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Past Posts, Volume 1
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How about some STUDENTS on the Board of Education?
From: S. O.'s Posse
Date: 28 Nov 1997
Hey, look what we found in the California Education Code, which is the law that controls school boards in the state.
The law says that a school board that has high schools in it’s district MUST let one or more student ("pupil") members be on the school board if the students in the district submit a petition with at least 500 signatures asking for student representation.
The pupil members are selected by the students of the district. The pupil members MUST be seated with the members of the board and recognized as full members of the board at school board meetings. This includes receiving all materials presented to the board members and participating in the questioning of witnesses and the discussion of issues!!! The petition can also ask that the pupil members be "preferential voting" members, which means that they get to vote on each item and their preference vote is recorded in the official records of the district. The pupil member’s votes don’t count toward the board’s action but they do let the student view of the issues be known.
This is really an awesome law. It means that high school students have a chance for a voice and representation on the board of education. Having students on the board would certainly help change the patronizing and condescending attitude of the board regarding student views, such as we saw at the Santa Barbara board meeting on the dress code. THIS IS NEEDED!!!
The law is in the California Education Code, Section 35012 (d). Check it out at the official site of the California LegislativeCounsel:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=edc&codebody=35012
Your comments, please.
From: µ
Date: 28 Nov 1997
Well, that may be true, but if you presented this law to the SB ed board, they would bury it in red tape. you would have to take them to court, being the isuferable shitheads that they are. Sounds like a great idea, though. Also, does anyone know when the members of the school board are up for re-election?
Re: How about some STUDENTS on the Board of Education?
From: Camus
Date: 28 Nov 1997
According to that link to the Education Code 3512a, "The terms of the members shall, except as otherwise provided, be for four years and staggered so that as nearly as practicable one-half of the members shall be elected in each odd-numbered year."
One of the problems with the SB Board is that it does not have a web site to provide students, teachers, parents and other citizens with information. The SB County Ed. Office site is pretty useless. The Board should have an extensive site with info on meetings, agenda, minutes, policy statements, rules & regulations, bios and position statements from the board members, etc.
Of course they use the excuse that if somebody really wants info, then that person can schlep over and get it at the District office at SBJHS. That is a cheap excuse these days. It shows a desire to keep information difficult for the public to obtain so the entire school board process remains mystified for most people. Most of these board members seem to view themselves not as elected public servants but as the high priests of education in Santa Barbara.
Re: How about some STUDENTS on the Board of Education?
From: Balzac
Date: 28 Nov 1997
Damn it!! Can't anybody post to the forums on this site without making some fuc*ing literary reference???
From: Max
Date: 29 Nov 1997
Having student board members is an excellent idea. You should start organizing the petition drive. It should be very easy to get 500 students to sign because many students at the three high schools in the SB district are already upset about the board and the dress code. Just be sure the petition is written so it exactly fits this law. The board is going to look for some reason to trash it on a technicality.
From: Reggie
Date: 14 Dec 1997
A message to six of thirty (five?), coming in here from AOL!! Are you a SBHS district student? Or perhaps a resident of the Otherworlds? With what various species are you genetically affiliated? Are you M, F? either, or? neither, nor? What motivates you to find yourself interested in these student rights matters? If yer gonna kiss the members of the Posse Comitatus, then we gotta know.
Actually, we appreciate your support and involvement. So many students seem to be complacent these days. They, like most members of society, will gladly give away their freedom as long as they are guaranteed entertainment. They want TV, movies, video games and dazzling special effects, not freedom, justice and rights.
Re: How about some STUDENTS on the Board of Education?
From: dungheap
Date: 15 Dec 1997
That's gotta be the stupidest thing I've ever heard on the forum.
From: The Posse
Date: 14 Dec 1997
Here is the latest on the issue of a student representative on the Santa Barbara Board of Education:
There is now a representative of student government who is invited by the Board to attend SBHS District meetings. However,we are trying to find out if this student rep is there only by invitation or has a RIGHT to be there and represent the studentsunder California Education Code, Section 35012 (d). The difference is immense. Under Section 35012(d) the student has the right to question people speaking at board meetings, participate in board discussions, get copies of all written material distributed to board members, and even make a public, advisory vote on agenda items before they are voted on by the other members of the board.
