Monday, March 31, 2008

Students punished for opposing war

Yet another story like this???

At a public high school in Princeton, New Jersey, 250 students are facing 2 days of detention for attending a brief antiwar rally. The principal had originally promised that the students would not be punished if they went to the event, but he went back on his word.

This is clearly an effort to intimidate. We all know that the students never would have been penalized if they had gone to a pro-war rally. In fact, the school probably would have made a pro-war event their field trip (like mine did during the '91 Gulf War).

Although the pupils missed only an hour of school (horrors!), the school required them to miss 3 whole hours just a few weeks earlier to watch a New Orleans band play and have Mardi Gras beads thrown at them. So class time obviously must not be too important to the administration.

The type of political coercion practiced by Princeton High School is not only unacceptable. It's fascist. It's not the school's job to judge a rally as being an improper reason to miss school - especially when they would never have batted an eye if the students had gone to a pro-war demonstration. Hopefully there'll be some lawsuits.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/31/14336/8419/434/487720)

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