A few years ago, a high school student named Joseph Frederick was punished for unfurling a banner that read “bong hits 4 Jesus” and subsequently quoting Thomas Jefferson to his principal. He sued, and won, but the principal brought the case to the Supreme Court. The principal (and her lawyers, who include Ken Starr) is…
Hello all, long time no blog. Anyway, today class, we shall examine youth rights abuse in the form of Entertainment Industry Age Restrictions: As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it is these intentions that I have a problem with. Organizations such as the MPAA (Motion Picture…
I thought I would share a satirical column written by Parker Heck, a staff writer for Reynolds High (Asheville) School’s newspaper, “Cedar Cliff Notes.” Reprinted with permission from the writer. Hats off to school discipline Parker Heck Cedar Cliff Notes Uneasiness. Apprehension. The queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know that…
The assault on MySpace is gaining traction. ABC News just covered the new policy at Libertyville High School in Illinois that would penalize students for content they’ve posted on their MySpace page. At the same time a bill in Congress called the Deleting Online Predators Act is increasingly getting attention. Those of us who care…
Adam B. Kushner has a great piece in the Washington Examiner about Sen. John McCain’s commencement address at Columbia last week that was “cloaked in a terrifically condescending homily about the arrogance of youth.” NEW YORK – Last week, as they sat in the pouring rain, John McCain insulted Columbia’s graduating class. He also delivered…
Somewhat related to the last post about the War on MySpace, now this is a case of schools using information posted on student’s websites and MySpace pages to punish them. The Chicago Tribune did a story on it, and asked for our comments. Excerpts: A north suburban school district could become one of the first…
On an unseasonably cold May afternoon, I left my internship a little early to meet some old acquaintances on the steps in front of New York City Hall. Another member of The National Youth Rights Association had heard about Lew Fidler’s bill to end the cell phone ban in New York City schools, and he…
Well it was bound to happen. With all the media hysteria over MySpace, any student of our opportunistic elected officials should have known what was coming next. Congress has proposed a bill that would ban MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, and potentially all chatrooms, forums, blogs & Instant Messaging from school & library computers. More info here….
A new project of New York City Indymedia, IndyKids, has been censored by two area library systems. After agreeing to distribute IndyKids to their local branches, both the New York Public Library and the Queens Public Library changed their minds and now refuse to distribute the paper. They say the reason for their decision is…
This is a message to parents about controlling their TV and computer. Yes, your cable or satellite services comes with parental controls, as do your computer’s ISP, anti-virus software, and anything else you have loaded onto it. With these, you can restrict and monitor the activity of others on these devices, specifically your children. This…
