Posted on 03/09/2006 6:38:37 PM PST by A.A. Cunningham
Sean Allen fails Teen Politics 101
By Jim Spencer
Denver Post Staff Columnist
DenverPost.com
If anyone has tried to hurt Sean Allen's body, Allen needs to file a criminal complaint with the Aurora police.
If, instead, some of his classmates have tried to hurt his feelings, well, welcome to high school.
For those just returning from a parallel universe, Allen is the 16-year-old Overland High student who recorded a rant by geography teacher Jay Bennish that mentioned "eerie similarities" between George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler. Allen is now the darling of right-wing talk show hosts and a hero to Colorado's conservative governor Bill Owens.
He apparently has not fared quite as well among his peers.
Allen says he's afraid to return to Overland. He says he's been threatened and called "spineless" and a "coward." I couldn't reach Allen on Tuesday to ask how he'd expected classmates to react.
An Aurora police spokesman said neither Allen nor anyone at his home address have filed criminal complaints. The Cherry Creek School District has received "hundreds" of angry calls, said a spokeswoman, but only a few anonymous threats to either Bennish or Allen. Those were turned over to the school system's police resource officer. Other allegations of violent threats have come from Bennish and Allen themselves, said spokeswoman Tustin Amole.
No one should diminish the prospect of violence in America, unless you count the talk-show blabbermouths who have beat up on Bennish because he told his students that the U.S. is the most violent country on Earth. Though I can immediately name several more violent nations, let me be clear: No one should lay a hand on Sean Allen for doing what he did. Anyone who makes a specific violent threat with the capacity to carry it out can and should be charged with assault, even if no battery occurs.
But if Allen thought he would be turning down dates from beautiful girls or joining the in-crowd after becoming a right-wing political mole, he vastly underestimated peer pressure among teen agers. That is the poetic justice for those who feel he stepped over the line. At 16, Allen's self-esteem, his celebrity, rests with people his age.
What Allen did violates the unwritten "us-and-them" code of adolescence. You defy authority and adults when you're a teenager. You don't suck up to them.
When you're 16, having middle-aged fogies like Bill Owens or Rush Limbaugh or yours truly sing your praises carries no "street cred" with the "dude, whatever" crowd.
Frankly, there's a wimp factor in whining to authorities about anything as an adolescent. That sense of indifference dates at least to 1968. That was the year a Key Club adviser at Denbigh High School in Newport News, Va., decided his charges - present company included - needed to learn about the evils of socialism.
He forced a dozen of us to listen to a lecture by a lieutenant governor who had backed massive resistance to federally ordered school integration and later opposed federal attempts to order crosstown busing to racially balance schools.
Then, the 20-something Key Club adviser threaded up film strips from Africa to show atrocities that new socialist governments committed on citizens after overthrowing colonial rule. In a public high-school classroom, images of dead men with their genitals cut off and stuffed in their mouths crept across the screen.
Nobody ever turned that guy in. We didn't need to. He was just one of "them," somebody to be endured to get another line for the extra-curricular activities section of your college application.
Having done that, we returned to the "real" world, a place where being cool, listening to popular music, driving a car and getting a hot date were the most important things in our lives. I'm betting not much has changed. I'm betting that what's happening to Allen might be upsetting, but not for the reasons he thinks.
Let me repeat: Authorities should keep a close eye on Sean Allen to head off anything resembling physical intimidation. But if his situation plays out according to the typical high-school hormone script, his biggest fear should be that he has to take Ann Coulter to the prom.
Jim Spencer's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
This guy is a dumb@ss
Given the proximity to Columbine High School, I suggest this a$$ knock off the ridicule and concentrate on some other topic.
Spencer used to be here in the Norfolk, VA area. I hadn't really noticed his departure. He's a chump.
He looks like the type that liked to linger in the showers after gym class, if you catch my drift.
Any Freepers out there have some conservative teenagers who could write Sean and let him know that he has 'peer' support?
Taking Ann to prom would have been the highlight of my life.
Come on Ann, show up and go to the prom with this kid. It would be hilarious, and we would get at least 1500 posts out of it here :)
Captain oblivious.
Anyone who can listen to that rant and not be disgusted is an asshole. Count Jim Spencer as one.
Why - seriously why - do these leftist newspapers think that these jerks have any opinion worth reading? This guy is a meathead. He can't write, his opinion is off topic - most probably intentionally, to muddy the waters concerning the real topic - the intimidation and indoctrination of teenage high school students by strident militant leftists on the government dole -
I re-read Jim the meathead's comments. He apparently does not understand the difference between real history - real events (murderous leftists in Africa) compared with opinion presented as fact by the great thinker Bennish. Note the style of writing - he ties a lt gov to some policies - but clearly does not say that the lecture he was "forced to listen to" had anything to do with those policies or positions. But then, this is usually a critical symptom of the leftist disease - feelings and intention are more important than reality.
Add bullying to the list of offenses that only offend leftists when they are the victims. That list is getting as long as my arm.
Why does Jim Spencer - obviously mentally challenged - have this job? He makes his paper look silly.
Given what he is wearing, I would say not even that.
This is a good point. He really is a lame writer. He also mentions that the Govenor out there is getting some mileage out of this?
Is this true, has he been hammering this pretty good?
Um, looks to me like Allen did defy authority in a serious way.
Wonder if the Loser Leftists would be so gung ho to leap to a Math teacher who used his calles to rant about John Kerry's record of treason or Murtha's ethic problems.
They were talking about this on Hannity & Colmes. They had Hannity & Colmes and Bob Beckel and Neal Boortz. Best line came from Boortz when Beckel and Colmes were yapping to each other, Boortz said "let me know when you guys are done licking each other". LOL!
I bet Ann would go.
For anyone intrested in twiting this clown on his stupidity, here is his email.
Yeah, I heard him on Hugh Hewitt's show. The CO Gov. is solidly on Allen's side.
Now that wouldn't have anything to do with the brainwashing that Bennish and other liberal teachers might have been spewing upon his peers, would it?
One more point...Bennish claims he was challenging the students to think for themselves...well, if all the students agree with him except one student then he's been a miserable failure...only one has learned to think for themselves. Bennish should be fired for incompetence.
I believe this fine young man has just successfully completed an important right of passage. The right of passage where a boy, who cares a great deal about what his peers think of him, becomes a man, who now cares more about what he thinks of himself. In time, Sean will begin to care about what God thinks of him.
I would expect that Sean has outgrown the school he's currently attending. His parents should consider placing Sean in a school with a curriculum and faculty who can appreciate and nurture Sean's level of maturity and God given talents.
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