Butt Art" Appeal Launched

Associated press reports that a high school art teacher has hired the ACLU to challenge his firing after a video of him moonlighting as a "butt-printing artist" was widely circulated among his high school students. The executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said a public employee such as former teacher Stephen Murmer has a right to free expression outside the workplace as long as it does not interfere with his job. "Once he became fired, then it became a potential legal issue," said Kent Willis. "First Amendment issues always have a high priority ranking for us." Murmer was suspended in December and then fired Jan. 9 after a video turned up on YouTube.com showing him with a fake nose and glasses, a towel on his head and black thong. It showed him practicing his private abstract artwork, much of which is produced when he smears his posterior and genitals with paint and presses them against canvas. Irish Art