Suspended for disagreeing
Protest letter brings suspension for Willowcreek sixth-grader
Updated 31 January 2005: Superintendent overrules principal, suspension revoked. (Details at bottom of post.)
Tyler Zilz, a sixth-grader at Willowcreek Middle School disagreed with new school rules that prevented students from socializing before school and during lunch periods. With the help of his older brother he wrote a three page letter and distributed copies.
�We, as a student body, we are strong,� Zilz wrote. �We are also intelligent enough to realize an unfair judgment when we see it.�
He encouraged students to wear white shirts and blue pants this week to protest. Reports have filtered out that some students are following the protest dress.
�I will not resort to anything violent or improper,� Zilz wrote.
Andrew Halaschak, school principal and designer of the restrictive rules, gave Zilz a one day in-school suspension for “interfering with the educational process”.
(Tip credit to Tori in Texas)
UPDATE
Superintendent lifts boy’s suspension
Portage Township Schools superintendent Michael J Berta has reversed the suspension and it will be removed from Tyler’s record.
“It was the wrong disciplinary action,” Berta said.
…
“This was the opportunity to teach children about the freedom of speech,” Berta said Friday, declining to comment about whether or not Halaschak was reprimanded for giving Zilz the suspension.
Sound familiar? Paraphrase a bit and it’s fairly close to “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Okay, maybe he wasn’t that emphatic but it is pretty clear that Superintendent Berta has a far greater understanding of the concepts of free speech than does Principal Halaschak. Fortunately for Tyler Zilz, Berta holds the trump card.
(Tip credit to Scott Hannan)
I’m curious as to whether the social studies teacher (who has to teach about the political system and nonviolent protests and such) sees that letter as “interfering with the educational process.”
You know, the only place you could possibly learn ANYTHING is in the classroom with proper instruction. *rolls her eyes*
And don’t forget that socialization is generally a big reason as to why children should be sent to public schools.
Zeig Heil, mein Herr!! This principal should be fired immediately! These restrictive rules went out with the ’50s. The free speech issues alone should scare the school district enough to fire this guy! Where is the ACLU when you need them?
I wouldn’t even let him clean out his desk! Maybe we can export this guy to Texas. We have imported enough of your incompetants!
barry
Hey! Don’t send him down here! We don’t want him!
Aren’t we supposed to be teaching kids to think? Seems like this school just wants kids to be well-behaved little robots.
Good god, could I actually agree with barry 100% on this? If he is not being sarcastic, that is…
Barry, I already apologized for letting loose the blight that is Culver. Don’t wish bad things on us down here!!!
Jason, that’s exactly it: schools are *not* designed to teach children to think. They’re designed to make children memorize (and then spit back) “facts.” Oh, and to teach them to be good little citizens. I know - my kid got in trouble today for running. Outside. During recess.
I think that Principal Halaschak is an utter disgrace to American education.
Either he is a despicable tyrant. Sit down shut up and be glad I permit you to be in my all wonderful presence. or he is the most immature school principal on the face of the earth.
Here in Virginia, the anti home schooling reichmasters of the NEA use social interaction as a main reason not to allow homeschooling. What would they replace this excuse with?
One wonders does Zilz suspension interfere more his educational process than his peaceful protest interfere with others’ educational process.
Has this school administrator never heard of Tinker v. Des Moines? Freedom of expression? The First Amendment?
I suspect he’s about to become a little more educated about our legal system.
Look at the records schools are encouraged to keep, it should reduce costs because it focuses resource on education. Touching and battery are the same code. Holding hands and sexual touching are the same code. Even pretending could be a disciplinary code. Anyone can create a number about about a student, anywhere and anytime… it’s all part of the code. Your number could go to the FBI too.
Just focus on the numbers and outcomes will happen like magic, if you feed them the money will come. Even though it seems the definition encourages slander and the invasion of privacy, this is our country.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/safety/chapter4_3.asp#4_20
Using prescription or over-the-counter medicine in violation of school rules.
An instance where an individual’s behavior, breath, etc.,suggests that he or she used prescription or over-the-counter drugs in violation of school rules.
Holding hands, kissing, sexual touching, or other displays of affection in violation of school policy
Touching or striking of another person against his or her will or intentionally causing bodily harm to an individual.
Sounds to me like someone needs to go back and read Tinker v. DesMoines. You know, the little bit about rights not being shed at the schoolhouse door.
Unless this kid was circulating the petition during class time and thereby actually detracting from the educational process in a manner more significant than that caused by note passing, I think the whoe thing has been ill-handled by the administration.
No, he wasn’t passing them out in class. One of the copies of the letter was discovered in a locker that another student set on fire.
My God, we have enough idiots in Illinois without having to take Indiana in with us. Portage Indiana is in Indiana not Illinois.
Sorry about that, Phil. ‘Twas a mousing error in the selection list. It’s been fixed.
Sounds like the admins there saw reason (at least the superintendent)
http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2005/01/29/news/porter_county/2008ca0e22cdf19986256f9800030ab9.txt
That is good news, I hope these kids have learned how important their voice is.
“Zeig Heil, mein Herr!! This principal should be fired immediately! These restrictive rules went out with the ’50s. The free speech issues alone should scare the school district enough to fire this guy! Where is the ACLU when you need them?”
Who ae you and what have you done with Barry?
“Aren’t we supposed to be teaching kids to think? Seems like this school just wants kids to be well-behaved little robots.” - Jason
Fichte’s “Address to the German Nation” proposed “a system of forced education which would produce soldiers and citizens who would be obedient, well-behaved, unquestioning of authority, and who would share similar opinions (taught in the “schools”) on issues of national importance.” Prussia said OK, after a few years, and instituted it. Our system was copied off of theirs. 90% of the population went to Volksschule, the ones who were to be in positions of power went to Real Schule.
“One of the first US Commissioners of Education, William Torrey Harris, went out of his way in 1889 to assure Collis Huntington, one of the fabulously wealthey railroad magnates of that day, that this new system of national compulsory education was scientifically designed to prevent “over-education” from happening to American children.”
Information from Thom Hartmann, “Good German Schools” Come to America, printed in Beyond ADD.
Our school system was NOT designed to teach children to think. It was designed specifically to prevent individualism and independent thought in the Prussia’s military after they lost to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Hi everyone! I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who supported our efforts here in Portage IN (not IL). I am very proud of my sons actions and intentions. They are AWESOME. It’s not always easy to stand up and do the right thing, yet they did.
I am proud to call them my own. I am happy to say there was a happy ending to an unhappy situation, and all is well here on our end.
Thanks again
Sherry, Tyler, and Eric