Brickbat: High School Cover Up

Students at Arizona's Sabino High School didn't get their yearbooks in time to pass them around and get each others' signatures. And when they opened them up, they found out why. School staff had spent days using black tape to cover up messages the principal found offensive, such as "I'm drunk on you and high on summer time" and "Come getcha' some." The principal blames the yearbook adviser for the mess because he didn't censor the messages before it went to print.

Comments

[invisible furry hand]

When oh when will Reason roll out its own black tape to keep this joint classy?

[UnCivilServant]

Not in the budget.

[some guy]

Then we'd only see two comments a day, both of them being Rufus saying "hello".

[Almanian!]

*SLAP*

[invisible furry hand]

It's not Friday yet here, so we can't play Slap Ass Friday

[Rich]

Thanks, ifh. At least *someone* maintains a semblance of discipline around here.

[Ivan Pike]

So, Almanian! is really the Slapping Medicine Man?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They have enough problems dealing with squirrels.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Redaction Jackson, what's your reaction(ary)?

[UnCivilServant]

*Expletive Deleted*

[Libertarian]

Another Hand R post that has little to do with libertarianism. Maybe I'm an old fart, but I don't equate some sort of minimum year book standards of civility with "censorship." I didn't read the article, but it sounds like the kids got screwed out of passing around their yearbooks for signatures because of mistakes by the yearbook advisor.

[Almanian!]

Yeah - because the government-school monopoly editing kids' ideas and communications clearly has nothing to do with government control and censorship and couldn't possible teach any lessons regarding freedom and liberty.

Short L - "derp - GET OFF MY LAWN!"

[The Tone Police]

Do you think private schools don't do the same thing? I'm not quite as cranky as L up there, but I'm more inclined to agree with him.

[WDATPDIM!?]

A private school is free to do that (subject to the terms of the contract), and parents are free to educate their kids elsewhere.

But even if parents have a problem with how a public school is run, they still have to pay for it plus come up with their own money for an alternative.

[The Tone Police]

And?

[gimmeasammich]

If you can't see the difference between a privately funded institution and a taxpayer funded one, then there isn't much hope for you.

But we already knew that, Tony.

[Libertarian]

I'm against governments schools. Government shouldn't be involved at all. But a yearbook is a school publication. A yearbook is not produced by kids at home using their own resources. It is not a private Facebook post that should be beyond the reach of school authorities.

[np]

A yearbook is still produced by the student's resources: their money (or Tuscon's taxpayers in this case)

So even if principal has the authority to censor their yearbook messages, protesting his actions and expressing what a cunt he is still a legitimate response, much like how customers can give bad reviews to a product they paid for.

There's no reason to support the increasing infantilization of young adults just because some authority figure finds friendly messages to each other offensive.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Death of the inside jokes!

[UnCivilServant]

If these inside jokes indicate the quality of thought of the students produced at this school, the principal needs to be fired, along with much of the staff and the whole thing overhauled. As they are clearly incompetent.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

Speaking of Common Core success stories and quality of thought, check this out:

http://eagnews.org/prom-slogan.....-failures/

If it's been posted before, I apologize.

[Rich]

It's time all Chicago students have a reason to believe in a brighter tomorrow.

Citation needed.

[UnCivilServant]

While they are due to recieve a reason for optimism, it has not yet arrived.

[Zeb]

Have you ever met any high school students?

[Libertarian]

We can argue (or, rather, the students, parents, and faculty can) about what should or should not be allowed in a high school yearbook. But surely we could think of some things that should be off limits.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

I sure can think of some things that should be off limits. And if the school let the kids know what was permissible and not PRIOR TO COLLECTING THEIR MONEY FOR THE YEARBOOKS then the kids could have chosen whether or not to buy them or to participate in the mess ending that goes on in them. But failing that, they misrepresented the yearbook when they went to sell them and frankly owe the kids a refund.

[The Tone Police]

That's cool. Refund them the money and don't give them the yearbook.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

I'd be fine with that unless during discovery they found that they planned to edit or censor the yearbook comments all along. If that's the case, they deliberately misrepresented the yearbooks to the kids when selling them. And that's fraud and should result in every faculty member involved being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Fuck em all. Maybe if you threw some of these cocksuckers in jail the rest might think twice before trying to manipulate the lives of America's kids.

[Rich]

"Fraud." What a quaint notion!

[The Tone Police]

Kids aren't dumb. They know not to put inappropriate shit in yearbooks. And your assertion of fraud is not even wrong.

Fraud must be proved by showing that the defendant's actions involved five separate elements: (1) a false statement of a material fact,(2) knowledge on the part of the defendant that the statement is untrue, (3) intent on the part of the defendant to deceive the alleged victim, (4) justifiable reliance by the alleged victim on the statement, and (5) injury to the alleged victim as a result.

[mad.casual]

Kids aren't dumb.

Administrators aren't either. From the principal to the people overseeing the yearbook, this can't have been everyone's first rodeo.

If you're asserting that the kids are generally and routinely smarter than the administrators, I don't know that I disagree with you, but it represents a larger and more systematic problem.

Fraud must be proved by showing that the defendant's actions involved five separate elements:

Lying to get a license isn't fraud? If I lie about my age to get into a movie isn't fraud? If I lie about the amount of money in the cash register at the start of my shift, and take the extra money and put it in my shift supervisors desk, I haven't possibly committed fraud?

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

When someone makes a statement about politics or social engineering with "but" in it, I find it's best to just ignore everything they wrote prior to the "but".

It seems to work with you.

[SugarFree]

I think the joy the principal got out of clucking and tsk-tsking far out-weighed the harm to the students. And he probably missed all the really dirty inside jokes anyway.

My senior quote was me declaring that all the teachers and admins were morons and no one managed to catch it.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

Well, don't leave us hanging. What was it?

[Rich]

Ima guess "All the teachers and admins are morons".

[SugarFree]

Sorry, went looking for it to get it right and got sucked into an argument. Anyway:

"Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."

-Einstein

In context with my experience in high school, I was calling them all morons.

I can't believe no one slapped me to death for being such a shit.

[UnCivilServant]

You see, they are incapable of seeing themselves as anything but supra-geniuses, and upon reading that, they saw everyone they blamed for their mediocre performance as the small minds holding them back.

[SugarFree]

I had a back-up in case they rejected that one:

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."

-Nietzsche

[WDATPDIM!?]

Hey, that's a good one!

[WDATPDIM!?]

They probably just assumed it was a veiled apology.

[Rich]

This reminds me of my high-school friend who wrote on the blackboard "Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach". The (tough male) teacher threatened to wipe the saying off using my friend's shirt with my friend still in it. My friend then erased it.

[creech]

My high school printed our class will. My contribution included leaving "a paper bag and a tube of glue" to two underclassmen who so indulged. Not a word was said.

[wareagle]

kids keeping you up, sloop?

[SugarFree]

He's an East Coaster now.

ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

[WDATPDIM!?]

My guess is the principal (poor bastard) wanted to preemptively get the parents off his back.

[pan fried wylie]

Why?

"These are your childrens' expressions. Talk to them about it, not me."

[Rich]

"Gosh. The principal really *is* your pal!"