This morning’s Tennessean reports the horrid atrocity of a Hickman County, Tennessee school disciplining its students. Those schools again…..
It seems that the principal at Hickman County High School recently extended students’ lunch periods allowing students time for additional academic help or socialization. However, if students were heard using foul language, a minute was deducted from the allotted time. In admitted retaliation, several students participated in a video, shot on school campus wherein the students cursed repeatedly. The video was very deliberate in making sure the viewer could see that it was created on school property and was made available on youtube. Students who participated in the video were given 3 days of in school suspension, and the videographer was sent to alternative school.
Now students and many parents are actually angry with the school stating that their First Amendment right to free speech has been violated. Really?
Where is my freedom of speech when I can’t talk about Jesus in school? I can’t even bow my head for prayer at a school operated event. Where is free speech when there is proposed legislation to keep teachers from addressing homosexuality and homophobia in the classroom? What would happen if I used the n-word, or any other racial slur in school, or for that matter, anywhere in America? Could I avoid a consequence by calling it free speech? I think not.
I am once again dismayed – no, appalled at just how far people will reach to avoid responsibility for their own behaviors. All freedoms come with responsibility. We have rights, but we also have rules, and there would be mass chaos if we didn’t. I’m sure some of those very students and parents would be highly offended if people said certain things to them.
Perhaps I am foolish and naïve, but I can only hope that this uproar is quickly and effectively doused with common sense. This is another example of schools trying to do the right things and getting hit from all sides no matter what they do. Schools are required by law to teach Character Education. Part of that is respect. How is the school to demonstrate their support of character if they allow students to disrespect others and call it free speech?
At our workplace, can we just go around using foul language and call it free speech? Will you not end up in a lawsuit if you tell a sexually explicit joke? a racially charged joke? Freedom of speech doesn’t work as a viable defense in those cases. Just ask companies who have paid millions of dollars in settlements, or people whose reputations have been ruined. Ask Herman Cain.
Public schools are required to educate, feed, babysit, tutor and practically raise many of our students, but God forbid we expect them to cooperate with rules or procedures. Ooops, I used the word God. That’s my freedom of speech, you know.
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