If the student rep at the SB board of education meetings does actually have this authority, then she is not being allowed to exercise it. For example, on the controversial dress code, she was not given any opportunity to take part in the board meeting when this was enacted by the board. Nor has she been given any such opportunity at the meetings on the controversial proposal by the superintendent and some board members to completely dump bilingual education in Santa Barbara. Whatever the view of this proposal by the board majority, it directly affects students and their representative should be allowed to participate in the board’s consideration.
Dress code
From: The Gulag
Date: 08 Jan 1998
Anybody hear of any enforcement of the SB school district dress code lately? The enforcement was supposed to start in January, right?
Maybe the enforcement will not begin until the weather warms up and students dig out their cherished spring and summer togs.
However, the most likely scenario is that the board, having taken so much political heat from their latest plan to dump bilingual education, will have neither the time nor energy to deal with mass, civil disobedience and a sea of students in shorts above mid-thigh, spaghetti strap dresses and psycho T-shirts.
Hey, Mahatma Gandhi wore a loincloth and defeated the entire British Empire. Think about it.
From: Rotifer
Date: 19 Jan 1998
seeing as how nobody ever gave a warning to people violating the code, I see no reason to think it will actually be enforced. Most teachers don't care. And so many people break it any "security guards" trying to enforce it will have their hands full.Think of what the walkie-talkie chatter will be like...
From: chris
Date: 20 Jan 1998
I think that in this country we should let the children have a voice because we are the ones that are going to habe to reep the punishment of what our adult advesaries are doing to our precious planet. We are constantly under attack to have to listen to one adults' opinion or another and I think that this is about time that it stop!! We as young adults should have our own say in this world and she shouldn't let stupid people who don't know anything run and ruin the future us I say we take back what's ours and maybe this world will be a better place.
From: Anonymous
Date: 23 Jan 1998
Your theory is interesting. We are constantly being pushed at one opinion or another. But remember this: to think for yourself, you have to know the real facts. Know what you're deciding about. NOT CHOOSE IN IGNORANCE. Teens should have their own thoughts opinions, but until teens are ready to take on that responsibility, we no more have the right to think and choose than the fieldmice have to vote.
From: phrogg777
Date: 20 Jan 1998
Hi. I live in Carencro, Louisiana. Recently, Texas sent us one of their superintendant rejects. Anyway, the point is, we at CHS do _not_ like the crap that he's trying to enforce on us. I think that if he wants to make a difference in our education, he should worry less on how we dress and more on whats being taught! I'd like some information on what I can do to get things changed around here, we're all sick of it. All the schools in this district already had a rally at Geraud Park, several petitions have been written, and we're all fed up. Dr. Zolkoski (our _wonderful_ superintendant)
Re: We seem to share the same problem...
From: Zelot
Tell us more about the problems in your district. What kinds of rules do you have there? Have any students been suspended in your school district because of what they wear? If so, tell us the facts. If the clothes were not actually indecent or disruptive, then the suspensions should definitely be fought!
Take a look at this page
http://www.aclu.org/news/w121997a.html
There might be some help available from lawyers in your area who are concerned about your rights being protected.
In Santa Barbara it is still not clear what the enforcement (if any) of the new dress code will be like. But we will probably soon find out!!
Good luck and keep us posted about how you are doing. Students accross the country must stay informed and fight together for their rights.
From: Anonymous
Date: 23 Jan 1998
When it comes to dress codes, people say it's unconstitutional. It denies "freedom of expression". That has to be the most abused ammendment in the constitution. Did you know that everyday, there are teens killed in Chicago because they are wearing the newest Nike shoe, or they are wearing gang clothes? Yet all the parents and students fight it. It's your jacket or your life, and yet people still oppose it there. And what's so bad about a dress code anyway? Then girls won't being spending an hour each morning trying to find an outfit to get in with the cool crowd, or look just right for "him". And you could have free
dress on Fridays, or something. But learn the facts before you freak out. That dress code could being saving your life. From:
Date: 03 Mar 1998
I, for one, am a high school student that attends a school with a very strict dress code. every mornig I spend at least one extra hour trying to find something to wear because hardly anything fits the school standards. There are no gang problems at all in the location of my school, nor are the people in it affiliiated with gangs. So what is the reason for a dress code here? How dod you think you'd feel if you couldn't wear tee-shirts, short or long skirts, gym shoes, blue denim, sweatshirts, or anything with with writing on it? That certainly contrasts with your idea of easily picking out something to wear.
