Judge Rules on Student Anarchy Club

By MICHELLE SAXTON, Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A judge ruled Thursday that a 15-year-old sophomore cannot form an anarchy club or wear T-shirts opposing the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan (news - web sites) because it would disrupt school.

Katie Sierra was suspended from Sissonville High School for three days for promoting the club. She was also told she could not wear T-shirts with messages such as: ``When I saw the dead and dying Afghani children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense of national security. God Bless America.''

In a complaint filed with her mother, Sierra argued her right to free speech was being denied.

Circuit Court Judge James Stucky agreed that free speech is ``sacred'' but he found that such rights are ``tempered by the limitations that they ... not disrupt the educational process.''

Sierra said she'll pursue the dispute.

``I don't want war. I'm not for Afghanistan,'' Sierra said. ``I think that what we're doing to them is just as bad as what they did to us, and I think it needs to be stopped.''

James Withrow, lawyer for the Kanawha County Board of Education, argued that an anarchy club was inappropriate because students ``do not feel that their school is a safe place anymore.''

``Anarchy is the antithesis of what we believe should be in schools,'' Withrow said.

Sierra's attorney, Roger Forman, said she is ``being punished for expressing her opinion.''

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Nominate Katie Sierra

for Sissonville High Student of the Month @

dagnew@access.k12.wv.us

Go Local for discussion -- click link below

As it seems that our rights are going out the window, I would like to sell my soul while its still worth something.

Charleton, WV Katie Sierra Message Board.

They could use a talkin' to.

http://www.wvgazette.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=gazette&Number=11688&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5

This is the comment I wrote to the West Virginia Department of Education Board of Directors:

The recent decision to reprimand Katie Sierra for the most American of ideas, independence, democratic sense, equality, free speach, and above all a right to organize, prompted me to write this message to you.

I am not sure in which role the school and the West Virginian Department of Education sees itself in this action. It does strike me strongly as taking a lot of clues from an oppressive perpetrator without much chance of real influence, other than total control.

A student that not only shows great promise, a deep sense for the political process, a disregard for gender inequalities, and the invititation for democratic discussion is fulfilling all the goals any good educational facility could wish for. Reprimanding, even threatening an individual with such outstanding American values sends exactly the message we all are trying to fight against today. Such a student enriches the educational process and does not endanger anything but the comfortable position of an apathetic and out of touch administrational system. Your action has nothing to do with preservation of education, but much more with the expression of helplessness in the face of democratic action.

We can often learn more from teaching than we can actually teach.

With great respect for your formidable task of educating our youth.

There was a u.s. supreme court ruling in the 1970s which allowed students to express themselves, via such angles as *black armbands*. Has that now been overturned? (wouldn't be a surprise) Still, it may be worth pursuing.

source:

student press law center

www.splc.org

(I don't know if they have any direct link about this topic, but you might try searching)