That’s F’ed up.
A story in today’s paper will explain the reason behind a student’s recent suspension at Walla Walla High School.
The girl had apparently been driving her car to school with a sticker that contained an expletive. She was suspended for two days when she wouldn’t take it off, explained Brian Pickett with the National Coalition Against Censorship. The girl and her family contacted the group to explore whether her First Amendment right to free speech had been violated.
Pickett called me last week explaining the situation, and got me a copy of a letter that the coalition sent Wa-Hi and the district. In the letter, the coalition strongly disagrees with the suspension.
The sticker in question has a phrase similar to a popular 90s rap song, “Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend.” Except “got” is replaced with the F word, past tense.
The district defended its decision to have the sticker removed because by being in the parking lot and displaying the F word, it violated the district’s policy of keeping schools and grounds safe and civil.
Here is their response:
“The bumper stickers contained the ‘f’ word and this language is not
acceptable in print or speech on school grounds,” Deputy Superintendent
Dr. Bill Jordan said. “The decision to have the bumper stickers removed
from campus was made to maintain a safe and civil school environment.
Our legal counsel is preparing a letter in response to the National
Coalition Against Censorship defending our decision.”
I told my teenage step-daughter, who attends Wa-Hi, about this story and she was outraged. She said she wouldn’t have taken it off either. Just curious how others feel about it. Did the district go too far? Or did they do the right thing?
Update: I talked with district spokesman Mark Higgins to clarify why the district referenced “stickers,” meaning more than one. There were indeed two stickers with the F word on the car. The coalition only addressed one in its letter.
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What would the UB think if I parked my truck in your lot with a F the UB on a double sheet of 4×8 plywood?
The school district-that I hate with a passion- has every right and obligation to have it removed. Printing an article in the paper about it, is some very sensational, ill advised, journalism.
The girl in question is a minor attending public school. She hasn’t attained an adult’s responsibilities, so her First Amendment rights are not necessarily equal an adult’s. She isn’t required to register for the draft and she isn’t allowed to drink; she also – just like an adult – isn’t allowed to curse in inappropriate places. This isn’t a First Amendment issue because no one has the ‘right’ to say f— in public where it might offend another citizen. It’s an issue of manners and morals. Which, by the way, the school should NOT be required to teach.
I think the bumper sticker is funny, but does she have the right to display it in the school parking lot? No, I don’t think she does. If it’s that important to her, she should park on a public street and walk the extra distance. The school has every right to refuse to let her park her car in their lot.
This is a good lesson in how the real world works: you can say f— in the school parking lot all you want, but you can’t have it on a bumper sticker. In the same way, I can say I hate my job all I want… but only if my boss doesn’t hear me.
Great job of parenting!
So, many people want to blame the parents. Each reply so far has accused the parents of being bad, or not doing being involved. However, I see it differently. It appears from the article that the parents were aware of the bumper stickers, and are supporting there daughter in her 1st ammendment fight. In other words, they are being involved!
What people are complaining about is morals – and their own morals to be exact. Making judgements against this young woman, just because she does not live up to YOUR standards, does not make her a bad person, nor does it make her parents bad. I don’t know these people, and I don’t know this young lady… But it appears to me that there was a greater lesson to be learned and that the school district handled it poorly. Suspending her only brought the issue more attention, and not in a positive fashion. Perhaps a lesson on our 1st ammendment rights would better serve the students. Rather than the “do it my way or else” approach, why don’t we start teaching again.
Personally, I did not allow swearing in my house… However, I was not stupid and realized that my son was going to swear up a storm outside of the house. My goal was to teach my son good verbal skills – how to carry on a conversation, to use complete sentences, to be able to express himself and be understood. Just like table manners. There are times eating with your fingers, farting and belching are just fine… But, there are also times to use your manners.
It is the same here – our 1st ammendment rights are important, and to be able to express yourself without fear of persecution should be taught. However perhaps the school could also teach the difference, between expressing an idea and just making a fool of yourself. The object lesson being that swear words, whether written or spoken have there appropriate place in society and we need to learn when and how to use them.
Hey: Why is that in the section of this UB webpage devoted to the rules on posting comments at the end of blogs, it states that the comments cannot contain obscene, explicit or racist language?. What’s up with that? So in replying to this blog, I cannot even use the word that some people seem to think is fine (or a right) to have on a bumper sticker at the high school> Interesting.
I sure appreciate that WAHI Administration is doing the right thing, and they have my full support. If I yelled fire in the movie theatre, would I be protected by the First Amendment? In this situation, I agree that the parents of this student are sure demonstrating some poor parenting skills.
I support the schools decision. I appreciate free speech but that sticker was just plain rude and offensive, and not the type of thing that should be in the school environment. I wonder if the parents and child are enjoying all the attention they were craving?
you know, this whole comment section disturbs me greatly.
the premise here seems to be “it is offensive, and therefore not protected.”
is that not in some ways legislation of morality? if you find it offensive, utilize YOUR free speech…park next to her car with a sticker saying “I’m with the unimaginative potty mouth” and an arrow….put up a portable sign everytime she parks her car criticizing her judgement, her vocabulary, and her inability to distance herself from the herd!
but to suspend her…to use the rule of law to penalize that wich someone finds offensive…
that is frightening.
what, pray tell, happens if/when the school finds a war protestation sticker offensive? a pro-life sticker that happens to be especially graphic? a non-popular political party? an obscure and misunderstood religion?
what then?
no.
rascists have the right to be rascist- as we have the right to oppose them.
bigots have the right to be bigoted- as we have the right to enlighten them.
and vulgarity has the right to be public….
if for no other reason then so that we have the right to correct it.
think about it, please.
you have the right to be offended.
you do not have the right to prevent offense from happening.
merely to oppose if, vocally, with your own freedom of speech.
“The ability to abuse free speech is not only acceptable, it is indispensable. Where free speech may not be abused, there it does not exist. That is the bottom line test for freedom, that it can be abused.”
“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” — John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
“My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.” – Adlai Stevenson, October 7, 1952
“I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” – attributed to Voltaire, from S.G. Tallentyre (Evelyn Beatrice Hall), The Friends of Voltaire, 1907
“One of the few remaining freedoms we have is the blank page. No one can prescribe how we should fill it.” – James Kelman, The Guardian, October 12, 1994
“One man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice John M. Harlan, Cohen v. California (1971)
I agree with the freedom of speach theory. I support the girls parents 100%. The schools think they can control every aspect of our kids lives now and at the same time the teachers don’t want to work.
Wa-Hi is far too conservative at the leadership level. Any attempts at staff creativity are quashed. Any attempt to relate to students on their level is deemed ‘inappropriate’.
But this is to be expected when parents are so ignorant they object to reading Toni Morrison, or watching “Bowling for Columbine.”
Parents with alternative views, SPEAK UP! Support this student and her family’s right to freedom of expression.
Otherwise, the conservative parents will soon have us teaching abstinence-only ed.
–former Wa-Hi teacher
If your told by the school to take off the F’ing sticker and you return to the school 2 days later with another sticker on the car that says “Go F— Yourself” you deserve to be suspended! Thank you Wa-Hi for looking after our youth. What kind of F’ing parents would allow this behavior then bring this smut to national attention? Shame on you.
Link to video with statements by girl
http://www.keprtv.com/news/36419289.html?video=YHI&t=a