An AP English Languange and Comp. teacher at my school recently accepted a student's idea to create the classes own "post secret" type book. Since the postsecret. com website has been known to cause controversy within school administration, the teacher felt it best to make sure that she followed school guidelines and asked for permission from the school district. Once all students turned in their anonymous secrets and the book was published for the students, by the students, the book had to be read by the school principal for complete authorization. The book sat on his desk for no less than a week and he granted permission TWICE (Once for the book to be available in the classroom, and twice for it to be sold to the students). Everything went as planned but then a wave of controversy began once the books were actually distributed. Two other teachers reported to the principal that they were offended by some of the secrets in the book. Mainly, a racial rant about black students BY a black student. The books were confiscated, mainly snatched away from students' hands. The teacher was given an ultimatum of either all the books in the principal's by the end of the week or she was to be fired. Other controversial topics in the book were mainly people writing about how they had been molested as youngsters, or dealing with drugs and alcohol, abusive relationships, and deaths. Those topics are another reason why those books were confiscated. All 150 + books were turned into the office for "censoring" but no student has received their copy back.
This is a violation of freedom of speech, but were the
administration correct in "censoring" the book for students? I don't think they were because although many of the secrets were very intense and raw, they could help a lot of people out there with the same secret to learn to cope. It's very upsetting when a student can't even express them self at the one place they should be able to reach out and be educated by other people and expand their horizons. After this incident the principal of our school formally presented his resignation in utter shame after it was obviously discovered that after the book sat on his desk for a while and he never bothered to read and examine the content and signed off his approval without realizing the consequences it would bring to him from the district. And the resentment the students felt towards the whole ordeal afterward.
***Disclaimer: I no longer have internet, so I don't know how long it will be until I read your comments on this, but they are really appreciated and I will be on as soon as I can, also you can go to thethingsneversaid.blogspot.com to read the secrets in the book.
And they say kids don't learn anything in high school these days.