Brought to you by Marco Randazza, Esq, defender of the search for the truth about whether Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990, here is one of the most idiotic instances of anti-speech petty control freakery by a high school administrator I've ever read: MEEP – M33P is teh L33T!
The principal of Danvers High School in Massachusetts decided it was time to crack down on kids saying "meep" in the hallways. Disruptive, donchaknow. Nefarious flash mob meep plans must be stopped. So he sent out a robocall to every student's home phone informing them that meep was now grounds for suspension.
That was stupid enough, but it gets stupider. The story made the local news, and Attorney Theodora Michaels thought she'd send the principal some feedback in the form of a one-word email. Guess what the word was? GO ON GUESS!
She received a prompt reply from Assistant Principal Mark Strout: "Your E-mail has been forwarded to the Danvers Police Department." Thank God. DPD is on the case now.
Randazza doesn't take too kindly to these sorts of shenanigans, what with being a First Amendment lawyer and whatnot. I love his final take on the story.
When I was student teaching at one of the local high schools, the whole Simpson extravaganza was fairly recent. Bart Simpson teeshirts had only recently hit the retail outlets and they were somewhat popular.
Of course, the 'poker firmly inserted' portion of the faculty got wind of exactly what kind of impertinent youth Bart Simpson depicted and was moving to have the school administration (the entire district administration, actually) to ban the Bart teeshirts in the high school.
When I heard about this, I just laughed and asked whether the faculty was intent on encouraging every schoolchild in the district to put the Simpsons on their "must watch" list and stimulate a stampede to get a Bart teeshirt. I pointed out that banning it would have the exact opposite effect that the 'poker firmly inserted' portion of the faculty might expect....that the 'law of unintended consequences' would make a mockery of their concerns. I suggested that while they were at it, they might help out the English teachers and ban Shakespeare, too. Willie, of course, could be banned on the basis of pandering to prurient interests. Tell them that, and I predicted that the students would be surrepticiously gleaning all the works of Shakespeare...whilst wearing their Bart teeshirts.
High school vice principals must be the most uncool people on the face of the planet.
"It is irresponsible to withhold this information so they can protect their fantasy image of Stevenson as a place where no one has ever gotten pregnant or shoplifted," said Frank LoMante, executive director of the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center.
OMG two Honor Society students admitted to smoking and drinking!1
Seriously what decade do these people live in? Hell, not even. If there was ever a decade when high school students of all academic proficiency didn't drink and smoke, I'm not familiar with it. It's like the 13th floor in a hotel.
This is just one of those things that teenagers do. This is one of the things that makes teenagers awesome. They come up with goofy antics that make us shake our heads, it makes them laugh, we move on.
My kids (12-15) that I coach in a rock band are working on a version of Louie Louie, whose lyrics have become:
Louie, Louie
Oh baby
Seacrest out
Ai ai ai ai ai ai
Then they got this call and response going: Seacrest out, Seacrest in. It's true that their howls of laughter are infectious.
When I was in High School I ran for the student senate. We put up some campaign posters that featured characters from the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers cartoons. My campaign slogan was "Hairy Head says, 'Vote for Angakuk'"* The school adminstration (read "Boys' Vice-Principal") forced us to take them down.
*The name has been changed to protect the guilty.
__________________ Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
A James Madison High School student is being punished for making a funny face in her school photo. As a result, school officials have decided not to print her picture in the yearbook.
My sophomore year, one of my friends grabbed her boob in her band photo. They totally printed it.