Ripped from the Headlines!

Last night's presentation mentioned a pending court case in Florida about a school prohibiting a Gay-Straight alliance student group. The judge just ruled on the case yesterday.

Teacher and Student Freedom of Expression

Yesterday Lily, David and I presented teacher freedom of expression and Dawn and Audry presented student freedom of expression. While there are a different set of standards that apply to students versus teachers; the restrictions that are imposed on our First Amendment rights are concerning to say the least. While we attempted to answer exactly who should regulate what is appropriate expression and what is not, we weren't fully able to answer that because there is such an inconsistency statewide, countrywide and court rulings wise. In 2 of cases we covered the teacher who said she blew her horn for peace was fired, whereas the teacher who posted homophobic messages wasn't even reprimanded. What does this say? In the case of the Pledge of Allegiance covered by Dawn and Audry, is it really that big of a deal that the student didn't stand? And what about the Tinker case that both groups covered, again I ask is it really that big of a deal to wear an armband. No one would have noticed that they were wearing armbands if they had not been reprimanded.

How do we judge if our expression is out of line or within boundaries? Should we judge by the times? Couldn't we accept that we as individuals have opinions, thoughts and statements that should be expressed within reason (atleast in the company of the little ones;))? So with that my conclusion is that yes expression can be offensive but only if we allow it to be.

This is my class reaction....too bad for me that I didn't react to previous classes. Sorry if it sucks!