SF Students Suspended & Barred From Walking At Graduation Because They Joked About Teachers On A Blog
from the what-are-we-teaching-students dept
We just recently talked about the famous Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court ruling that establishes that students have First Amendment rights. Apparently some schools still don't realize this. Thankfully, there are some organizations willing to step in and remind them when they get confused. The ACLU of Northern California and the Asian Law Caucus were apparently able to successfully convince a San Francisco high school to reverse a previous ruling in which three students were suspended for posting some parody/joking blogs about some teachers:In March, after students at a San Francisco high school posted parodies and irreverent memes from their home computers about teachers and school administrators on a Tumblr blog (“Teaches Pink Floyd for 3 Weeks; Makes Final Project Due In 3 Days”; “Nags Student Govt About Being On Task; Lags On Everything”), the principal dragged three students she suspected of creating the blog posts into her office and interrogated them at length. (The blog has since been taken down.) The principal then immediately suspended the students for three days, accusing them of bullying and disrupting school activities. The students were also barred from attending a school dance and prom, and even from walking with their classmates at graduation. In addition, the principal did not provide the students with an opportunity to resolve the concerns through a restorative justice approach prior to imposing the punishments, which disregards the School District’s prioritization of restorative justice as an alternative, when possible, to suspension and expulsion.That seems like a pretty extreme reaction. When I was in high school, I actually remember doing something similar -- parodying the teacher -- in a paper for that teacher. Thankfully, he had a sense of humor. But either way, this is something that tons of high school kids do all the time. And it's clearly protected speech. Once these groups contacted the school and explained the law, the school backed down:
After we contacted the San Francisco Unified School District, they took prompt action to investigate the matter and reverse the discipline. Although the students already missed three days of school, the suspensions have been removed from their records, and they’ll be dancing at prom, and walking with their classmates at graduation.It's too bad it even needed to go that far. What's really disturbing in all of this is what the school officials are teaching kids. Joking and parody are key forms of education and creativity. It's too bad some schools still don't recognize that (or what the law actually says).
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Filed Under: aclu, asian law caucus, first amendment, high school, san francisco
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Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
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Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
And I live in the U.S.
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Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
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Why was my first interpretation of that "French"...
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Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
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Re: its not the 'isms'
Ideological constructs don't kill people, tyrants do.
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Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
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Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
For all you "more govt" people, Europe is in a self-fulfilling death spiral due to “more govt”. When the Spanish bond starts trading above 6%, the rest of the EU will start cannibalizing the system to save themselves.
Capitalism has some bad things, but nothing more competition can’t fix. Tesla, the Wright Brothers, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are all products of the creative destruction of Capitalism. Greed is good as far as true competition is fostered, unlike centrally located Govt pukes who take bribes to slant the playing field. I know, the US has always had Crony Capitalism, so why do the useful idiots want more govt control?
Sports are a perfect example of competitive greed to win as long as the rules are fair to all and the Ref is not bribed to give an unfair advantage.
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The bond market is telling Spain to stop spending until it can get its economy growing to handle the amount of spending, just like millions of American households do everyday by balancing their budgets.
Austerity measures are taken if there is a threat that a government cannot honor its debt liabilities. Spain can't pay their future debts, so they need to stop spending.
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Re: Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
Nice little fantasy though. You may return to your Randian wanking now.
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Re: Re: Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
People take control of their destiny and rewrite rules. Steve Jobs is a perfect example and says it better than I or anyone of your limited understanding of what winning means.
"You have to be run by ideas, not hierarchy. The best ideas have to win." — Steve Jobs / Strong believer in Capitalism.
http://www.pbs.org/programs/steve-jobs-one-last-thing/
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Re: Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
The problem with pure Capitalism is that it's about the expansion of personal wealth above all else. It ignores the fact that what may be good for the self is often counter-productive for the economy as a whole.
Take environmental laws as an example. While they push up the cost of doing business, they're needed to ensure that the earth is not polluted to the point where it fails to sustain life. If it was not for those laws, can you imagine how polluted various parts of the world would be?
