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."
I have had to remind several educrats about just those decisions over the past few years.
As I post earlies, any combacks on them, with the exception of the kid peddling them, is illegal. Then again reminding educrats about the limitations of thier authority really annoys them.
10 people get together with out the knowledge of their government masters, set 25 poems that they like to music that they like, and commit free enterprise, by trading their work on the open market.
I fail to see any crime, these people should be proud of their effort. If their poetry is not politically correct, good I am sick of politically correct.
opps should of said 14.
"and furthermore, white kids cannot rap..."
Oh, I was assuming these were all white kids committing the mayhem, aren't the white folks always guilty?
LOL! Could probably be white kids (behind the scene) making up those pathetic rhymes for others "of a different race" :o)
Things such as that are totally unacceptable in this society today, even though hatred/violence against the school system is so strong!
This same sort of "rebelling" has happened in many such places...one of those happened in my very own home town. In fact, two of the four people involved happened to be friends (now ex-friends) of mine.
The two kids (two out of four from a typical teenage garage band) decided it would be "absolutely funny" if they composed a profound song about their school, such as mentioned in this thread. Only, they didn't really intend to base the entire song on what went on in the school or what they did outside of it, they focused the lyrics specifically on a teacher. One that was mostly, if not all, "hated"/"despised" by the student population of the school.
So, they went to work on the song they would call specifically their own. A more private song, due to what was said in the song: pure hatred, and wanted death to the teacher, not only that, but 4 minutes and 32 seconds of different methods and ways to brutally murder the specific teacher. (I don't know what they held against the teacher either)
The song though, was performed a total of 3 times (aside from the band practice) I heard it only once and thought it was horrible. It was never recorded on tape/CD (thank the Lord for that) and the only other people who were "priviledged" enough to hear it, were sworn not to mention ANY of it. Afterwards, the song faded away, the lyrics where destroyed, and the "so-called sick minded joke" soon dissapeared. I haven't heard anything about it since.
The CD clearly has some political themes (criticizing the city in which they live, for one thing; even discussions of criminal activity have political meaning). Is it obscene? If there are any lewd words, like the F--- word, it will be easy for the school to ban it from campus.
But the school should only be able to punish the kid(s) who brought the CD onto school grounds, and maybe the kids who took copies. It's reasonable to assume that the other students in the music group didn't intend for the CD to end up on school grounds. Kids can't be punished by the school for speech that occurs off school grounds.
In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school as well as out of school are "persons" under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State. In our system, students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate. They may not be confined to the expression of those sentiments that are officially approved. In the absence of a specific showing of constitutionally valid reasons to regulate their speech, students are entitled to freedom of expression of their views.From Tinker v. Des Moines. Kids have (gasp!) the right to their own opinions (omigosh) and the basic right to share these opinions with each other (heavens no!) until the point where it causes serious harm to the school's ability to keep order. A dirty rap CD is not going to cause serious harm like that unless groups of students get into fights with each other over it. The school can ban it on the grounds that it has dirty words, but it can't punish kids for making it in the first place. The kids should get the ACLU to sue the school.
The only Johnstown I have heard of is in Pennsylvania.
(CH) Why you wanna come around here like that?
Now why you wanna come around here like that?
Now, that's got a nice 80s ring to it.
A friend and I wrote a punk rock song in the early 80s. The lyrics are just too sick to post out here. That was the whole idea....a punk song to make fun of punk songs.
It was so gross that our band manager refused to let us perform it - even in the raunchiest punk clubs. We rehearsed it a few times for fun, though.
Ah, memories of a misspent youth!
LOL
Good prequel lyrics to the High School rapper wannabe CD...
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