WOODBURN, Ind. — A high school teacher who faced termination over a student newspaper column advocating tolerance of gays reached a settlement with school officials yesterday to allow her to continue teaching, although at another school.

Under the settlement with East Allen County Schools, Amy Sorrell, 30, agreed to be transferred from Woodlan Junior-Senior High School in Woodburn to Heritage Junior-Senior High School in Monroeville, said her attorney, Patrick Proctor.

The agreement calls for school officials to try to find a high-school level English teaching position for Sorrell at Heritage and for her to teach there for at least three years, he said.

Although the settlement does not specifically bar Sorrell from teaching journalism at Heritage, Proctor says the agreement essentially means she will not be teaching such courses for the next three years if she remains at the school.

"The school administration has said in no uncertain terms that she's not going to be given a journalism position. There's also no vacant journalism position at Heritage and the agreement does state that she can't bid out of the position that they give her for three years," he said.

Because of the settlement, an April 28 public hearing about Sorrell's future with the school district has been canceled, Proctor said.

Sorrell, who had been an English and journalism instructor at Woodlan, was placed on paid leave March 19, two months after an editorial advocating tolerance of homosexuals ran in Woodlan's student newspaper, The Tomahawk. Sorrell had been the newspaper's adviser.

In a statement released yesterday, Sorrell said she did not agree with the reprimands that were part of the settlement but was not financially able to fight the matter.

"Due to my personal financial circumstance, I am not in a position to contest the disciplinary action contained in the written agreement between myself and the school administration," she said in the statement.

Sorrell said she was "very proud" of Megan Chase, the student who wrote the editorial calling for tolerance and acceptance of gays, and the Tomahawk's other writers and editors.

After Chase's column appeared, Sorrell received a warning from school officials and was told all issues of the newspaper must be approved by Principal Ed Yoder before going to press.

School officials in the conservative northern Indiana community about 10 miles east of Fort Wayne said Sorrell did not comply with an agreement to alert Yoder about controversial articles.

She was later notified that the school board was considering canceling her contract at its May 1 meeting, which prompted her to ask Superintendent Kay Novotny for a public hearing, which had been set for April 28.

The incident drew the attention of national and state free-speech groups.

East Allen County officials did not return calls seeking comment in time for this story.

However, part of the four-page agreement Sorrell signed with school officials is a written reprimand from Novotny which states that Sorrell neglected her duties as a teacher and was insubordinate in refusing to obey school officials' orders.

"You are further advised and warned that similar conduct, in the future, could result in more serious disciplinary action, up to and including termination," Novotny's statement reads.