From: zongo
Date: 04 Mar 1998
Sounds like your school dress code is VERY strict. Our dress code is so vague a wacky teacher or administrator could try to ban all the things you mentioned. But they haven't strictly enforced it yet. They probably know the students would definitely strike if they tried to be that strict.
From: Black Knight
Date: 12 Mar 1998
I THINK THAT DRESS CODES ARE NOT RIGHT. THEY DON'T LISTEN TO OUR OPINION ABOUT THE SUBJECT EVEN THOUGH THEY ASK US ABOUT IT. I THINK THAT IF THEY ASSIGN US TO DRESS CODES I THINK THAT I WOULD NOT COMPLY
From: empress33@aol.com
Date: 29 Mar 1998
Outrage over the dress code, but when we promote sexist stereotypes not a peep? Allow me to quote:"And what's so bad about a dress code anyway? Then girls won't being spending an hour each morning trying to find an outfit to get in with the cool crowd, or look just right for 'him'." Popularity, boys, and clothes. Somebody's been reading YM for their impression of the female gender.
From: van Zip
Date: 30 Mar 1998
Well said, Empress. But what the hell is YM??? A mag???
From: M
Date: 26 Jan 1998
The dress code has now finially come into action. And well was it inforced. NO NO NO NO NO NO!. I saw short shorts, athiesm shirts, spagetti straps, and just about everything that got banned. Our campus police didn't even blink when people who wear this stuff walked by. Well the school board sure has influence.
Re: IT HAS BEGUN
From: R. Daneel Olivaw
Date: 23 Feb 1998
I'm afraid you're wrong there. I have seen it enforced (after a fashion) by my semi-apathetic physical education 'teacher' Mr. Hallock. In the short interval between the time in which we are required to wear our uniforms and the time at which we are allowed to depart, he accosted a young woman in a halter top cut above her navel and informed her that she was in violation of the dress code and that the next time she wore such clothing to school, she would be sent home. Whether she did or not, I do not know, as I found a more convinient way to leave without waiting for the bell.
oh get a grip
From: a security guard
First of all lets get something clear security officers are not public servents they are private people. He or She works under a cloak of authority and as such he can ask you to leave any area he sees fit providing you are doing something wrong - in this case you took his picture with out his permission. How about if I take the pictures I have of you and publish them.Bet you would not like it would you - you should have asked his permission simple as that!
From: Ding Dong You're Wrong
Date: 22 Feb 1998
Actually, the security guards at our school are public servants. It is a public school after all, and they are paid by the government. So, my deluded friend, they ARE public servants. Also, it was legal to take some pictures. I am in the journalism class with that student and we have studied the rules and laws for this sort of thing. A school is considered a public place.
Except for bathrooms, private offices and personal rooms, our campus is totally public. So, whatever you do, you have to expect people might see and take pictures. Hell, it's the law. If you want to argue that, I can quote the law from my journalism class.
Well old boy, we gotcha!
Student Rights question that has nothing to do with the dress code
From: R. Daneel Olivaw
Date: 23 Feb 1998
There are, I know, rules intended to protect students of Santa Barbara High School from being harrassed about their religion by members of other religions, but are there rules protecting the rights of Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics? Haven't I the right to sit in Biology class without having to listen to the ranting of the Fundamentalist/bigot/anti-science fanatic two seats infront of me on the subject of where I will spend eternity? If there are, I should greatly like to know about them. I am rapidly running out of bible quotes and reasoned arguments for him to ignore, and I would like very much to have a break from his idiocy.
From: darwin
Date: 23 Feb 1998
Sounds like what he is doing is proselytizing, trying to persuade you to accept his religious beliefs. That is not right in a public school classroom where you are a captive audience and can’t just walk away. You should complain to the teacher, who should tell him to shut up and save his opinions until after class. But maybe you got one of those science teachers who is also a religious fundamentalists who believes the "theory of evolution" is part of a vast, satanic conspiracy.
From: Rotifer
Date: 25 Feb 1998
Regard it as a unique opportunity to argue with someone.
From: R. Daneel Olivaw
Date: 11 Mar 1998
Arguing with Garret is much like arguing with a dog or a tea tray, except that his responses are not as well reasoned or as backed by facts as the responses usually put forth by such things. As a result, I would rather argue with a fly-swatter, or even Nimmy or Mr. Everett.
