California Suspends 20 Middle Schoolers for Viewing Myspace

[Son Goku]

I think we're at somewhat of an impasse here, where quite frankly many of us are at rather different ends of the spectrum, so much so that in our respective philosophies, there isn't entirely a "common ground". I guess it's just one of those areas to agree to disagree, and to leave it to the voters in the given district to decide if they still want this school board re-elected to office.

Personally, I can find absolutely no form of agreement or justification for the school board having suspended these students. What it really amounts to, is they get suspended because they didn't nark on a given website posting; the whole while, even suggesting they do so could put their feet to the fire amongst their own classmates who wouldn't trust them "to not nark" in the future... It could also open them to ridicule, resentment, and anymosity amongst their own peers. In this, there's also an issue of losing face... Narking on friends for having just read something also presents an issue of honor itself...

As far as I'm concerned, that simply having read something doesn't make them bad, wrong, or whatever the hell else... They're being punished for what someone else posted off school property, and on their own free time, simply because they happened to read it and didn't become the school stouge... As far as I'm concerned, this was an over-step of the school's authority, and an unwarranted breach into the private lives of individuals. The school's only connection itself is that they happen to attend the same school, not wrt the act itself... I suppose, we all feel just as strongly, and none of us would likely budge on this point...

As to the parents, I will say this much... If I was one of the parents, there would be no way in hell, I would go reporting a blastid thing to them so they could suspend someone, be it my kid or someone elses, for having read something. Quite frankly, if there was something wrong with it (and feelings of dislike towards certain people, or perhaps certain actions that some people engage in, aka rightious indignation) is a part of life); I would much rather sit down and discuss the matter, while not trying to shield them from "an unpleasant aspect of reality itself", so they could understand. No way in hell, would I prefer the "punish them" cause they read something approach...

 

[falconguard]

A year ago at a Catholic school in California,13 Football players were caught vandalizing a rival campus at 3 a.m. The Prinicipal, or Monsignor, not only suspended the kids from the game, but also from the school for a week. The incident did not happen on school grounds, and was off hours of school.

I guess you could say this was a strike at the parents as the school already had their money they just couldn't go to it. But the Principal did not stop there he took many of those same parents to task.

It is up to you to teach your kids morality, if you don't then why are people getting bent when society imposes a punishment?

 

[Son Goku]

For better or for worse, a Catholic school doesn't exactly surprise me. Some of my siblings went to a Catholic school (as my mother's first husband was Catholic). They could get in trouble for missing a confession...

But with this whole argument of "teaching morality", the problem is that it is taking one person's idea about this and imposing it upon all others. Perhaps some people don't see a simple reading of a website to be immoral, and perhaps some people don't think there's a moral obligation to have to rat people out...

In fact, if one wanted to push the matter one step further, if one saw a friend just reading something (and with absolutely no idea how they feel, or view the matter), should just rat them out; an argument could be made for acts of dis-honor. Quite honestly, and in my view, it could be more honorable to accept punishment on behalf of a friend who has done no real wrong; then to simply rat them out... Some might agree, and some might not, but that's essentially where we are...

I still say that neither the parents nor the children were under any obligation, morally or otherwise to nark. And as to what someone might have encountered, I can say that people growing up, and then living their adult years out in this world, they will encounter many things. Some good, some bad, and some otherwise... But in the end, it can also be part of the learning experience we have all gone through as humans...

I'm sorry for what might sound harsh and perhaps out of place to mention, but one wants to know where an "isolated" upbringing can leave one? My mother was the daughter of a New England Baptist minister. Her friends even had her walk about 5 paces back quite routinely because they wanted to talk about boys, and didn't feel comfortable "discussing this amongst the minister's daughter". She was routinely left out, even by her own friends, very much protected, and kept out of knowledge concerning many of the realities in life.

For all of this "protection from..." the realities of life, not deemed for knowledge by the minister's daughter, she was on a date with her first husband, who got her drunk and raped her that night She learned alright, and learned the hard way. After this, her mother, who cared more about "the disgrace, and protecting the family name", took her to a back ally, and had them perform an abortion on her, against her will, all in the name of "protecting the family name". This also wasn't the sort of abortion as practiced today in a clinic, but rather the sort that was practiced in back allies, back in the 1950s... What's more, she was required to marry this man, again in the name of protecting the families "good name" and reputation among the community.

The man, who latter became a cop, routinely got her pregnant when she was about to go out, get a job, or do anything with her life, to keep her bare foot and pregnant ("as any good lady should do..."), and even brought his mistresses home, where they were teaching the children (my brothers and sisters), to refer to these "other ladies" as mommy, and what not... In the end, this husband of hers, who she was required to marry, supposedly because "she allowed him to rape her", had one of his friends come over (while he was on police duty), and rape his wife, aka my mother... One of my brothers was to find out, that man was his biological father, and did not take the learning that he was the product of this rape all to well, when he found out.

My mother, heavily distraught after all of this, had grabbed his gun one night, while her first husband (who she was married to, before having met my father) was in the bathroom, and was ready to shoot him dead. He ended up spending an extra-ordinarily long time in the bathroom that night, (my mother thinks it was the Lord's intervention, but who knows), and before he came out, she came to her senses. She put the gun down, grabbed the kids, and ran away from home. For the next few years, she had 5 kids, and was on wellfare, (her job skills also having grown rusty this whole time she was married, so not most employable), with some aid from her former husband's family who wasn't entirely happy with his actions in this.

So please forgive me, if I'm not all that of a mind to hear that keeping kids heads in the sand of nievettie is somehow a matter of "morality", or it is immoral that they should have read something/been aware of the existence of certain matters that some politicians might not prefer... Sometimes, what a person grows up in ignorance of, can come to hurt them...

Personally, I'm not one to bury my head in the sand, and so yes, I had watched a couple of those videos of be-headings that Zarkawi and Co. were engaged in, which would be far worse then someone saying "oh I hate so and so..." Oh that, there are many people that people grow up liking or disliking for a variety of reasons, it's a part of life. On the incident of Zarkawi, I'm not one to bury my head in the sand and make believe that by keeping something out of sight and out of mind, that the world will just magically be a happy place...