[Winona Online Democracy]
At 09:58 PM 4/21/05 -0600, you wrote:
[Winona Online Democracy]
I'm curious what people are thinking about the situation of the two WSHS students who want to wear buttons or T shirts that are spinoffs of the "Vagina Monologues". Do folks see this as a legitimate freedom of speech issue? What is the message to kids about democracy? Just wondering...
I'm generally on the "freedom of speech" side of this, with a couple of reservations. Not only should high school students have the same rights and responsibilities regarding speech as other members of our society, but encouraging open discussion of ideas (even unpopular ones or ones with "dirty words") should be viewed as an essential part of successfully educating these students. The challenge is to channel these into a forum which is appropriate for the high school setting.
I find nothing intrinsically offensive about the word "vagina" or its discussion, but that's not surprising since I teach reproduction classes to college students. In addition, I feel strongly that there are many legitimate social, psychological, and medical issues which could (and should) be addressed through more open discussions of human sexuality at the high school level.
However, that is not the focus which this issue has taken. It has become a "power struggle" that, like it or not, the school could only win at very high cost to both its reputation and its finances. Without any exceptions that I can readily think of, attempts by public authorities to prohibit free speech have ALWAYS backfired against them, and I am surprised that the administrators at the high school let themselves get pulled into it. Had they immediately and openly shifted the focus away from "dirty" (and therefore prohibited) speech and redirected it toward the social (e.g. responsible sexual activity), psychological (e.g. poor body image), and health-related (e.g. STDs) aspects of this sexuality - which, by the way, is very well done in the "Vagina Monologues" at the root of this issue - they would have taken the wind right out of the sails of the "free speech" students who were looking for just this type of confrontation (no surprise to the parents of ANY teenager).
Ed Thompson
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