From: Jack
Date: 02 Mar 1998
It is Illegal to descriminate against adults,but theres nothing about descriminating against kids, that is illegal!!
P.S. I think that the dress code REALLY SUCKS!!!!!
From: anonymous
Date: 02 Mar 1998
Uniforms are a bunch of BULL!!!Why would any one want to look like everyone else. Everyone has to be different! How you dress decides what your personality is. You cant take being different from anyone because everyone always says"Dont try to be like everyone else." BE YOURSELF! I wouldnt want to look like everyone else! How about you??
From: crazynj
Date: 16 Apr 1998
personally, i am a senior and dress codes in school wont effect me. it has its advantages and disadvantages. it saves money, and on the other hand, it can create problems with ones individuality. what is the education system to do. they can not please everyone, so choices have to be made!
From: anonymous
Date: 02 Mar 1998
Uniforms are a bunch of BULL!!!Why would any one want to look like everyone else. Everyone has to be different! How you dress decides what your personality is. You cant take being different from anyone because everyone always says"Dont try to be like everyone else." BE YOURSELF! I wouldnt want to look like everyone else! How about you??
From: michael
Date: 17 Mar 1998
school dress codes are fascist hypecritical,they tech you of freedoms you have but will not allow you to act with freedom
From: M
Date: 11 Mar 1998
We have a dress code at my school at is is crap we are not alowed to ware anything that promotes drugs, alcohol and sex at yet I see that kind of stuff every day. Dress codes are just a big wast of paper
Re: dresscode
From: che
Date: 17 Mar 1998
Exactemente, amigo mio! So, what you gotta do is protest by wearing your Pamela and Tommy Lee t-shirt to your next health class. Then be sure to give us a report here.
searching for info
From: Jenny
Date: 19 Mar 1998
Hello. You all seem to have a very interesting conversation going on. I'm a high school student that goes to school in the
Chicago area at Niles West High School. I am researching this topic of school dress codes within public schools. This policy may soon become a reality within my school, and I need to write an article about it. If any of you out there can please answer these questions it would be greatly appreciated. You can make a difference in whether this kind of a policy will be instituted within my school. Please, try to be prompt. Thank you. I'm looking for aspects on both opposing sides. And I'm curious if any school officials read these and could please respond.
1. Could you please summarize the reasons in establishing a dress code within your school. (specifically- racial conflicts, religious problems, violence, or other conflicts)
2. Has this policy proven to be beneficial?
3. How has this policy been enforced? Through what means of discipline?
4. Have you had a personal incident in which you have been disciplined because of what you have worn?
5. Any other things that I should know before writing my paper?
I will quote some of the answers in my paper. Any response would be great. Thanks. Please, feel free to email me at
-Jenny
From: S.O.
Date: 20 Mar 1998
(email received from Jenny Lee)
> I'm doing a research paper for my english class and I was wondering if you could please help me by answering some
>questions. Please, I need this info because a similar situation might happen at my school, Niles West High School of
>Skokie, IL. Here are the questions:
> 1. What exactly is your connection to this situation?
A graduating, high school senior.
> 2. Could you please summarize the reasons in establishing a dress code within your school. (specifically- racial conflicts,
>religious problems, violence, or other conflicts)
An ultra-conservative school board was trying to please a very few vocal, ultra-conservative administrators and parents.
>Does it seem to be necessary to establish?
Absolutely not!
>Were there previous incidents that spurred this new rule?
There was an incident at one of the schools in the district where a student displayed a confederate flag, allegedly as a symbol of racial intolerance.
Another "reason" is that a few parents and teachers believe girls wearing spaghetti straps and shorts above mid-thigh are somehow obscene.
> 3. Has this policy proven to be beneficial?
No.
> 4. How has this policy been enforced? Through what means of discipline?
The new dress code is being enforced in a vague and capricious way. At some schools it is not being enforced at all by the administration, but some teachers have used the new code to harass students for wearing clothes the teacher does not like. At other schools in the district it is being enforced very rigidly by the administration.
> 5. Have you had a personal incident in which you have been disciplined because of what you have worn?
No.
> 6. Have there been any other similar actions of censorship that the school board has tried to establish?
Not recently. This is enough, because it is so vague, it bans anything a teacher claims is "inflammatory."
> 7. What is your opinion on this whole scenario?
It's ridiculous. More important, it is an outrageous violation of student's rights of expression.
