There is a story in ROswell , GA this morning. A 14 year old girl, who was an honor student with no prior disciplinary problems was expelled from school due to the zero tolerance policy. Her crime was, she wrote a FICTIONAL story in her PRIVATE journal detailing a teenagers fantasys of killing a teacher and finally carrying them out and being killed by the schools security guard. She used fictional names , dates , and places. The journal was discovered and read by her teacher as she was passing it to a classmate in art class.
OK, i want to know what you guys think. Here is my take. She disrupted class and she broke a rule so punish her for that. However dont expell her for her thoughts. That is policing her free speach, and therefor VERY VERY dangerous. The exact reason given for her expulsion after three hours at a tribunal with very lots of support for her including the Georgia State Poet Laureate(sp) was... "The content of the story is inappropriate"
I wonder what Edgar Allen Poe would have to say about that...
OK, i want to know what you guys think. Here is my take. She disrupted class and she broke a rule so punish her for that. However dont expell her for her thoughts. That is policing her free speach, and therefor VERY VERY dangerous. The exact reason given for her expulsion after three hours at a tribunal with very lots of support for her including the Georgia State Poet Laureate(sp) was... "The content of the story is inappropriate"
I wonder what Edgar Allen Poe would have to say about that...