Posted on 09/27/2005 4:33:37 AM PDT by billorites
FARGO - A ninth-grader here has been banned from his school's assemblies after asking a sensitive question to a U.S. Army pilot.
Phil Sannes also had to apologize to speaker Michael Durant after he asked the "Black Hawk Down" helicopter pilot on Thursday whether he had been raped during his capture by hostile forces in Somalia.
"He asked a fair, hard-balled question," said Phil's dad, Jon Sannes. "I don't know why he's being punished."
"I felt the question posed was inappropriate at that time and that place," said Peggy Stibbe, assistant principal.
In 1993, Durant flew a Blackhawk in Mogadishu, Somalia. The Army pilot was shot down and captured for 11 days. His story inspired the movie, "Black Hawk Down."
He spoke to more than 500 eighth- and ninth-grade students at the Fargo middle school.
The pilot talked about being shot down and captured, but told students there were details he didn't want to share, Stibbe said.
"He knew for a ninth-grade group he could only take it so far," she said.
At the end of the presentation, Durant opened the floor to student questions. That's when Phil Sannes asked his.
"I just wanted to know," the ninth-grader said. "It was a serious question."
Durant said it was a good question, but he wouldn't answer it.
Jon Sannes said forcing his son to apologize and to miss future assemblies violates his son's right to free speech. A school is supposed to encourage students to think and ask questions, he said.
Jon Sannes said he and his son talk about world news events at home.
"You hear about people being beheaded and tortured during war," he said. "My son just had a question about that."
Stibbe said the school usually schedules only one assembly a year.
I think the "total honesty" movement (liberalism, 70s) has had a deleterious affect on many aspects of civil society.
Requesting he apologize is a good thing. I have no idea as to the frequency of future assemblies at this school; but this could mean no punishment; or plenty of it for this kid.
I doubt that. They know, they just don't care.
And I'm hardly an angel. I remember once when I was a kid going to see some presentation by a World War II veteran. This was about 1990. While he was talking about one of the more serious parts of his experiences, for which he was trying to form his words carefully, I farted quite obnoxiously.
Boy, was I pleased with myself.... I knew it was an asshat stunt, and that's why I did it.
Kids may do dumb things, but it usually isn't because they're stupid and don't know any better. This kid here is old enough to know what's what, and that's probably why he asked the question in the first place. To be an asshat.
I wonder if they would have treated the kid the same if
he had asked T.E. Lawrence about when he was held by the
Turks.
oh dear Lord, what an awful thing for the kid to say during an assembly.
It is a subject that the military does not want to deal with since they are pushing to get women into combat.
Could it not also be that the pilot was considering the age of the audience? Regardless of the much much larger issue of what the military considered as a unit might or might not have as a sub rosa collateral purpose in public relations, it remains that the pilot could easily have held the opinion that talking about brutal, agonizing experiences is going to have a disproportionate effect on young, vividly imaginative and utterly irresponsible minds, such as would be typical among 9th graders. So he was deferring comment in that kind of very uncontrolled and difficult to discipline forum.
I get the very same kind of problem trying to teach 20-year-olds, and it is coming from the same place (the comments happen to be exactly reversed in tenor): the speaker is arrogating attention by intentionally breaching decorum. It's a form of taking coup and becoming a Face.
Of course, we also have this report from the AP, so it has been filtered through the PC sensibility once already. And we naturally only have follow-up here in the forum. There is no wider follow-up and this becomes yet another factoid swilling about in the national consciousness, unresolved and ready to be used as precedent for yet more absurdity.
This would be part of why so many of our fellow citizens are stuck on stupid.
Thanks for reading,
Beleg
However, note how the military in general avoids the same subject as they push to get women closer to combat zones.
I suspect it has more to do with men not wanting to talk about being raped for goodness sakes.
First, I doubt that he was raped.
Second, It is more likely he thought the subject inapprobiate to discuss with children (as another poster stated)
Third, rape is not really a threat to men in battle, it is to women, hence the need to keep silent about it or to make it something that both men and women have to be concerned about, which is not true.
Here we have again the blurring of the differences between men and women.
Uh-huh. $100.00 says pops prompted his son to ask the question beforehand..
I am no expert in monitoring that, so I wouldn't know. It is not intelligent or prudent to have women anywhere near combat and I fell very badly for the women who find themselves being the latest crop of female guinea pigs for social experimenters to expose to risks, just for the experimenters' gratification. Playing upon envy in despite of reality is very abusive.
This issue is not about speech, but about respect and personal accountability. Even though his father stated: “he and his son talk about world news events at home.” I had my doubts as to whether or not his question was earnest. I found the 9th grader’s website, free and open for the public to see and post on:
(http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=phil36104)
In it, I found that this “scholar” enjoys parties, his girlfriend, and more parties. On his own website he claims, “SKEWL IS GAY”! and “I cant wait till this weekend cuz im gona go party and i wont stop.” There is no mention of school or extracurricular activities, recreational pursuits, or world events.
Before people start lamenting the demise of free speech, they should realize that the kinds of people asking the kinds of questions matter. Mr. Sannes is not being punished for asking a sensitive question. He is being punished because he was being disrespectful, and I applaud the administration for making their decision.
We have all known people like Phil Sannes in our classes. His question was a punch-line at the horrible expense of a retired flight officer, not in an innocent attempt to gather knowledge.
You just don't do that kind of stuff.
"How can you shoot women and children?"
"Easy... you just don't lead them as much."
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