Posted on 02/07/2005 2:53:36 PM PST by got_moab?
JOHNSTON -- Fourteen students at Johnston High School have been suspended for producing a 25-song rap CD that, among other things, refers to violence, binge drinking and sex with other students.
Schools Supt. Margaret Iacovelli said a four-day investigation into who made the CD ended yesterday, when the students involved were given five-day suspensions, and ordered to perform 10 hours of community service and receive some in-school sensitivity training.
"We had to address the disruption at the school that the CD caused," Iacovelli said. "We looked at it in a different light because it also disrupted the community. So we gave them 10 hours of community service to help repair that damage."
On the CD, which was made off school grounds but sold by at least one student in school, the students spout off on anything from football games to how their cars fit their personalities, over some popular hip-hop beats.
Some of the students also rap about drinking alcohol: "Take shots of Jack and a glass of Absolut / When . . . we get together you know we gonna puke / If it's in a toilet or out the car door / It don't matter we just keep going back for more."
And their violent fantasies: "I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling as I think to myself I don't know what I'm feeling / I just wanna grab the Glock and cock it back / kill everyone here, how . . . is that."
However, it was the degrading comments about women at the high school that really caught the ears of school administrators, and apparently angered some parents.
". . . Why everyone think Johnston is so easy? Why all these girls gotta be so sleazy?"
Iacovelli said the lack of respect toward women was a major reason for the administration to push the students into sensitivity training.
"In light of the CD, I think the kids need some additional education to be more tolerant," Iacovelli said. "I think this really brings to light that parents are always telling their kids to turn the music down -- maybe they need to listen to the lyrics."
The CD started circulating around the school this week.
Iacovelli said an adminstrator at the high school got hold of a copy on Tuesday. Assistant Schools Supt. Kathryn Crowley picked it up at the high school and brought it back across Atwood Avenue to the School Department's administrative office.
When she played the CD, Iacovelli said, she immediately called high school administrators to her office and launched the investigation.
School Committee member Lorraine Natale, who hasn't heard the CD, said she had received several calls from concerned parents, and that she was told this week that 50 copies of the CD were sold.
"What I know is that the parents that contacted me are the parents of the young girls that are mentioned on the tape," Natale said. "They were very concerned about the graphic nature of the tape. I'm waiting for the superintendent to give us the report. I hear they are transcribing the tape."
Iacovelli said the final report should be ready Monday.
Meanwhile, there has been some accusations that school administrators wanted to keep the issue out of the public eye because the parents of two students are involved in school affairs.
Iacovelli, who received two complaints from parents, said that's not the case, "whatsoever."
"After I heard this CD, I immediately called the administration into my office. . . . I never even thought of putting it under the rug," she said. Each student is "getting the same discipline as anyone else. You have to treat every child the same."
"Kids do things that don't please parents," she added.
School Committee Vice Chairwoman Norma-Jean Pirri said she understood why the students were being suspended, but added that she believed the situation may have been dragged out by politics.
"While the mistake that the boys made was a mistake, the outrageous publicity on this matter was no doubt in my mind politically motivated," she said. "I believe that the punishment some of these boys received was more than what they deserved compared to the involvement they had in the CD, simply because of who they are."
First off, Johnston is a middle class suburb of about 20,000 people. It definitely doesn't conjure up visions of "tough" places like Compton,CA or even South Providence for that matter. As for the girls, from what I can tell this kid is right on the money, most of them ARE sleazy.
>As for the girls, from what I can tell this kid is right on the money, most of them ARE sleazy.
Well, it's not only that--I think the parents should be doing less complaining about the CD and start looking into what their kids are doing. Afterall, not *all* of the girls in the school were named, suggesting that these particular ones must have a reputation for good reason. The parents are quick to place the blame on everyone else and have the school take care of the punishments, when it is really their job....
Oh, now that's lame. In '99 I wrote:
"We're gonna have a party and we're gonna get drunk
And if I see you pukin' I will know that you're a punk.
You can't hold your liquor and you walk like a fag
I wish you wasn't here, man.. you are a drag!
(CH)
Why you wanna come around here like that?
Now why you wanna come around here like that?
~Snip~
Wilson/Stewart1999
Flyer heard the recording!
this is series. next thing you know ,they'll be drawing
pictures of guns and pointing chicken fingers at one another.
Sadly enough though, this seems like something my Mexican cousins would do...(any excuse to get kicked out of highschool is great with them)
and furthermore, white kids cannot rap...
Ah. . . if you say so.
(Assuage and beer are bad for the memory)
What school policy did they violate? Being non-conformist? Bragging? Having a fantasy life...?
And could someone please tell me what the heck "sensitivity training" is?!?
I've been subjected to it and I'm still not sure. I remember going into a small conference room and there were kids "toys" at every seat. I don't remember much about the rest of it.
I am a conservative and I know the decision is illegal.
Been involved in similar incidents with websites. ALL off campus expression such as music and websites are absolutely off limits to school. The genesis of this is the underground newspapers of the 60s (love turning that back on the libs). Recent cases involving websites have resulted in the schools losing and paying.
The student selling them on campus is a legitimate target (offensive material).
My wife is teacher in the local public school system, one thing that we both agree on is that our daughter will be going to private school. The parents are either oblivious or just don't care about what their kids are doing. Also, the hip hop/MTV culture is poisoning our youth, way too much gratuitous sex.
Oh the horror.
I would wager you would find hundreds of similarly vulgar commercial rap albums in the student body's walkmen and car stereos. For right or wrong, society has decided these are acceptable. So long as this is true, punishing these students at all for the content of their music is unreasonable.
There is some sense to minor punishment for the student who sold copies of the rap CD on school grounds. School is not the proper venue to run a music store. A reasonable minor punishment would be detention and telling him to stop.
here comes the ACLU who wants to bet me ????
Well, Concord, mASS - isn't exactly a ghetto town and THEIR middle school seems to do pretty well in the Lewinsky/sex competitons. (A colleague has his kids in schools there - and he DEFENDS what's happening - saying it isn't any different than what went on is his middle school years in Framingham, mASS.
I guess what they say about 'flyover country' being a bit slow is true!
I'm being sarcastic in the last sentence for those who might miss that. ALso, I know for sure that Lewinsky's were common occurence in middle schools in the mid-west in the 60's.
Don't they have to, by definition?
It's a good thing they did not not make up songs about bringing Midol or aspirin to school, or they would REALLY be in trouble.
Sartre and Nietzche should be proud. The howling void they put on a pedestal to replace God has left whole generations without meaning or feeling.
And on what basis were the students suspended or ordered to do anything? The article does not say or even imply that the CD was produced using school resources.
However reprehensible the sentiments on the CD were, Tinker v. DesMoines is still the law of the land in this regard--unless they used school recording devices or computers, in which case Hazelwood applies. Even then, the punishment should be for unauthorized use of school resources, not 'sensitivity training' which suggests this is being treated as a thought-crime, rather than a case of theft of CD's or theft of services.
I'm all for any parent who wants to reign in, ground, or, heck, even spank their errant teen over this one, but the state should not be pretending the First and Fourteenth Amendments don't exist just because those expressing disfavored opinions are high school students.
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