Some of the serious complaints parents raised about Stonington school administrators this past week seemed to paint a common pattern, a lack of communication and transparency, from emails that are not answered to a school website with a section on curriculum that doesn't show details of what the curriculum actually is.

But the most serious charge I heard at a Board of Education session Thursday on George Orwell's "Animal Farm" not being included in a new common curriculum for eighth-graders was that the teacher at the center of the controversy, who wanted to keep teaching the book the way he has for the last 20 years, and communicated that in an email to a parent, has been disciplined.

Yikes. Please don't tell us that Stonington teachers are not allowed to communicate to parents about their children's education.

It's especially alarming if administrators are not responding to parents, as alleged in testimony.

That's like something right out of Orwell.

I can only think of the pigs in "Animal Farm," who kick the humans off the farm, take over, start walking on two legs and run rough over the rights of the other animals, saying first that all animals are equal, then changing that to say some are more equal than others.

Schools Superintendent Van Riley did not address the complaints about possible discipline of the teacher in the Thursday session or respond to the parents' questions about it. The Day has filed a formal request for records of discipline action in the matter.

I caught up with Riley by phone Friday morning and he would not say whether the teacher was disciplined. He said the school has four days to respond to the Freedom of Information request, which was made Thursday.

"It's a personnel issue," he said.

Of course the personnel records of public employees, except for health information etc., is public record. But I can give the superintendent the benefit of the doubt in waiting, taking the time to check the law closely before releasing any information about discipline.

But if there were no discipline in the "Animal Farm" incident, he would be free to say that without violating any employee's privacy or rights. What a good way to put to rest a serious matter raised so prominently in a public forum, with television cameras rolling.

The teacher has not commented publicly about the controversy. If he was disciplined, he might justifiably feel muzzled.

I hope the parents are wrong that this beloved and loyal middle school teacher — parents spoke Thursday of how older siblings prepare younger ones for the joys of his class and reading "Animal Farm" — was punished in the course of trying to do his job well.

Riley also invoked Orwell on Thursday, in my mind anyway, when he suggested nothing has changed, that teachers are free to teach whatever they want.

That disguises the larger truth, made clear in a long paper trail, that "Animal Farm" is not included in the new reading curriculum for eighth-graders and can only be taught in weekly volunteer "enrichment" classes or as a "supplemental text" to the main books that are now taught in eighth-grade classes.

Riley kept saying that it is not banned. That's true. But it can no longer be assigned for a regular class and taught in full, as it long has been.

One speaker Thursday night was a Rhode Island teacher, Thomas Gamache from Westerly, who says he had a similar experience as a young teacher in Virginia, where he defied an administrative order not to teach "Animal Farm."

When he taught it anyway, he was called in by administrators and told the book was not banned but shouldn't be taught.

Sound familiar?

"It's a slippery slope," said Gamache, who has no direct connection to Stonington schools but came to the meeting because the situation reminded him so much of his bad experience in Virginia.

I hope the Board of Education, when it takes up the issue next week, finds a sensible solution.

Let this fine teacher assign and teach a classic book the way he has for the last 20 years to countless young Stonington students. Would the earth shake if that happens?

How often do kids and their parents clamor to read a specific book these days?

And tell the superintendent he needs to make sure parents are answered when they email questions and concerns.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com