A worthy cause

If it wern't for the consequences of the criminal charges, I would think this is almost as offensive as the Jena-6 story. Bunch of kids protest the war in Iraq becuase recruiters are pressing the hype, and they face expulsion. Worse yet, jocks and goodie-goodies who participated were preferentially treated. The small-dick-complexed principal won't back down, so the school board is caught between undermining the authority of their chosen disciplinarian or facing the masses. Enter the national media, the school board pisses their pants, and bitches out by postponing the students hearings. For now, every day that goes by, the kids arn't in school.

Funny thing is, isn't this just the sort of story that would be picked up by Drudge or Fox if it went the other way? Imagine if a school gave a kid a mere detention for protesting against not being able to lead the school in prayer: O'Reily would be all over it, declaring it a war against Christianity itself, and proof liberals hate God.

Yet, so far, nothing but cricket chirps. And i think I know why. First, these kids are the ones who will be next to go to Iraq. Imagine having a freind getting hard sold on patriotism to go fight an unjust war, knowing he's going into a meat grinder where he'll possibly get killed or maimed and will do worse things to people he doesn't know than he'd ever do to people he hated. Thats alot of kids in highschool, and if these kids become little celebrities through disciplanary maryrdom, it could become a fad. Bad news for the war hawks.


Read the story in the Chicago Tribune or New York Times, read the commentary by Arthur Silber, check out my email to the principal of the school, and sign the petitition.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-mortonprotest_09_webnov09,1,1989534.story

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/us/07protest.html?ref=education

a realy good essayhttp://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/11/when-awareness-is-crime-and-other.html

the petitionhttp://www.petitiononline.com/mortonw/petition.html

my letter

Subject: As an attorney at law, it is plain that the possibility of expulsion is of poor discretion, whether Constitutional or not.

Dear Mr. Lucas:

I am writing to express my opposition to your stance on civildisobedience. I have worked on First Amendment issues, largely indefending citizens against SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against PublicParticipation) lawsuits, and cannot pass on the Constitutionality ofthe suspensions and/ or expulsions with the limited information that Ihave been able to derive about the case from media reports. However,it is plain that you have taken a particularly heavy handed stance,whether Constitutional or not.

Civil disobedience is an important part of public participation, and has provided the back bone for many movements that have benefited usall. An important part of civil disobedience is taking the punishmentdue. However, in keeping with our core values of free expression,peaceful demonstrations are often tolerated even when they run afoulof the rules. It would be rare for a peaceful demonstrator that did not resist arrest with violence to be charged with anything more serious than a local ordinance violation, such as parading without apermit.

The students who engaged in civil disobedience must learn that their actions have consequences, and their acceptance of the consequences ispart of their message. However, I believe you have a civic duty to not only mete out the consequences, but to exercise your discretion inaccordance with our national values.

Very Truly Yours


Wesley G. Hanna
Attorney at Law
Admitted in New Jersey and Pennsylvania