Freedom of speech or another Bong Hit for Jesus?

[scottinnj]

Story Here (http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-burlawsuit0717.artjul17,0,3068945.story?coll=hc_ta b01_layout)


Apparently, you aren't allowed to give an opinion of your school's faculty in your own blog now. "Bong hits for Jesus" was off school property, but this is not even in the same state of physics as the school building.

Fuck this school.

[SatCam]

Doninger referred to school administrators as "douchbags" (sic) when she posted the entry on livejournal.com, a virtual community where users can write web logs, diaries or journals.

I would never vote for her

[MadBiker]

Story Here (http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-burlawsuit0717.artjul17,0,3068945.story?coll=hc_ta b01_layout)


Apparently, you aren't allowed to give an opinion of your school's faculty in your own blog now. "Bong hits for Jesus" was off school property, but this is not even in the same state of physics as the school building.

Fuck this school.

Although the Doningers say Avery was wrong to use that word and the girl has apologized for it, they accuse school officials of overreacting.

"The school had no business reaching into our home to decide how she should be disciplined," Lauren Doninger, an addiction studies and psychology professor at Gateway Community College in New Haven, said during a press conference Monday in Hartford at Schoenhorn's office.

I happen to agree the girl's parents should discipline her for the use of the word. If the girl apologized, then it appears, at least on the surface, that the girl is admitting she did something wrong. But her actions were also taken on behalf of a student body she felt she represented, for an event connected with and taking place on the grounds of her school. The administration should be exercising disciplinary action. As an officer, Avery is a representative of her school in and out of the bounds of school activities. The standards for behavior for persons in her position are higher.

Here is the post in question:

"Jamfest is canceled due to the douchbags in central office. Here is an e-mail that we sent out to a ton of people and asked them to forward to everyone in their address book to help get support for Jamfest," she wrote. "Basically, because we sent it out, Paula Schwartz is getting a TON of phone calls and e-mails and such. We have so much support and we really appreciate it. However, she got pissed off and decided to just cancel the whole thing all [sic] together."

Jamfest was canceled because the school stated no staff members were available to run the equipment necessary to hold the event. Whether this was a duplicitous statement made by the administration as an excuse to cancel Jamfest, or whether it is 100% true, cannot be known. The petition that was circulated may have had tons of signatures and student support, but petitions do not always get the desired result, and the students do not seem to understand that sometimes, even if a lot of you want something really bad, and say so, you cannot get it.

"When kids are in a position of privilege, there are certain standards of behavior we expect them to uphold," she told Channel 30. "Our position stands for respect. We're just hoping kids appreciate the seriousness of any communication over the Internet."

This is absolutely true, regardless of whether you are on student council or sitting in Congress, it should be expected that people in leadership positions act accordingly with respect for themselves and others. You can still treat someone with respect even if you do not particularly like them or disagree with their poilicies and actions.

This girl demonstrated that she cannot be respectful or use decorum in finding a reasonable solution to the problem at hand. Sometimes you just cannot give in to every impulse you have, and when you are in a leadership position you have to find more constructive ways to approach your problems, instead of reducing your solution to uncreative name-calling.

So what does she do, instead of trying to work with administrators and present her case and be an adult about it? She sues. Of course. So no problems will really be solved; filing the lawsuit turns this into another "he (or she) who shouts loudest wins."

[Jujubees2]

Niehoff told WVIT-TV in May that school leadership positions are a privilege, not a right.

Have to agree with that. While we do have freedom of speech in this country you also are responsible for what you say. If she had said this in a TV interview or in a newspaper, it would have had the same repercussions.

This is different from the Bong Hits for Jesus case (which I disagree with the Supreme Court's ruling) because he was suspended from school, not told that he couldn't run for class president.

[DolaMight]

I wonder what it would be like to get high with Jesus. I wonder if I would trip out.

I bet when he got high he wouldn't be able to resist doing magic tricks. He's make smoke animals, turn bong water into wine etc...

[Ritalin]

Yeah, yeah, blah blah "privilege not a right" blah blah "position of authority" blah blah.

Bottom line: douchebags.

From salon.com (but univerally acknowledged to have occured):

Sept. 4, 2000 | At a Labor Day event in Naperville, Ill., Monday morning, apparently oblivious of the microphone just inches from his mouth, Gov. George W. Bush made a crude offhand remark about a reporter that those in the campaign of his rival, Vice President Al Gore, hope will take some of the shine off Bush's warm and sunny veneer.

Waving and smiling to the crowds, Bush and his running mate, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, seemed to be enjoying the generous reception offered by the Republican enclave in the Chicago suburbs.

Then Bush spotted New York Times reporter Adam Clymer, who has been with the paper since 1977, serving as national political correspondent during the 1980 presidential race, as polling editor from 1983 to 1990 and as political editor during the successful presidential campaign of Bush's father in 1988.

"There's Adam Clymer -- major league asshole -- from the New York Times," Bush said.

"Yeah, big time," returned Cheney.

Because of the crowd noise, few if any of the audience could hear the remarks. But reporters -- especially those with radio or network TV sound equipment plugged into the microphone -- heard the remark clearly. As of early afternoon Monday, media executives were reportedly deciding whether or not to use the tape.