> 8. Are there any other things that I should know before writing my > paper?
Read the Student Rights page:
http://www.tentler.com/StudentsRights.htm and Past Posts page, to get the opinion of many other students on the dress code:
http://www.tentler.com/DressPosts.htm
Also, see the ACLU student rights pages at :
http://www.aclu.org/students/sybil.html
> 9. Do you know anyone else that I should contact to interview?
A lawyer or your local ACLU chapter.
> Thank you so much for your time. I'm desperate and I really need you to answer these. The only other ppl that I can
>contact are the neighboring schools that have IDs worn as a necklace. I hope to hear >from you soon. Thanks. -Jenny Lee
How rude and offensive! That sounds like some kind of an animal license! I'm sure that most high school students here would refuse to wear such things.
Good luck, and keep us informed about how students in the Chicago area are dealing with attacks on their rights .
From: Kitana1012
Date: 23 Mar 1998
Adults need to make up their minds. First, they tell us (teenagers) to be an indivisual, to start thinking in the sense of "I" instead of "we". Now they are making dress codes for us. Dress codes such as uniforms makes me feel like I'm wearing the same thing over and over again, which makes me feel dirty. I don't care what they say, even if you wear uniforms, you're still going to have the same problems like drugs, alcohol, premature sex, and fights. Clothes have nothing to do with these problems.
Plus, since it's like we can't say what we want anyway, our clothes and style of dress is probably the last refuge for us to express ourselves. I had uniforms in Kindergarden. I didn't like them then, and I don't like them now. -That's my opinion-
From: noogie
Date: 24 Mar 1998
"be an indivisual"
Exactly!
Freedom on the WEB
From: Zeek
Date: 25 Mar 199
This article is about how some schools are trying to control and punish students for what they write on the web. The article was in the New York Times on March 8, 1998:
Schools Challenge Students' Internet Talk
By Tamar Lewin
"Aaron Smith's troubles grew out of a drawing that he made in the school computer lab, one that his friend said looked like a chihuahua being killed. That remark, hilarious to a group of 13-year-old boys, became a kind of standing joke that led Aaron and his computer-nerd pals to go home and create a "CHOW" Web page — a place for Chihuahua Haters of the World to share tidbits like the tale of the 7-foot boa constrictor that ate a chihuahua.
"The whole CHOW Web page was just for fun, but it was my creation and I loved it," said Aaron, whose site included a statement that he and his friends did not imagine how it would evolve "when we started this in the Dowell Middle School computer lab in McKinney, Texas."
But it was not hilarious to a Fort Worth, Texas, chow breeder who visited the page and became so incensed that she contacted the school, threatening an animal-rights protest.
"I must have gotten 50 e-mails," said the superintendent, Jack Cockrill. "We believed it was a product of the computer lab and we immediately began an investigation."
Hauled into the principal's office, Aaron quickly volunteered to take out the reference to the school. But that was not enough. School officials suspended him for the day, transferred him out of his favorite class — the computer lab where he was an aide — and told him to take down the Web site and post an apology.
Much like the underground newspapers of past generations, student-created Web pages are increasingly creating conflicts between students and schools, with students asserting their right to free speech on their personal sites while schools seek to control content that concerns them.
"As more and more people get online and more out-of-school online conduct gets tracked back to the school, we're seeing more of these cases," said Ann Beeson, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. "Schools are trying to control whatkids write online or punish them for it, when they have no right to."
Beeson said the first such case that came to her attention occurred several years ago in Bellevue, Wash., where a bright high school senior, Paul Kim, created a Web site, on his own time, that was a parody of the high school newspaper.
School officials told him they did not like the parody, Beeson said, but they did not tell him that because of it they were withdrawing his recommendation for a National Merit Scholarship. With legal help from the ACLU, the boy won a "very favorable settlement," Beeson said.
In Aaron's case, too, the civil liberties organization has reached a settlement, under which he was allowed to return to the computer class, with no mention of the Web-page incident to appear on his record.
"This was a bizarre intrusion on his free-speech rights," Beeson said. "It was a Web site created off campus, completely unrelated to school, and he has every right to announce to the world that he goes to that school. It doesn't give the school any right to exert any power over his Web page."
Beeson is still negotiating with Geocities, the Web server that had carried the chihuahua site but took it down after Aaron posted his apology, apparently because the way the apology was posted created a technical violation of Geocities guidelines.
