No Butts About It
During a 2003 West Coast appearance on a local cable show, Stephen Murmer looked a bit like Groucho Marx after a shower: bathrobe, hair wrapped in a towel, and eyeglasses with nose and mustache attached.
Murmer, now 37 and residing in Auburn, Ala., was at the time a high school art teacher in Chesterfield County, Va. After a brief interview, Murmer opened his bathrobe to reveal that he wasn’t wearing briefs, or boxers, for that matter—just a thong.
After sitting on a coat of wet paint, Murmer demonstrated his method of creating artwork with his backside.
In addition to the disguise, Murmer’s efforts to maintain his anonymity included using a pseudonym —Stan Murmur. But in the end he couldn’t fall through the cracks.
According to a lawsuit he filed in October in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, school officials were alerted to his activities in March 2004. Murmer claims he voluntarily removed three photographs from his Web site, and the investigation was closed. Murmer v. Chesterfield County School Board, No. 3:07-cv-00608.
But then YouTube reared its ugly head. Murmer says he was suspended in December 2006 based on the video of his 2003 appearance. He was fired in January.
Murmer is suing the county school board and two school officials on First Amendment grounds; he is seeking unspecified damages.
Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, says Murmer is within his rights to pursue his passion for butt-print art.
“Government employees should not be terminated,” Glenberg says, “for engaging in First Amendment activities completely unrelated to their employment.”
A school district spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
