[PikkuMyy]

to stifle and censor all of their student's artistic expressions???

Bill Nevins was recently fired from the largest public high school in New
Mexico.

Why? Because he foolishly decided to help organize a school
poetry club. Yeah, yeah, I know that organizing a school poetry club
wasn't always a criminal offense in freedom-loving America, but remember
- we're now living in the Century of the Wingnut. See, it turns out that
one of Bill Nevins' students wrote a poem that criticized the war in Iraq
and the Bush administration, which, in the Century of the Wingnut, is a
crime apparently comparable to ritual Satanic child abuse.

When Rio Rancho's military liaison officer heard the poem he complained to
Principal Gary Tripp, who promptly suspended Bill Nevins and then fired
him. The complaint? "Disrespectful speech." That's right - there were no
obscenities nor incitements to violence in the poem, it was simply
"disrespectful."

But that's not all - Tripp then went on to ban the poetry club and classes in poetry. He also ordered the student's mother -who happens to be a teacher at Rio Rancho - to destroy her daughter's poetry. The mother refused, and now her job has been threatened too.

But that's not all either! Tripp discovered that some art students had created satirical posters in class which criticized George W. Bush and promptly had the posters torn down, then refused to renew the contracts of art teachers who refused to participate in the destruction.

Finally, at a school event Tripp apparently read a poem of his own which instructed those who disagreed with him to "Shut your faces." I do hope Gary Tripp's students have learned a valuable lesson from this incident - there's absolutely no place for dissent (or critical thinking) in the Century of the Wingnut. Heck, let's go shoot some poets! Who's with me?

 

[sleeping queen]

Quote:

Due to the complaint, the administration asked for a copy of the poem. No one demanded that my parents "search my room" for the poem, as has been reported. I delivered it to the RRHS administrators when I got back from Spring Break because they wished to read it. They read it, looking for two things: profanity and incitement to violence. They found neither. I was not disciplined. My freedom of speech was not violated. It has been suggested that I was not disciplined because my parents are on staff at the high school. Let me assure you that's not the case. In my years at Rio Rancho High School, I've been tardy to class and been busted for dress code, receiving my fair share of hours in after-school detention. Staff members' kids are not given preferential treatment.

Hard Lessons update

 

[Bethla]

If anything good comes out of this, the students at the school may be inspired to fight against this sort of thing in the future. The sad thing about the situation is these right-wing nuts who are so pro-America forget what some of our basic values are. We should be teaching our children that it's ok to disagree and speak out against the government. If we all went along with the status quo, we'd never have any growth as a people.

 

[TiredX2]

Quote:

When will teachers ever learn

Unfortunaley, I think most of them have already learned the lesson being taught.