And Aaron is still hoping to get the CHOW site going again, with missives like this boa story from Aug. 11:
"Today in the California region a 7-ft. boa constrictor was caught devouring a chihuahua. I have repeatedly called the snake's home to tell him what a great job our operatives are doing out there, but he won't answer the phone. If anyone can relay this information to him CHOW would be grateful."
If schools worry about that kind of silliness, they become absolutely enraged about sites created specifically as forums to criticize school policies or personnel.
One of the knottiest cases arose in December in Statesboro, Ga., where a 15-year-old student was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats against the principal of Statesboro High School, Darryl Dean, and his family, on a Web site that caused concern from the start.
It was not a pleasant site, laced with obscenity and invitations to click on links to other sites, where browsers could find out about "cool bands, how to make bombs and even how to kill yourself."
And it promised trouble to Dean, 36, in his first year as principal, with suggestions for shooting him, kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter, scratching his car with keys and putting Superglue in the locks at school. Other students posted their critiques of the principal and the school, often in the crudest language they could muster.
The school came down hard: The district not only suspended the creator of the site but also turned over the case to the police for criminal investigation. The boy's name was not released, because the charges, still pending, are in juvenile court.
The school also suspended several students who had posted negative comments. Although the suspensions have all been completed, some of the students are seeking to have their disciplinary records expunged.
Civil libertarians contend that the school wrongly punished the students. "Our position is that the school system cannot discipline students for off-campus free-speech activity," said Gerald Weber, legal director of the Georgia Civil Liberties Union. "You can't stop students or anyone else from saying what they want unless there's a credible threat of imminent harm. It was a complete overreaction to suggest that this was a real threat. It was all hyperbole, not a realistic threat."
Louisa Abbot, a lawyer for one of the suspended students, said the school should not have treated the Web site as a real threat.
"These are not students who have been a problem in school, and they were just expressing the kind of dislike of authority that every generation feels," Abbot said. "It's interesting to speculate whether, if there'd been a more temperate use of language, this would have provoked such an extreme reaction."
Both Dean and the lawyer for the school board, Vanderver Pool, declined to discuss the case, citing student confidentiality.
The boy charged with the threats, who is generally described as well behaved, also declined to discuss the case, saying he hoped that the charges would "blow over." So did his lawyer, Gates Peed.
People familiar with the case said the charges might have been as much a matter of timing as of any real perception of a threat.
The Statesboro boy's arrest followed closely on the heels of national publicity about a 14-year-old in West Paducah, Ky., who fired on classmates at a prayer circle, killing three girls and injuring five others.
In that climate, the people in Statesboro said, school authorities might have felt that they could not afford to ignore anything that might be a harbinger of violence."
From: Francis Mitcholen
Date: 31 Mar 1998
I do not understand why you liberal idoits dislike this dress code so much. It is not going to hurt you, and you do not sound like you are the ones wearing your underwear to school and exposing yourselves, Why do you care so much?
From: Empress33
Date: 01 Apr 1998
If everyone had to be directly involved in something to care about it, we would all be dead. Apathy is lame. Why don't you care?
From: Josh, Benson, Minnesota
Date: 02 Apr 1998
Personally I think dress codes are stupid! Let people express themselves! It doesn't hurt me, why should it hurt anyon else???
STUDENTS JAILED!
From: Zardaz
Date: 06 Apr 1998
Schools want students to learn about their Constitutional Rights; just don't try exercising them.
In Florida, 9 high school students were JAILED and expelled from school for exercising their First Amendment Rights by publishing a pamphlet of their writing!!! Here’s the story :
Los Angeles Times April 6, 1998
Students Give, Get Lesson in First Amendment Protections Ist Amendment Protections
By Mike Clary Times Staff Writer
MIAMI--The 20-page handwritten pamphlet was crude, offensive and in poor taste. Everyone, including the high school students who wrote it, agree on that.
Not only was the underground publication rife with profanity and racial epithets, but the principal, Timothy Dawson, was depicted engaging in a sex act. Moreover, one essayist mused, "I often have wondered what would happen if I shot Dawson in the head." But did that constitute a threat on the principal's life? Should the students--five girls and four boys--have been charged with hate crimes, arrested and jailed? And just what are the free-speech rights of children in public schools?
