Bangor television reporter Alan Grover was expecting emotion, not controversy, late last month while covering the story of military families getting ready for their loved ones to be deployed for a potential war in Iraq.

But Grover overheard a conversation about children coming home from school crying or upset because of things they heard about the war and about soldiers. And so he asked a Maine Army National Guard chaplain, who confirmed that he received 12 varying complaints from around the state that some school officials were not being as sensitive as they could be to Guard families and their children.

Grover's story, broadcast on WABI-TV on Feb. 21, led to newspaper articles around Maine and a written response from Maine's education commissioner that seemed to satisfy the Guard and its families.

Nearly two weeks later, however, the story continues to spread around the country and beyond. And as its audience has grown, the story has changed from complaints of insensitivity to accusations that pacifist teachers harassed the children of military families in Maine. The front page of the Feb. 27 Washington Times reported the controversy beneath the headline: "When Maine Sends Guards to War, Anti-war Teachers Taunt Their Children."

Now state officials are just hoping the story goes away.

Spokesmen for the Guard and Gov. John Baldacci said complaints have ceased since Education Commissioner Duke Albanese wrote a Feb. 24 memo asking educators to be sensitive to military families and their children. Despite continuing pressure and growing criticism, the Guard is keeping a tight lid on details of the complaints, and the state has no plans to investigate individual incidents.

But the blow to Maine's image and the reputation of its teachers is still rippling through the country. And some say, in a case of better late than never, the state's leaders ought to try to rein in the runaway story.

"This unfolded very slowly as pretty much a straightforward Maine story and then, in just a remarkable flash, it went national," said Keith Harvie, spokesman for the Maine Education Association, which represents more than 17,000 educators and has received hundreds of angry e-mails from outside the state.

The MEA hopes to quell the lingering controversy with advertisements in Maine newspapers this weekend reaffirming the commitment of teachers to military families.

"It's partly a rebuttal to the national political pundits who are criticizing Maine schools and Maine educators and what, I think, Maine stands for," Harvie said. "We want those military families to know that we're going to take care of their kids when they're gone, and I think it was a disservice to those military families for some of those commentators to add to the worries of those families."

Among those surprised by the story's play is Grover, whose station received hundreds of e-mails after breaking the story that there had been 12 complaints from around the state. The Guard has since said there were 16.

The Guard has only given examples, ranging from a claim that an assistant teacher called the looming war and those who fight it "unethical and immoral" during a classroom debate, to a parent's report that a child had been mocked by other children on a school bus and school officials said there was nothing they could do. Another complaint stemmed from a school administration's refusal to grant an excused absence to the child of a Guardsman preparing to be deployed.

Maj. Peter Rogers said families had discussed the complaints with the Guard's chaplain and that, while it felt the issue needed to be addressed, the Guard did not seek publicity. "It was one of those things where Alan (Grover) was at the right place at the right time," Rogers said.

The school officials who are the subjects of the complaints have not been confronted or asked to explain the incidents.

"That was done purposely because we did not want to involve the children in that," Rogers said. "Our take through this whole issue has been we didn't want to get into finger-pointing. We simply wanted something to get put out so this issue stops. And it did."

The Guard and the state education department maintain it is up to individual families whether they want to pursue investigations and potential disciplinary action by local school officials. It's unclear whether any of the reports have led to formal complaints.

Guard officers said they never expected to ignite a national controversy that would put them on talk shows coast to coast. But the national tension and high level of emotion surrounding the confrontation with Iraq helped give the story a life of its own.

WABI-TV's story went on its Web site, which was soon picked up by Internet discussion groups focused on conservative or patriotic themes. The online edition of the Wall Street Journal added a link to the story.

The Bangor Daily News published a story on Feb. 25 that, like other Maine media reports that followed, was informational rather than inflammatory, according to those involved in the story. But the story lost context and complexity as it went national, they say.

On Wednesday, Feb. 26, the story was in newspapers around the state and was mentioned on "Fox Special Report with Brit Hume," who referred to complaints that Guard children were being "hassled by their teachers about their parents fighting in an unethical war." The next day, Feb. 27, Baldacci, Albanese and Guard officials held a press conference. "Although these were isolated incidents, there is no place for them in Maine schools," Baldacci said.

By then, the story was in newspapers around the country, all over cable television news shows and political talk shows and on Rush Limbaugh's syndicated radio show. Commentators talked about young kids getting taunted and harassed.

On Fox News Network's O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly urged Col. Rob Carmichael of the Maine Army National Guard to get Army lawyers to "go up to Maine to file federal lawsuits against the teachers that did this . . . for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the children."

And in Internet chat rooms, Maine teachers were being called hippies, pinkos and maggots who should be fired, deported or even used as human shields in Iraq.

By this week, Guard officials were responding to the coverage, saying national media and commentators were exaggerating the story. "These are isolated incidents. We have nothing but respect for the teachers," Rogers said.

The story has not only tainted the image of Maine's teachers. Dick Dyer, a public relations professional in Winthrop, got a call from a colleague in Maryland on Wednesday morning who wanted to know what was going on in Maine. "She said, 'We're wondering are you guys the next France? Do we have to hate you, too?' "

Dyer said it may be late, but officials should still get to the bottom of the complaints and release more information in order to put the story back into context.

"My concern is to the extent that it is going to mushroom way out of control," Dyer said. "I've seen these things just wane, but it is certainly not helping our image as a state. I wouldn't hesitate to send some people to the major talk show circuits. I know they'd have them on."

State officials are now clearly hoping the story is fading away on its own.

Lee Umphrey, a spokesman for Baldacci, said the governor gave only two national media interviews - on CBS and ABC radio - because he didn't want to fuel the interest. "I think overall people nationally understand that Maine's a good place with good people. I doubt that there's been a lasting negative impact," Umphrey said.

The Guard this week responded to criticisms that it had withheld important details by showing journalists a document summarizing the 16 complaints. But it did not allow this newspaper or others to copy the document or even take notes from it.

"Things are winding down," Rogers explained. "It seems to me we've crested the hill. We haven't had any incidents since the advisory went out, and what we're concerned with is starting this whole episode over again."

He said the Guard now hopes to get back to its job: preparing Guardsmen and their families for a potential war.

Staff writer Tess Nacelewicz and staff researcher Susan Butler contributed to this report.

Staff Writer John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at:

jrichardson@pressherald.com

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