Student punished for having the "wrong" opinion

What an incredible world we live in today!  We send our kids off to school, hoping that they will get a good education, wishing that they will stand up for those things they believe in, expecting them to be given the right to express their opinions in an open environment where any well-thought-out premise can be a point of discussion.  Not so in some places.

Take for instance, Fort Worth, Texas. There an Honors student was sent to the principal’s office and punished for expressing an opinion. Now, mind you, telling a classmate that you believe homosexuality is wrong doesn’t really cut it with certain elements of today’s society. In this case, a German teacher at the school, who has, apparently, openly promoted homosexuality as part of the new world view, overheard the student’s statement and took umbrage. In other words, the thought police, and others who promote a politically correct view of the world, jumped at the chance to hammer a person for espousing an opposing viewpoint instead of theirs.  You know their opinion; the right one.

So for taking a stand against someone’s populist view of homosexuality, Dakota Ary, a student at Western Hills High School was sent to in-school suspension.  In-school suspension is for students who, for one reason or another, find themselves on the outs with the current administrative staff for any of a number of reasons, usually having to do with behavior.

But I would say that in this case, it wasn’t behavior that got Ary in trouble, it was opinion.  Certainly, had Ary said “homosexuality is wrong” and impressed his opinion with a flurry of punches, that would be grounds for in-school suspension.  But what exactly are we trying to promote here when we punish students for doing what we would like them to do:  express opinions on philosophical points of view.

So, if Ary gets in trouble for espousing the point of view that homosexuality is wrong; does that mean that the school administration believes it is right?  What other meaning could it have?

This is the same kind of mentality used to support dictatorships. If we don’t like what you say, then we will simply lock you up until you change your meandering ways.

It happened in Tiananmen Square years ago, and is currently happening throughout the mid-east. When a country like the United States takes this kind of a stand, how far down the road of politically correctness have we come?  We face this every day.  You can’t say this or that because it might hurt someone’s feelings.

Perfectly good words, such as niggardly, have to be discarded in general conversation because a moron somewhere doesn’t realize it has nothing to do with racial prejudice.  So what does niggardly mean? According to Merriam Webster, it means to be “grudgingly mean about spending or granting;” it can also mean that something is “provided in a meanly limited supply.”

How does that stack up against racism? To quote some famous writer, “Me thinks though dost protest too much.”  Typically, of course this is my opinion, those who complain about things like this and try to ascribe them to racism are probably racists themselves.  If our skins are so thin that common, everyday language triggers pent in emotions then what hope do we have for the future?

So back to Ary.  His mother states that her son, Dakota, is a very well-grounded 14-year-old, who is an honors student, plays on the football team, and is active in his church youth group. He’s attended church his whole life, and has been taught to stand up for what he believes.

So what does that say about the idea of separation of church and state, or in this case, school?  Somewhere, we would like to think that school is the place where kids are taught to stand up for what they believe and to not be afraid to have an opinion.

But yet, at Western Hills High School, it would seem quite contrary. Instead of standing behind this student, the school administration decides the best thing to do is to stifle such broad thinking.  God knows, we can’t have any of that original thought around here.

It boggles the mind in this day when the world screams out for free thinking human beings that the very institutions we force our children to attend would fetter a child’s opinion and make him or her join the lockstep beliefs of the powers that be.  All I can say is what does this school administration think like?

After running through a small legal tussle, the school did in fact rescind its punishment. But the real problem isn’t correcting a wrong. It’s what got us there in the first place. A case like this should never have seen the light of day; it should have been squashed by the administration at the school, that it was not is a crime.  The people of Fort Worth should take a closer look at this. There may indeed need to be some punishment meted out; but it probably isn’t directed at the student.