The only way to have a sustainable economy is to find a balance between all of the ideologies. Encourage free-market capitalism, but don't let it run rampant. Socialise anything that's used by the populace as a whole, but keep watch to make sure that it doesn't become inefficient. Let people have the liberty to run their own lives, but with sufficient boundaries to prevent anarchy.
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Re: Re: Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
As more Govt becomes involved, Capitalism breaks down and steals wealth from the likes of Steve Jobs. Capitalism can exist without Govt and does every day on Craigslist, but Socialism is dependent on Monopolies of Govt to work.
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Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
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the problem is, those who seek power in any system tend to be those least suited to have power.
Honestly I have come to think that a lottery system that randomly picks people from the whole nations population would be better then what we have now, 4 year cycle 3 years then the lotto is held and for the next year the new person shadows the one before them to learn the basics, classes in the issues they will be dealing with in their jobs(no voting on stuff you cant understand...you know, for example most of our reps today wouldn't be able to vote on Internet issues)
I have no problem with socialist programs, Infact Im for a system like the NHS here in the states, its not perfect but its better then what we have now.
If thats what the tax paying public wants, we should get it....we are the ones who would be paying for it after all....
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Re: Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
All attempts at socialist governments have become oppressive simply because the oppressiveness of a government is in direct correlation with the power it is given. A socialist government is necessarily very centralized and very powerful.
But you are right, in a sense. Socialism is not evil. Socialism paired with government is evil. Voluntary socialist societies exist, and are generally perfectly functional. Communes or monasteries would be one example of voluntary socialism, where the members join by choice because of their personal desire, not because the are compelled by the force of government. Voluntary socialism would most likely look like a lot of smaller territories providing varying levels of cost and service, which individuals could choose to join or leave at will. Oh, wait a minute. That sounds a lot like state or local government. Too bad they've all been overridden by the federal government.
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Re: Re: Wow! I guess the government schools don't want free speech.
No mention that the students’ rights are being infringed upon by an overbearing Teacher’s Union that doesn’t like what students are saying on their own time.
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"The younger generation is supposed to rage against the machine, not for it. They're supposed to question authority, not question those who question authority."
- Bill Maher
"Think for yourself and question authority."
- Timothy Leary
"My parents are both college professors, and it made me want to question authority, standards and traditions."
- Maya Lin
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
- Benjamin Franklin
"The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis."
- Dalai Lama
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The poor adults... bullied by children...
So many people in power now see bullying as something that is a catch-all to solve problems.
Wisecracking kids?! Call them bullys and toss them out.
Kids with behavior issues you don't want to pay to accommodate? Call them bullys and toss them out.
Short of a real clear threat of physical harm from a student to a teacher, to suggest that a child can bully a teacher is silly. If an adult, who makes their living handling children, can't handle children making jokes about them they are in the wrong profession.
Prisoners have more rights and are treated better than students in many districts. There is a serious disconnect in this country, people seem to think if your "in charge" over someone you need to exercise that power at every chance and squash any thought you dislike.
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Either way, those meme sound like the advice animals (i.e. bachelor frog, advice dog, courage wolf) that are pretty hilarious. So then it begs the question of whether or not they were attempting to incite laughter not mock the teachers for their ability.
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idiots in charge always have been
I got suspended for smoking in school.
True story.
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Re: idiots in charge always have been
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Aiming a bit low, isn't it?
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I will say though that it does hurt someones credibility when they admit to lighting their shirt on fire and going to school without noticing. Sure the administration at most schools are staffed with idiots but least they are not flaming idiots.
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"your shirt on fire" [Pictures blazing on fire jacket]
Smoldering is the operative word there bud. No flames, no fire.
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Secondly,
"you are also causing other people to inhale second hand smoke that they do not wish to inhale."
You want smoke free air outside, carry an oxygen tank. I was not smoking inside fool.
"You should get suspended because not only are you violating the drug" Nicotine is not a controlled substance, nor is it illegal. You should get smacked for being such an idiot.
