Halloween

The spunky student body wasn’t pleased and exercised their rights to  peaceful demonstration and IT WORKED! The punishment was whittled down. Congrats to you wonderful kids-great team work.

Jessica Corvino, senior, and Addie Kirsch, senior, lead a line up a student protesters in front of Southern Lehigh High School. Students held a protest Friday in response to fellow students who were suspended after a senior prank earlier this week. (Emily Robson / The Morning Call / June 5, 2009)

Southern Lehigh High School students cry foul over crackdown on campers and those who tipped media
17 suspended for campus prank
By Marion Callahan and Andrew McGill  |  June 4, 2009  |  themorningcall.com

Outraged that their friends were suspended for five days over an end-of-year prank, two Southern Lehigh High School seniors sent an e-mail to The Morning Call accusing administrators of grossly overreacting.

Next thing they knew, they were suspended for five days, too.

On Wednesday night, the Southern Lehigh School Board held an emergency executive session to discuss the suspensions. But after meeting behind closed doors for two hours, the directors would not say what, if anything, they had decided.

District solicitor James Bartholomew declined to comment, saying this is a disciplinary matter.

The meeting was held hours after school board President Elizabeth Stelts described the decision to suspend the e-mailers as ”very harsh.”

The two students, whose names are being withheld by The Morning Call, were upset that 17 seniors were punished for camping in the school courtyard Monday night. They alerted the newspaper Tuesday afternoon in an e-mail titled ”Free the Campers.”

”This hasty decision by the administration does not appear to fit the crime, and the harmless actions of a few senior students have been completely blown out of proportion,” the e-mail stated. ”The administration’s reaction is completely out of line considering the harmless nature of the prank and is leaving a sour note for the graduating seniors.”

Subsequently, one of the suspended e-mailers left a voice message detailing his punishment — five days’ suspension and 50 demerits — and saying he was not allowed to talk to the media.

”Administration and school staff is not allowing me to comment any more about this,” he said. ”I just don’t want to get in any more trouble.”

The school district’s attorney said the two students weren’t punished for their critical opinions, but for using school computers to express them.

”The punishment has nothing to do with the expression; it has to do with the unauthorized use of a school computer,” Bartholomew said, citing a lengthy 2008 policy restricting personal computer use. ”They are only to be used for educational purposes.”

But several students at the high school said many computer infractions are punished only with a temporary revocation of Internet privileges.

And legal experts said the suspensions raise questions over whether administrators were stepping on the students’ right to freedom of expression, a right outlined in school policy.

”What they’re doing is punishing [them] on a technicality,” said Clay Calvert, a professor of First Amendment studies at Penn State. ”Perhaps the underlying motivation was to suppress a viewpoint that was negative about the school. That may be what’s going on in this case.”

Clearly, Southern Lehigh seniors see it that way. After school Wednesday, many vented to the media in the school parking lot. They announced plans to hold a sit-in Friday to protest the punishment meted out to both the campers and e-mailers.

Addie Kirsch, 18, was going to help write the protest e-mail, but she’s glad she stayed out of it, she said. She can’t believe the school opted for such an ”overly exaggerated” punishment.

”They teach us to speak our minds,” she said. ”This goes against that.”

Brett Ryan, one of the students suspended for camping in the courtyard, was glad for the e-mailers’ support. Though the 18-year-old Lower Milford Township resident may get kicked out of the National Honor Society for the senior prank, he’s now coming to the defense of the students who wrote the e-mail and alerted the media. This is a First Amendment issue, he said.

”We learned in school that you’re supposed to fight for what you believe in, and [they're] obviously doing that, and [they're] obviously being punished for that,” Ryan said. ”The school is doing that just because they’re embarrassed because they overreacted and they want to sweep it under the rug.”

His father, Rich Ryan, said the district has mishandled the incident. He described the camp-out ”as a very light prank on a scale of senior pranks.”

”There was no damage, no illegal substances involved, no horsing around. They simply set up tents, ate food that they picked up, went to sleep and the next morning the police were there.”

Upper Saucon Township police officer Brian McLaughlin, the high school’s resource officer, agreed the students did no damage and there were no sign of forced entry.

For that reason, the students will be mailed a summary citation for defiant trespassing. Instead of a fine, Upper Saucon police will recommend the students perform community service or participate in another type of alternative program.

Typo circled in red.

Papers pulled after typo
chicagotribune.com  |  Paul Richter, Washington Bureau  |  April 8, 2009  |  Utah

PROVO — Thousands of issues of Brigham Young University’s student newspaper were pulled from newsstands because a front-page photo caption misidentified leaders of the Mormon church as apostates instead of apostles.

An apostate is a person who has abandoned religious faith, principles or a cause.

The photo in The Daily Universe on Monday was of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the weekend general conference.

The caption called the group the “Quorum of the Twelve Apostates.” The mistake happened when a copy editor ran a computer spell check and apostate was suggested as the replacement for a misspelling of apostle.

First-a story about Horses.

Second-a drawing about Mommy’s job

When asked to draw a picture of what they wanted to be when they grew up, second-grader “Sarah” turned in the lovely drawing shown below.  Needless to say, the teacher was a bit surprised — Mrs. Smith had always seemed like such a conservative woman.  So she sent a note home to the girl’s mother asking for clarification as to the picture’s meaning.  (read Mom’s reply below the picture)

Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit.  I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it.    Her picture doesn’t show me dancing around a pole.  It’s supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely,
Mrs.  Smith

The back is blank, but I can write up a story for you.

Jack and Dianne get married in a lavish ceremony with a chocolate fountain and move to the burbs, buy their dream house, an oversize McMansion that Dianne pleads for. Jack indulges her and borrows money from Uncle Nick to pay the down payment.

They work, they shop, they consume. They are good Americans. They have a kid and Dianne is more excited about it than Jack. Being a father makes Jack feel old. He’s not sure how he feels about Dianne being a mother and wearing Mom jeans. He hates his job and grows to resent the large house and the neighborhood of people who so effortlessly enjoy lawn mowing and suburban life. His lawn is patchy and yellowed no matter how much he spends on lawn services or chemicals.

It’s a cold day. The kid drags Jack outside to see her ride a bike. Jack reluctantly leaves the cocoon of his overstuffed leather comfy chair and wide screen hi def tv that he’s still paying for. He stands on the cement slab that serves as a front porch, but they never linger on this porch. He waves at the kid. She waves back. “Can you see me Daddy?”

“YES” She flings her arms wide in joy. Ta-Da!

Click for larger view.