Posted on 01/26/2006 6:10:55 PM PST by wagglebee
When a high-school student magazine in Columbus, Ind., took on the subject of oral sex, it set off a hot debate in the community over proper supervision of student periodicals.
The Bartholomew School Corporation voted 5-2 Monday against a plan that would have required all student publications to be reviewed by the district superintendent before being printed and distributed.
It was a heated debate – and a complicated one.
Kim Green, the faculty adviser for the Triangle student publication, announced she would resign if the board approved the measure.
Others, including both students and board members, suggested the policy would amount to censorship.
It all began in December, when the Triangle published a four-page report called, "That Other Sex."
By most accounts, it was a responsible, well-written report promoting abstinence.
Yet, some parents were left wishing there was more accountability and responsibility asserted in the schools.
"I believe that as a Christian parent, it is my duty and responsibility to teach my children about these matters at a time and place of my choosing," said Barry Wright. "It is not the principal of the high school, not the school board, not even the pastors of our churches who determine these things. It is the responsibility and duty of each child's parents to establish the proper age and setting that sensitive matters such as this one are to be discussed."
In this case, both the faculty adviser and principal of the school, David Clark, approved the piece.
Russell Barnard, a school board member, drafted the proposal that would have required more oversight. He called the article vulgar and unsuitable for a school publication. He also said it clearly violated the current policy as it was inappropriate for much of its audience.
"I don't call it censorship," he said. "I call it responsibility."
Board member Billie Whitted had a problem with the fact that the article stimulated discussion of the "graphic details of oral sex."
Board secretary Gretchen Fisher, however, said the authors "handled the subject well." She said, "students are hearing about this from their peers" in any event.
But Wright had some advice for the students, as well as the teachers and administrators involved.
"Kids, if you want to know about these things, go talk to your parents," he said. "And then keep the information to yourselves. This information is to be shared only with one person – your husband or wife, not published in a high school newspaper."
Has she had some after school interactions with male newspaper staff?
Well, she was going to give the "juicy" details.
Get yer Cum-mings engine at Columbus, Ind.
Get yer Cum-mings engine at Columbus, Ind.
Careful, they might suck too.
Student magazine discussing oral sex when most of the kids probably couldn't even pass an oral exam. Go figure. Guess they gotta stick to what they know.
Good, let her resign. They'd be quick enough to censor it if it were a Christian paper telling kids the Gospel. Then it would be *separation of Church and state*; can't force your beliefs on another; multicultural society, etc, ad nauseum....
You get and A for insight----long has it been a fact of life that unions protect the incompetent and sluggard since all members pay dues (that fatten the union bosses wallets and lifestyle)---good, competent workers actually do not need a union but are usually forced to join them by the way the contracts are written--at one time unions were a good thing for workers since there were many bad business owners who exploited and played worker against worker, thus keeping wages down and benefits non-existent
So resign, already. No loss.
And maybe it will spur parents to homeschool their children rather than put them in the meatgrinder of gov't schools.
Separation of School and State!
Hehe. My first grade PE teacher was probably one of them. He was one mean son of a gun and not someone you would want to meet in a dark alley.
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