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Originally Posted by shakran
uh, Will, very bad idea until you've read the paper in question. . . For all you know the thing was laced with racist hate speech that the students claim was to "make a point." Until you know, you risk making an idiot of yourself.
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They can read it to me. Over the phone. The facts are as follows
1) The First Amendment was observed. The words may or may not have been offensive, but the paper was published and the words are out there.
2) The article was about the word 'Nigger' or 'Nigga' or what have you. Media revolving around that word always comes with huge knee jerk reactions. Always. I've never seen the word used in media where it wasn't put under a microscope. Everyone from Pryor to Chapelle to Don Imus has been under that microscope, and it's ALWAYS guilty until proven innocent.
3) There was a printed warning that the content was offensive preceding the article.
4) The students' self explained goal was to stop the word from being used by exploring it.
5) The community put pressure on the district. In other words, people who read a high school newspaper got butt hurt and complained. I wrote articles for my high school paper and never read the damned thing.
6) The district suspended the principal before having an investigation.
Hmmmm....yeah this one is a real noggin scratcher.
Even if it was hate speech, which there is no evidence to suggest, it's protected speech that was even preceded with a warning that the speech might be offensive. If people are able to read 6 little letters, then they can read the few letters before it explaining that some people aren't mature enough to read the 6 little letters. It's absolutely inexcusable to suspend the principal for this.