Double Red-Meat Quotient

It's a zero tolerance story and a blog censorship story. Dig in.

Comments

[Matt Welch]

For those interested in the subject, I wrote a long article in March 2001 about the tensions between off-campus online speech and school-safety concerns. Even back then, there was some new story literally every week. One kid who was driving his school nuts was a guy named Sergio Bichao, New Jersey's teen Matt Drudge, who used his website to hammer away at zero-tolerance polices at his school & mismanagement at his local school board. Earlier this year, during his freshman year in college, he won election to that school board, becoming (I think) the youngest person in state history to do so. Fascinating character.

[JSM]

I dread to think what might happen to a kid who is found at the library reading Soldier of Fortune mags! I imagine the school SWAT team arresting him/her at gun point.

[Mark Fox]

That the kid was not at, or even commuting from school makes this example more dangerous/silly.

The action is founded on the notion that by punishing "bad" thoughts, the Powers can stop people from thinking them.

Principal Conners-Harris, Do Not Think of a pink elephant blowing anthrax spores from its trunk...

[Mr. Nice Guy]

I forget what physics guru said this, but "energy is never destroyed, it only takes on a different form".. this energy being the overwhelming human compulsion to control the actions of others. The good news is, that we'll have plenty to bitch about here until the end of time..

[Jeff Smith]

A buddy and I wrote parodies of our high
school's fight song (the plight song) and
alma mater (the what's the mater) after
the football team went 0-8. We made copies
and handed them out on campus one day. By
lunch time I was in the vice principals
office. The deal I was offered was that I
would get physical protection from the jocks,
who were not so much into discussions about
these matters, only if we withdrew all the
copies and stopped circulating any more.
I took the deal, but it should never have
been offered.

Did I mention that the principal of the
school, who routinely wore a red and gold
suit to show his school spirit, had a Ph.D.
in education?

Jeff

[trainwreck]

They really oughtta kill that principal.

[StMack]

Sometimes stories like this make we want to crawl under a rock and hide from society. Does anyone know if Ted Kazinski's cabin is on the market?

[matt]

Is it just me or is there a story like this at least once or twice a week? It's simply disturbing.

[Neb Okla]

I agree it was out of the School's jurisdiction - if they felt it was a problem, they should have handed the investigation over to the police.

I had to wonder about this statement though (emphasis added):

"I kept asking, `What does this have to do with school?' " Scaduto said. "They never answered my question. I was completely shocked about it. They were my personal private thoughts and I was getting picked on for them."

What kind of nitwit thinks that blogging is private?

[Jesse Walker]

A nitwit who reads his referral logs.

[Kevin Carson]

"wasn't school appropriate"? "wasn't appropriate for a journal"?

1)It wasn't at school; and 2) the content of an off-campus journal is none of their fucking business.

Kill the dean!

[Kevin Carson]

I forgot to add, this is just another example of the publik skool social engineers thinking they've been anointed to manage all of society, not just to administer the actual schools.

I think Ivan Illich said something in "Deschooling Society" to the effect that, if the educational establishment were to survive, it would have to expand its power into society at large.

[Neb Okla]

StMack:

Good question... Whatever did happen to Ted's cabin? It was apparently last seen on a semi-trailer headed to the FBI.

Since you can buy little sheds at Home Depot, it'd be cool if you could buy your own little "Famous Cabin". Maybe these people would sell you one.

If you can't afford the $500 or so it would probably cost to make one, you can build a little card-stock model here.

[Brian]

I can relate. When I was in 4th grade (in 1971) I got in trouble at school because my friend and I had a snowball fight while walking home from school one day. We were no where near school grounds. Both of us had to write "I will not throw snowballs" 100 times.

O.K. - so that's not even close to being as serious to this kid's situation, but my experience shows that this sort of uber-parent role that some school administrators adopt isn't a new phenomenon.

[Anonymous]

When blogs are outlawed, only outlaws will have blogs

[Kevin Carson]

Matt,

I checked out Da Hiller, and it's great. We need a million more like Bichao, making life a living hell for all the cretins in the government schools. Throw a monkey-wrench in the human resources processing line!

I'm going to add a link on my site, and add your article on it to my "Recommended Readings" page.

[Highway]

These things really just make me want to shake my head and ask what the hell is going on. Although it doesn't take much imagination. You really have to wonder, though, as story after story after story after story like this comes out about school's "zero tolerance" policies, do the administrators of other schools and school systems see these stories the same way we do? Are any of them looking at stories like this and saying the same things we are, even privately? Do they even think about reforming their policies so they're not the next national laughingstock? Or do they look at their 'martyred' comrades, pilloried for upholding whatever stupid policy they've enacted, and nod, secure in their delusion that they're doing the right thing For The Children? So much stupidity, and yet it continues, week after week.

[Leopold Anastasia]

EMAIL: [e-mail]
IP: 62.213.67.122
URL: http://linux-shell-account.1st-host.org
DATE: 01/20/2004 08:25:40
Virtue never stands alone. It is bound to have neighbors.