There is another controversy raising the increasing assertion of authority of school officials over pictures and statements made by students outside of school. In Massachusetts, Jamie Pereira was suspended from school after a photo of her and her boyfriend, Tito Velez, both 16, holding Airsoft rifles was posted on Facebook. A caption beneath the photograph read: “Homecoming 2014.” The picture looks like a new American Gothic for some and a threat to others. However, the controversy again raises the limits and discretion of school officials in monitoring speech outside of school for students and teachers alike. There was good reason to be concerned but the punishment was due to the disruption caused rather than an actual threat from the picture.
The admitted mistake of the teenage couple was to put “Homecoming” at the bottom of the picture. School officials were legitimately concerned but this was not a preventative step but a disciplinary action. There is no suggestion of an actual threat intended by the picture. I fail to see why such problems cannot be addressed with a reprimand and calling in the parents. Both students have been suspended for an unknown length of time.
Superintendent Richard Gross insists that punishment is appropriate and will reflect the disruption caused when the picture was circulated by other students. Notably, the picture was posted hours after a Washington state teen shot five fellow students inside his high school before taking his own life. However, Gross insisted that “This is about the tumult created by their online activity.”
The teens were apparently just trying to come up with something different for their pre-dance photos. The photo was later removed.
Velez, who could not be reached for comment early Wednesday, reportedly said he and his girlfriend simply wanted to “do something unique and different” instead of taking typical pre-dance photographs.
I have previously written about the increasing monitoring and discipline of teachers for conduct in their private lives. We have seen teachers face discipline over social media pictures holding a weapon. Even a picture of a teacher holding a glass of a drink is enough to trigger discipline.
Once again, there is clearly a need for officials to act upon any threat. However, there remains a dangerous ambiguity over the scope and use of such authority. Given the ludicrous application of “zero tolerance” rules, officials commonly impose extreme punishments rather than exercise judgment (and expose themselves to the risk of criticism) over the handling of such controversies.
We have seen a steady erosion of the free speech rights of students in the last decade. The Supreme Court accelerated that trend in its Morse decision. Former JDHS Principal Deb Morse suspended Frederick in 2002 during the Olympic Torch Relay for holding up a 14-foot banner across from the high school that read “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” The case ultimately led to the Supreme Court which ruled in Morse v. Frederick ruling in 2007 for the Board — a decision that I strongly disagreed with and one that has encouraged over-reaching by school officials into protected areas.
For a copy of the Morse decision, click here.
Civil libertarians hoped that Obama would appoint someone with a strong commitment to free speech and student rights. I was very concerned over the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor because of her role in the Donniger case where she ruled against high school student Avery Doninger who contested her punishment for posting an objectionable message on an Internet site about Lewis Mills High School. When she objected to the cancellation of a school event in vulgar terms, school officials barred her from running for Senior Class secretary. In Doninger v. Niehoff, the Second Circuit upheld the right of school officials to punish students for out-of–school speech in a major blow to both the first amendment and student rights.
This case has obviously different and more compelling facts for actions. However, this remains a picture taken outside of school with two airsoft guns. It would seem an appropriate cause for a telephone call and not some open-ended suspension in my opinion.
Source: Taunton Gazette
Jim22, Do you think just maybe that all the school shootings have changed kids attitudes?
SWM – clearly you are an expert on the subject of weaponry. Enlighten us, oh wise one!
Paul C. Schulte – “SWM – could you explain the term “more lethal assault rifles”? Lethal is lethal.”
Paul, they can’t and that was my point about writing guns haven’t changed, kids and society have. They anti-gun crowd doesn’t want to accept that point since it is the real problem. They just deflect with words like “assault rifle”. Guns have been around for quite some time now so what changed?
More killing power equals more lethal.
SWM – explain “more killing power’ Ammo has not changed since WWI.
Jim, I guess you are right. Gun technology has not changed in the last fifty years so therefore guns have not changed……whatever.
swarthmoremom – “Sure, More lethal assault rifles come on the market all the time, Jim. Yes, guns have changed. Maybe you are very very young. lol”
So, assault weapons have changed? I don’t think so. Assault weapon is just a buzz word the anti-second amendment group uses.
A larger number of guns does not mean that guns have changed.
SWM – could you explain the term “more lethal assault rifles”? Lethal is lethal.
The problem these kids have is that they associated “bearing arms” with a specific school activity – a homecoming event. If they were depicted with weapons on a hunting trip or in a more satirical portrayal of the American Gothic painting, I would absolutely defend their free speech rights. With regard to the “bong4jesus” case (which I believe to be wrongly decided), now that legalization of marijuana is a State political issue (especially in Alaska) query whether “bong4jesus” should be treated as political speech, which must be as protected as protesting against the Vietnam war (i.e. the Tinker case).
