A Stitch in Haste

Two quick school-related entries —

ITEM: Should the heckler’s veto be recognized in a school setting?

Josh Hemingway [a student at Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs, Florida] placed shredded pieces of the American flag between his photographs. He says combined with the pictures, it was supposed to show a message of hope even in a fragmented society.

But according to the school district, the principal was concerned the shredded flag could cause outrage, so the school took it down.

“I thought that’s what this country was founded on, freedom of speech and expression. That’s guaranteed in our first amendment,” Hemingway said.

MY TAKE: As convoluted and confused as our First Amendment student speech jurisprudence may be these days, the heckler’s veto (i.e., “causing outrage” — especially hypothetical “outrage”) remains a wholly illegitimate basis for censorship, in or out of a school setting. Stated differently, as convoluted and confused as Florida educrats may be these days, they are still in neither Canada nor Denmark and have no authority to abridge freedom of speech so baselessly.

ITEM: Resigned to the inevitable –

Irmo High School principal Eddie Walker says he will quit a year from now, citing a conflict between his religious beliefs and the potential formation of a club for gay awareness.

In a letter to the school and the Irmo community, Walker said the Gay/Straight Alliance Club “conflicted with my professional beliefs in that we do not have any other clubs at Irmo High School based on sexual orientation, sexual preference, or sexual activity.”

He added that the school teaches abstinence and a gay-straight club implies students joining the club would “engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, opposite sex, or members of both sexes.”

MY TAKE: Even ascribing the best of inferences to Principal Walker, it’s still sad to see an educator so uneducated as to resign over a fallacy (i.e., that GSAs are nothing more than “teenage sex clubs”). As one local activist organization explains:

GSA’s give students who are gay bi and straight, a safe place to support each other, talk about issues and work to end homophobia. Many GSAs function as a support group and provide safety and confidentiality to students who are struggling with their identity.”

Stated differently, it’s hard to have a “gay-straight alliance” without any straights. How that makes a GSA a “gay sex club” is unclear. A simple premise lost on this obsolete educrat, whose resignation is probably the best outcome for all involved.

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