Those questions still reverberate in Miami, six weeks after the Killian High School students who wrote "First Amendment" spent the night in jail, were suspended and later expelled.
Both the contents of the pamphlet and the punishment meted out continue to fuel lively debate here, especially after a local weekly paper, New Times, reprinted "First Amendment" under the headline: "Why are we showing you the contents of the Killian High pamphlet? Because we can!"
Constitutional scholar Donald M. Jones, a law professor at the University of Miami, said the flap over the publication shows that "we still have a vast reservoir of immaturity when it comes to discussions of race and free speech." Jones said jailing the students was indefensible. "We can't prevent people from thinking in ways that are prejudiced and hateful," Jones said. "There shouldn't be thought crimes in 1998." Indeed, officials refused to prosecute the students, saying the 1945 Florida law under which they were charged is "unconstitutional and unenforceable." But state Atty. Katherine Fernandez Bundle did comment that she found the pamphlet contained "language and drawings of an outrageous and highly offensive nature."
The arrests and expulsions have alarmed civil libertarians. "This is an extreme overreaction. I've never heard of high school students being jailed for distributing a pamphlet," said Mark Goodman, an attorney and executive director of the Student Press Law Center, a Washington-based group that provides legal advice to student publications. "There is no question this is material many people would be offended by. But a threat? You have to look at who these students are."
Seven of the so-called Killian Nine are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has vowed to sue the school system for false arrest. "What is going on around the country is a tendency to think that kids don't have rights, or have fewer rights," said Howard Simon executive director of the ACLU's Florida chapter. "But the Ist Amendment does not stop at the schoolhouse door."
Killian, with an enrollment of 4,000, is considered one of the top high schools in South Florida. All of the students involved in producing "First Amendment" were members of the school's art club, and several were on the honor roll. One of the Killian Nine, 18-year-old David Morales, said he and the others have apologized for the pamphlet and added that they had no malicious intent. "Anybody with an IQ over 5 could see the pamphlet was a satire," Morales told the Miami Herald. But neither Dawson nor school administrators saw it that way. After being provided the names of the Killian Nine, Dawson called school police and had them arrested, saying: "They have threatened to kill me."
And school system administrators have taken a hard line. "This is racial, profane, obscene," commented Deputy Supt. Henry Fraind. ''Does that bother anyone except us?" About 2,500 copies of "First Amendment" were printed, but it is unclear how many were distributed.
"The pamphlet ran the gamut of expression, from painful efforts at self-examination to romantic poetry to blunt criticism of school policies," said New Times Editor Jim Mullin. "And much of it was admirable for its literary ambition. Yes, there was some obscenity, and the principal took his share of hits. But death threats? Get real."
More Nuze!
From: The Nuze Guy
Date: 06 Apr 1998
Here's some more weird nuze about how students are being treated by teachers and school administrators who don't understand the Constitution of the good ol' USA:
Students Suspended for Wearing Pepsi Shirts
By The Associated Press
3.30.98
EVANS, Ga. (AP) -- School officials have expunged suspensions of two students who were punished for wearing Pepsi shirts to school on a day when Coca-Cola executives were visiting.
"The penalty didn't fit the crime," Columbia County Superintendent Tom Dohrmann said Friday.
"We still think the behavior was inappropriate and disruptive, however, we have decided that another method of discipline may have been more appropriate and we have decided to remove the suspensions from their records."
Dohrmann said a principal-student conference on appropriate behavior would have been a better way to handle the situation involving seniors Mike Cameron, 19, and Dan Moxley, 17.
Coca-Cola officials came to the school last week as part of Greenbrier's effort to win a $500 contest run by the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Augusta and a larger national contest with a $10,000 prize. There was even a school picture in which Greenbrier students spelled out "Coke."
So Cameron waited until just before the picture was taken to remove his outer shirt and reveal a blue-and-white-striped shirt with a Pepsi logo underneath. And Moxley turned his back during the picture so the red-white-and-blue logo on his Pepsi shirt would show up.
The two students received a one-day, in-house suspension for their prank, which school officials, including Principal Gloria Hamilton, called disruptive and rude.
Cameron served his suspension at home on Wednesday; Moxley was to serve his punishment in school in April.
The prank and punishment made national headlines. Dohrmann said the incident has been blown out of proportion.
"We support the students' First Amendment right to wear the shirts, as long as it's not disruptive. They've admitted that they did it as a prank," Dohrmann said.