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Col. Morris Davis
@ColMorrisDavis 2 deputies shot/killed in CA, 2 students in WA … but hey, grab a gun for the school picture. http://abcnews.go.com/US/nebraska-high-school-oks-guns-senior-portraits/story?id=26405288
Sure, More lethal assault rifles come on the market all the time, Jim. Yes, guns have changed. Maybe you are very very young. lol
swarthmoremom – “Just depends where you live. My sister used excellent public schools in the suburban Chicago area, and I used parochial and then private high schools in Texas. Had I lived where she does i would have used public”.
I think you are proving the point that public education is a bad monopoly. It should depend on where you live, you should have choices.
swarthmoremom – ““Guns haven’t changed,” Jim 22 I don’t think that is an accurate statement.”
Care to elaborate?
swarthmoremom: ““Guns haven’t changed,” Jim 22 I don’t think that is an accurate statement.”
While guns have technically changed over time like any technology, Jim22’s point is fundamentally correct. Handguns big and small, rifles, shotguns, even semi-auto and automatic firearms have been around a long time.
Most boys and some girls have played with toy guns since as long as there have been guns. My friends and I did. I don’t recall ever being trained to play with toy guns – it was just being a boy. Before there were guns, boys played (and trained) with toy (and real) crossbows, bows, slings, spears, swords, etc.. I played with those, too.
Paintball is popular throughout the country across demographics. I don’t know whether Lasertag is still popular anywhere but it was big when I was a kid.
Learning to use firearms is a normal child-to-adult rite of passage in many parts of the country, as normal as learning to drive or use power tools. As a city kid, real guns weren’t part of my upbringing but picking up firearms as a soldier de-stigmatized them. Serving with soldiers who grew up with guns taught me to respect ‘gun culture’.
But lately, whether exaggerated by media attention or a real aberration, there does seem to be an upwelling of ‘black swan’ shootings in schools. I understand why school administrators are jumpy and respect they’re trying to do their duty to protect students.
However, I agree with Jim22 that school administrators and others who blame ‘gun culture’ seem to be missing the mark given that guns have been integrated in our culture for a long time. Whatever is causing these ‘black swan’ shootings seem to be metastasizing from something else in our modern culture. Blaming traditional ‘gun culture’ is distracting us from diagnosing and solving that something else, whatever it is.
Zero tolerance policies share much in common with mandatory sentencing laws. Both reject the right of a person to be treated as an autonomous moral agent. Both eliminate the exercise of informed judgment by those in authority. The effect is a cumulative lessening of respect for individual human dignity.
This story is illustrative.
nick, Wrong… The school is majority minority.They have a world renowned chem phys program and one of the top math programs in the country.
Lily white upscale suburbs have decent education. But, if you want to get into the best universities, you best go to private school. Black kids get the most horseshit teachers and administrators. But “NO VOUCHERS, NO VOUCHERS”! “Sit down and STFU black parents. We know what is best for you. We went to college, you didn’t. So stop asking for vouchers.”
“My grandkid’s public school ranks top in the state, above parochial schools and even private schools. It’s not true that kids learn nothing in public schools. If only city schools were as good as suburban schools, that is the issue.” Annie Many public schools are better than private schools including many magnet schools in cities. Just depends where you live. My sister used excellent public schools in the suburban Chicago area, and I used parochial and then private high schools in Texas. Had I lived where she does i would have used public.
“Guns haven’t changed,” Jim 22 I don’t think that is an accurate statement.
They were publicly educated. What can one expect.
DBQ, On almost a daily basis one gets a glimpse into the mindset of some liberals. Not all are as frightening as the quote you highlighted. But, an increasing number are. They are no longer fringe, they are becoming mainstream. As you know, we are “endowed by the Creator w/ certain inalienable rights.” The frightening mindset of some liberals is we must “earn our rights” from THEIR view of government. Their understanding of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution is fundamentally flawed. As we have just read.
issac – “Bad taste is one thing but what this really does is illustrate the new ‘American Gothic’. No longer is it all about workers and a pitch fork but weapons in the hands of children and far too many idiot adults.”
Any stats on this? I would have to believe that a century or so ago, more kids had “weapons in the hands”.
Funny how I remember kids going to school with gun racks holding rifles in their trucks parked in the school lot. I also remember my buddy shooting me with a paint ball gun as I was entering my car in that same parking lot. Yet, we had no shooting deaths in our school. How did we live back then? Guns haven’t changed, kids and society have.