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The public school system in America is a f**king joke. A tool to insure that the next generation continues the molded and outdated thinking and traditions of the previous one. Where free thought and innovation is punished as "bullying" and "disruptive".
And really, "bullying" is getting to be a word that is tossed about way to much. Partly for shock-value, partly cause we've a whole generation of kids that have all the backbone of an amoeba and think that is the world isn't kissing their ass and telling 'em their shit don't stink that they're being "bullied".
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GASP!
...Anonymous members!
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its sad but, it is what it is, I once had a computer sciences prof get so mad at me he said I would never pass his class so i may as well give up my goal to get a computer related degree(he taught classes i would need to pass for any tech related field)
why did he do this, because I proved he was wrong when he challenged his class to fix an "UN-fixable" computer, took me less then 10 min to get it back to fully functional from bsod loop.....he was enraged that i made him look bad in front of the class....
no matter that I have been fixing computers since the apple IIe and had seen far worse then what he did to his system, that didnt matter because in his opinion it wasnt fixable without a full reinstall.....
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Our children should be taught HOW to think,
Not WHAT to think!
Seems an appropriate comment for this article.
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Between the teachers unions and the government metrics required to obtain/sustain funding, there is no such thing as a "good" education anymore.
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Re: Patterns
See the pattern here??
Power to the PEOPLE
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I do hope the remedy included...
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Re: I do hope the remedy included...
See teacher's unions, and if you feel so inclined, watch The Cartel on netflix for an interesting perspective into what is wrong with our schools.
http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/The_Cartel/70138620
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Stories like this...
"Dear English Letter Assignment,"
/He got a 95 on the paper
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Re: Stories like this...
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So typical...
Schools need an overall. Throw out tenure. Throw out the unions. They serve no one but themselves.
Let teachers and principles all be judged on MERIT. If I did as poor a job as some teachers, I'd be out of a job. In the school system, it takes an act of God to get rid of a teacher, unless they (God forbid) friend one of their students on Facebook... oh wait, an intelligent Judge threw that out.
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Re: So typical...
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Re: So typical...
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A bad apple teacher or two is one thing. But when you have principals whose attitudes towards civil rights and American values would be perfectly at home in North Korea, the system is obviously broken, if not rotten to the core. Someone like that has no business being promoted even once, let alone being in charge of a school.
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Senior Production
Almost 20 years later, I had nothing to do and heard that it was our homecoming game, so I went on a whim. The teachers still remembered my name all that time later, recognized me through facial hair and were genuinely happy to see me, even the same ones that I had made fun of in the assembly.
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Re: Senior Production
But I know what you're getting at. We made fun of our teachers, and the MOST they did was look at us and say "Go f**k yourself, and by the way you failed your last test have fun in summerschool" and usually then that was only if we went to far with it. I've seen a 60+ year old science teacher slam a junior-year science student with the talent, verbage and grace of George Carlin. And not one of us was carrying on about being "bullied" or "harassed", we just made fun of the a-hole that got his a%% handed to him by a teacher.
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Punish those responsible
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Re: Punish those responsible
Students, after all, don't have a powerful union backing them.
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Here's an idea...
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Re: Here's an idea...
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I'm outraged!
Oh horrors!
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Re: I'm outraged!
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Re: I'm outraged!
When those consequences exceed the limits set by law, or are even outright illegal, that's when any right thinking individual feels, as you put it, Oh horrors!
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If you have to stretch THAT far to make an irrelevant point, you have to reconsider whether it's worth trying at all.
But on the off-chance you're just an idiot: What the school did was illegal. A federal crime. We don't execute jaywalkers by burning at the stake, and we don't punish people for exercising rights. We're at least theoretically a country ruled by laws, not tyrants.
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If you really are a teacher, and I really hope you're not, the last thing you should be doing is discouraging harmless creativity.
Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences; you somehow managed to get that right, but last I checked, making fun of someone wasn't illegal.
If an adult can't handle a harmless meme joke by a few children, then we should be investigating the mental stability of the adult, not punishing the children.
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