Cameron said Hamilton told him of the decision Friday afternoon.
"I was a little bit surprised. I didn't think she'd give in," he said. "I said, 'Thanks, I hold you in high respect. You were just doing your job.'"
He said he had been invited to appear on NBC's Today show and on CBS' Late Show with David Letterman this Friday. He leaves for New York on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the cola wars continued.
Not to be outdone, Pepsi said it would donate $500 to Greenbrier, which opened less than two years ago 10 miles northwest of Augusta.
High school students win right to wear anti-swastika symbol
By The Associated Press
3.31.98
DALLASTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Five high school students suspended for wearing an anti-swastika symbol have returned toclass after a federal judge ruled in their favor.
School district officials say they won’t challenge the court order allowing the youngsters to wear their pins, patches and drawings.
"The school district continues to object to the use of the swastika in any form on school grounds," Dallastown Area School
Superintendent Williams Thompson said Monday. "We find this symbol to be vulgar and despicable."
The case arose when several Dallastown Area High School students designed the logos to send an anti-racism message to those around them. The symbol showed a swastika with a red line through it; pins bearing it also had the words "Fight Racism."
School administrators in this York County community some 80 miles west of Philadelphia asked students to stop wearing the symbol, saying some people might not understand the message. The district then suspended five students caught wearing the emblem.
Erika Beers, 15, and her mother took the case to federal court Friday, where American Civil Liberties Union volunteer lawyer
Gary Gildin argued the girl had the right to wear the symbol and asked for a temporary restraining order against the school.
The hearing was held via phone with a judge in Williamsport and the judge ruled in the students’ favor Friday. An injunction hearing that had been scheduled for Wednesday is unnecessary because school officials decided not to fight.
Gildin, a Dickinson School of Law professor, said the case was a matter of free speech.
"We’re looking at this as a political-expression case," he said.
Beers returned to school after the judge ruled in her favor. The four other students went back to class Monday.
"We’re trying to do a good thing here," Matt Keller, one of the suspended students, said after the ruling last week.
DRESS CODES
From: BeefRage99
Date: 06 Apr 1998
I THINK DRESS CODES SUCK! WE SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE OUR OWN CHOICE AS THE
FIRST AMMENDMENT SAYS>
RULE!HOOTERS RULE!HOOTERS RULE!HOOTERS RULE!HOOTERS RULE!HOOTERS RULE!
From: zongo
Date: 06 Apr 1998
Yes, the Constitution even protects a-holes like you.
What's up in the northern Chicagoland area
From: Jenny
Date: 06 Apr 1998
Well, my neighboring school districts have recently instituted a policy where students must visibly wear their IDs somewhere on the chest area. My school felt left out, so the school board was pressured into installing this policy too. The babbling idiots just want to follow the crowd. So, next year it is most likely that I will have to wear a damn dog collar with my ID attached to it to symbolize that yes, indeed, I am a student of this school. And, no, I'm not a terrorist. They've tightened up security, but there was no justifiable reason to do so. They've harassed some students- giving out saturday detentions for not having their IDs with them, and didn't bother to check the IDs of some package handlers or visitors to the school. I find this all to beunbelievably ridiculous. They'll soon institute a dress code, but luckily I'll probably be gone out of that hell-hold by then. I'm a junior. Anyways...any comments?
~Jenny
From: nookie
Date: 06 Apr 1998
Next they will want to tatoo a serial number on your wrist. Or maybe that's too retro-tech for them.
They would probably prefer to implant a microchip under the skin of each student, like the kind the pound uses to scan and identify lost dogs.
Governments have always deprived people of their individual rights by promising them increased "security."
From: Jenny
Date: 07 Apr 1998
I hear ya. Too much damned security will lead you to be a prisoner in your own home...er....school.
From: Jessika Southworth
Date: 15 Apr 1998
The school board should worry more about the student's education and not about the clothes that we wear. My school does not have a uniform policy but, we have a dress code of things that are not allowed to wear. Such as, jeans bellow the waist, belly-bearing tops, and one of the students was going to be suspended for wearing black lipstick untill his parents came to threaten a law-suit. This would not go as far if the students wear allowed to wear what they wanted and get an education.
There have even been petitions going out. They should not be worried about what we wear and be more concerned about our grades and learning. Thank You and if you have anything else to add, please feel free
GwitterGrrrl
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