Teachers, who, if you've ever read racy novels about some of 'em, never
let a good saucy behind go unpunished, can perhaps sympathize with Mr.
Murmer, a Virginia art instructor. Though he's awaiting a decision
about his immediate future, art critics say that, in the end, he might
be on the tail of a nouveau art form.

Teachers, who, if you've ever read racy novels about some of 'em, never
let a good saucy behind go unpunished, can perhaps sympathize with Mr.
Murmer, a Virginia art instructor. Though he's awaiting a decision
about his immediate future, art critics say that, in the end, he might
be on the tail of a nouveau art form.

---------
"Teacher Suspended After Getting Cheeky With a Painting"

By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 14, 2006; B05

In the case of Stephen Murmer, Richmond area high school art teacher,
avant-garde painter and entrepreneur, the issue comes down to this:

Does his personal business -- slathering his posterior with paint,
pressing it against canvases and selling them as art -- cause too much
of a disruption in the hallways of Monacan High School in Chesterfield
County?

School administrators seem to think so. Last week, they placed Murmer
on paid administrative leave and are conducting an investigation to
determine whether he should be reinstated, suspended longer or fired,
school officials said.

"It's one of the strangest things I've ever encountered in my 15 years
on the board," said Marshall Trammell, chairman of the Chesterfield
County School Board.

The beef over Murmer's buttocks began last week because -- of course--
a video surfaced on http://YouTube.com, featuring Murmer demonstrating
his talents. Students, acting on their proclivity to gossip about
teachers, especially those who may be rear-end-painters, circulated the
news. Eventually, school officials, for lack of a better phrase, got
wind of it.

The incident raises all sorts of high-minded questions. What is art?
What are the limits of the First Amendment? And what do today's
students, jaded to practically every purported cultural indecency,
think of it?

"This one kid came up to our lunch table and said, 'Did you hear about
the video that was on the Internet?' " said Stephanie Kazlauskas, 17, a
senior and a field hockey player. "A lot of people didn't believe it.
We were just laughing that a teacher at our school would have some kind
of video doing something like that. But most people think it's kind of
stupid that he's being so criticized."

Cue the YouTube clip: Murmer is appearing on what appears to be a
live-audience TV interview show called "Unscrewed with Martin Sargent,"
and he's going by a similarly spelled pseudonym -- Stan Murmur. He's
dressed in a white robe with a towel wrapped atop his head and is
wearing fake glasses and a fake nose.

He's peppered with all sorts of questions. What's with the disguise? "I
do have a real job, where I do have real clients," he says. "I don't
think they'd be too understanding if I was also the guy that painted
with my [rear]."

"To your knowledge, are you the first [fanny] painter in history?" his
host asks him.
"To my knowledge, I am the first one to focus specifically on that area
of the body," he says modestly.

Enough talk, the host says. The teacher strips. Down to essentially
nothing but a black thong bathing suit. Then, he spreads out black
paint on some paper, sits on it, then walks over to a canvas and sits
on that, adding to a camouflage design of black, green and beige
splotches. The paintings sell for hundreds of dollars.

Murmer could not be located -- a phone number listed for him reaches a
recording that says the line is disconnected.

Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Virginia, who is speaking for Murmer, said that public employees
have a right to express themselves freely but that schools also have a
right to ensure that those freedoms do not interfere with students'
learning. ACLU officials confirmed that it is Murmer in the video.

"How much disruption did this cause?" Willis asked. "Common sense
indicates that this is the sort of thing that students giggle about for
a few days, and it disappears. But the school has upped the ante by
suspending him."

Does the teacher stand to make any money out of the frenzy? Students at
his school are apparently getting their first lessons in diplomacy.
"I'm just not an art connoisseur," Kazlauskas said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/13/AR2006121302137.html