Winona liberals think vulgarity in schools is free speech
--posted by Tony Garcia on 4/21/2005
Anti-Strib
These 2 girls are a lost cause...suspend them and be done with it.
Two Winona High School students have found themselves in hot water with school officials.
Why? Because after Carrie Rethlefsen attended a performance of the play "The Vagina Monologues" last month, she and Emily Nixon wore buttons to school that read: "I [heart] My Vagina."
School leaders said that the pin is inappropriate and that the discomfort it causes trumps the girls' right to free speech. The girls disagree. And despite repeated threats of suspension and expulsion, Rethlefsen has continued to wear her button.
The girls have won support from other students and community members.
More than 100 students have ordered T-shirts bearing "I [heart] My Vagina" for girls and "I Support Your Vagina" for boys.
I hope that this case makes it to the Supreme Court so that the erroneous concept of not leaving one's rights at the school door can be revisited.
Children do NOT have rights. They have potential rights which we must protect, but they do not have the rights of a "full citizen". They are not allowed to enter into contracts, run for office, smoke, drive, drink, get married...quit school at their whim.
Ahh, that last one is the key. The reason Cohen v. California allowed displays such as the "Fuck the Draft" jacket worn in a courthouse is because people in the courthouse were there of their (for the most part) own free will and were thus not a captive audience.
Students ARE a captive audience to the extent that their attendance is compulsary. Obscenities should not be allowed.
Besides, the schools should be allowed to mandate a dress code and if that means "no obscene buttons" then so be it.
These girls...they should be suspended.
2 Comments:
Tinker v. Des Moines?
OK, so you can name a case...but what about Tinker do you think trumps the school's ability to disallow the shirts? And, how do the girl's shirts avoid the exception within Tinker?
Perhaps, Mr Anonymity, you might instead actually READ the decision before throwing the case name out as if you knew what you were talking about.
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