Flap Over Racial Slur In High School Yearbook

doglover,

The reason they usually rebind the books is so that the kids can keep the signatures etc and only replace the one offending page.

So we have the "paid for" excuse down, the "signatures" down and now we have the method of compelling as the remaining one.

I get the feeling that it's not anything factual about this particular case that bothers you but rather what you imagine it to be or just a generalized reaction to this class of news story.

But let's explore it.

Why is it extreme? Why is a reprint of a page in a yearbook extreme?

See, perhaps we are really different, and I think that inserting a slur in a life-long memento is a bad thing and reprinting a page to correct this is not extreme.

Why do you think you find the slur less objectionable that the mere inconvenience of having a page reprinted?

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It comes down to this Craven. I believe in free speach. Even words and expressions I find personally objectionable. The student who wrote the word apologized to the student who had the word written after his name. That kid accepted the apology. That is where the story should end.

I think the school's prinicipal and school board who want to confiscate these yearbooks are no better than Michael Powell who heads the FCC and tells radio disc jockeys they will be fired if they say anything he deems objectionable and offensive. Rolling Eyes

The effects of John Ashcroft as Attorney General are trickling down. Rolling Eyes

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Ashcroft has nothing to do with it. At least, not in this house. Free speech is all fine and good but to publicly say or write foul, nasty things about a person or group of people and then hide behind the constitution is cowardly and, IMO, lousy, chicken**** behavior from one human being to another. It's never acceptable.
doglover, you say that the reprinting and rebinding of the books was extreme. I think that what this kid did was pretty extreme as well. This wasn't a nasty word scribbled on the classroom blackboard or in the locker room. Easily erasable. This was the school yearbook. A precious keepsake. I still have three of the four from my high school years.
I cannot believe that you would be cool with someone typing slut next to your daughters' name in a yearbook. I just don't believe that.

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eoe wrote:

I cannot believe that you would be cool with someone typing slut next to your daughters' name in a yearbook. I just don't believe that.

I wouldn't be 'cool' at all eoe. I would be plenty pissed off and would expect my daughter to receive a sincere apology (if possible). Crap like this happens in life. There are plenty of ignorant people in the world, no doubt about it. I would not expect all the kids in the senior class to have to return their yearbooks (and the inconvience that entails) because the word slut was typed after my daughters name. If kids wanted their books corrected, it should be offered to them free of charge (paid for by the perp). But I wouldn't want students banned from participating in the grad ceremonies because they did not return their yearbooks to the authorities.

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I stand corrected, doglover. You certainly did not say you'd be cool about it.

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what I have to say has already been said.

I'll just say that I'd be having that book rebound right along w/ administration

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doglover wrote:

It comes down to this Craven. I believe in free speach.

So do I doglover, but given that this is an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with free speech I'm not sure where you are going with this now.

Free speech does not have any bearing on this, schools are educational insitutions and the US courts have never once failed to uphold the legal precedent that students can't claim "free speech" in school.

Quote:

The effects of John Ashcroft as Attorney General are trickling down.

Down and backwards apparently, as the court rulings that schools have no obligation to allow for "free speech" (e.g. they do not allow cussing) predates this administration.

In fact, schools not allowing "free speech" predates America as a nation itself.

Never in our history have our schools been under any obligation whatsoever to interpret "free speech" as letting the students say what they want.

With all due respect, framing this as a free speech issue is ludicrous.

Note: in my brief stints in school I tried to frame similar things this way though.

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eoe wrote:

I stand corrected, doglover. You certainly did not say you'd be cool about it.

Thanks eoe. Cool

Craven....you change those Avatars every ten minutes? LOL

hehehe...make that every two minutes.

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I make a hamster do it. And it changes every time you load the page. Those hamsters are hard workers.

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Craven de Kere wrote:

I make a hamster do it. And it changes every time you load the page. Those hamsters are hard workers.

That's so cool. I didn't know it was possible to do that. I was giving you all the credit...LOL.

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It is twenty-five years from now, the tall man at the edge of his high school reunion party sipped his drink and, looking across the room, looks back at us twenty-five years ago. So fast, college, law school, the stint in the Marine Corps, then the years in Justice, his vision swirled with the ice in his glass. Now the news he received just hours ago, his new appointment had come through, he would now be Assistant to the Secretary with a real chance to take over within two more years.

The couples danced by, it was unsettling to see how age had taken some and left others alone.
"Hey" there was a voice behind him, " Hey, it is you."
He smiled to himself at the recognition.
"You're the one that had 'nigra' put next to your picture in the yearbook, right?"

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Hmmmmmmm.......

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Joe Nation wrote:

It is twenty-five years from now, the tall man at the edge of his high school reunion party sipped his drink and, looking across the room, looks back at us twenty-five years ago. So fast, college, law school, the stint in the Marine Corps, then the years in Justice, his vision swirled with the ice in his glass. Now the news he received just hours ago, his new appointment had come through, he would now be Assistant to the Secretary with a real chance to take over within two more years.

The couples danced by, it was unsettling to see how age had taken some and left others alone.
"Hey" there was a voice behind him, " Hey, it is you."
He smiled to himself at the recognition.
"You're the one that had 'nigra' put next to your picture in the yearbook, right?"

That is a strong statement. I like it.

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I like it too. If the school officials had let it stand, regardless of what that kid achieves in life, he will always be remembered for that one word below his picture in the yearbook. Instead, because the officials took a stand, at the 25 year reunion, the alumni will probably remember "some kind of yearbook flap" but few, if any, will remember the details.

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I go to perry hall high school where it said that, and I THOUGHT IT WAS SO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! O yea the person who did it lives on my street. I took a picture so I can show my kids that I lived in a rascit place.

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Hi.

So, what did they put next to your picture?

J

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O yea, so all you people get your facts straight, it WASN'T next to a picture, it was in the index in the back where everyones names are listed and he wrote it next to it. The whole thing started by this......,,,,,,, the white kid had a black friend, well they edited the yearbook file for the index and found each others names..... the black kid wrtoe next to the white kids name white-trash and the white kid wrote nigger next to the black kids name, they were both joking around and the black kid erased what he wrote, but the white kid forgot to erase it.. it wasn't like I HATE ALL OF YOUR KIND!!! It was a joke, so get your facts straight. O yea, the kids dad is a police officer.

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They put next to my name sexy stud.

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Cycopath,

Thanks for cluing us in to some details that were not in the reports. It's not anything that would change opinions but is interesting.

Anywho, let me ask you this.

Do you think that the word might mean more to some people than others? And that what to some is a frivolous joke has real and acute meaning to another?

It might be funny to you and even to the people involved, but others might not want that word in their yearbook.

If you felt differently, and the words held different meaning to you would you still consider it funny?

HEck, I couldn't imagine myself caring, but if people do then it's no big deal to reprint one page so that their eternal remembrance does not bother them so.

Given the history behind the word I'm not sure I would be as quick to write off anyone's concerns as you seem to be.

Flap Over Racial Slur In High School Yearbook

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