posted
People are getting so scared they don't care if their rights are stripped away: bust in school lockers, random test students for drugs, monitor conversation - it's only a matter of time before someone in authority wises up and bans George Orwell.
------------------ "There comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne."
posted
Actually, students have access to quite a few rights, tempered by the fact that they are in fact still children.
School officials are bound by in loco parentis, or in non-legal terms, the school has all the rights and responsibilities of a parent.
Now, to be honest for a moment, none of these new rules are really new at all. The security factor is new, but it's just that, security. Students do not have the right to leave school grounds at will anyway. Courts HAVE upheld first amendment rights of students, beginning during the Vietnam War, but that doesn't extend to abusive and harassing speech. It's the fire in a crowded theater issue.
------------------ "Hey Mr. Boo, fly away home. Your house is so lovely, your children so nice." -- Hello (The Band)
posted
Indeed. In a landmark court case some 25 years ago, involving students expelled for publishing an underground school newspaper, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that "A child's right to free speech does not end at the schoolhouse doors."
However, free speech does not apply to speech that causes a clear and present danger to people (fire in a theater, hate speech, incitement to riot, etc).
However, jokes are on a thin, very thin, line. How do you tell a black kid telling jokes about black people that he's being racist? How do you tell a Jewish kid telling Jewish jokes he's discriminating? How do you tell a girl gossiping to her friends about the other night's makeout session she's being sexualy harassing?
------------------ "When we turn our back on our principles, we stop being human." -- Janeway, "Equinox"
posted
Just out of curiosity, has anyone got the slightest idea what the ID badge concept is all about? I mean, the morons that shot the place up were students. If they had had ID tags back then, it still could have happened.
"Hey, is that a gun sticking out of your backpack?!"
"I have an ID tag..."
"Oh. Sorry. Carry on, sir."
------------------ "Now you're the only one here who can tell me if it's true, That you love me, and I love me..." -They Might Be Giants, "Kiss Me, Son of God"
posted
They started the ID tag policy at my school last year, before the shootings. I actually wrote an article for the school paper on the very subject. but as you said, there really is no point. I can only hope that either 1)the gunman sees my ID and decided not to kill me or 2)the plastic that makes up the ID tag is strong enough to stop a bullet. It really doesnt matter..nobody wears them anyway.
------------------ "There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."
posted
There is a grade school about a block from here. All the kids wear badges. You can't get very far without one. I think the idea was to keep kids from other schools out. I used to see them at Biscut World, which is about half way betwen here and the school.
After grade school, about age 12, we could leave the school grounds at will. They have tried to change that in the last few years, but don't have the personel to keep up with all the kids. And the schools are consolidating, merging two older schools into one new building, so it's only going to get worse.
------------------ Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog, it's to dark to read. Groucho Marx
Okay, so they are not that hard to get. But people probably just wouldn't do it because it's sooo embarrassing.
We had no cameras at our Senior school. Or security guards. Or ID badges. Damn this gun-free country of mine (sorry, wrong topic)
Actually at our university you have to show ID when you go throught the front desk, and when you go to the SU pub, but that's it. You haven't got to walk around with it on display the whole time (which I think is what these kids have to do).
Oh, and are you saying that it's okay from black people to tell black people jokes? How is that worse than white people telling them? They both serve to discriminate. (And then we get the point of a black kid saying white-boy jokes will largely be ignored, where a white-boy telling black-kid jokes is likely to be hauled over the coals.)
------------------ Headmaster suspended for using big-faced boy as satellite-dish -The Day Today
posted
Have you ever listened to a typical Black American comedian? (try the BET channel, if you haven't.) I mean, if the "n-word" were REALLY offensive, these guys would get their butts kicked on a daily basis!
But no, apparently it's okay if a person telling the joke about a group BELONGS to that group. At least, that's what watching and listening to them (and others) tells me. "Martin" was a show all about black stereotypes.. but did you see the NAACP trying to get it off the air? Nope.
This is off-topic, I know.
------------------ "When we turn our back on our principles, we stop being human." -- Janeway, "Equinox"
posted
Actually, a black friend of mine once explained the difference between "nigger" and "niggah", the latter meaning a general term for person, but the former being the offensive term.
------------------ "I will remember you...Will you remember me? Don't let your love pass you by...Weep not for the memories..." Sarah McLachlan
posted
I am quite certain that a white person attempting to use the "correct" version of the word would very likely be understood to mean the wrong version, no matter who was listening. People will often hear what they expect instead of what was meant. I'm Scottish, French, English, Dutch, Irish, and Cherokee, but if I were with someone who was purely of one or the other stock, they would likely hear a slur, rather than self-deprecation, were I to tell a joke featuring anyone of the same group as they (unless of course, they knew me well). You can only take offense if you brought some with you.
posted
Jeff I heard the Exact same thing that that term (althought I believe they spelled it without an "H" at the end but spelling has never been my strong suit) was actually acceptable in schools. I don't buy that, anyway the real trouble about a word isn't the word but the meaning behind it, like the term "Bloody" doesn't mean a thing in the US, while I believe in Britian it's dirty work, and the same is true of American curse words and symbols overseas.
------------------ HMS White Star (your local friendly agent of Chaos:-) )
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