Case Study: Counts vs. Cedarville School District Situation The Counts v. Cedarville School District court case was about the Harry Potter book series. After receiving a complaint from a parent, the Cedarville School Board voted 3-2 to remove all of the books from the Harry Potter series from the open shelves of public school libraries. Students who wished to read or check out these books could do so only with written parental permission. Several students and their parents filed suit, seeking the return of the books to the open shelves. In the course of discovery, the School Board members who voted to remove the books acknowledged that they had not read many of the books and that they removed them because they exposed students to the "religion of witchcraft."
No books should ever be banned because for each book that is banned, there possibly could be one life lesson that will not be learned by the next generation. Censorship of books in schools and libraries is wrong for it limits what students can potentially learn. Books such as To Kill a Mocking Bird, Of Mice and Men, and others teach valuable life lessons, which is why they are considered classics. Books such as these are being banned for they have questionable material. In the same book introduction as the opening quote, Judy Blume wrote, “Those who were most active in trying to ban books cam from the ‘religious right’ but the impulse to censor spread like a contagious disease.
Weather movie ratings should be banned or not is a growing concern in our country. During my research I discovered many interesting theories and opinions as to why movie ratings should not be banned. The first reason I think they should not be banned is that parents want movies to be suitable for their children. Another reason why they shouldn’t be banned is that movie viewers want to have an idea of what kind of movie they are going to watch. The third reason movie ratings shouldn’t be banned is that movie ratings can be used as constructive criticism by the director.
As a parent of my own two teenagers, being in agreement with their choice of clothing sometimes comes to a battle stand. I do not want my children exposing themselves any more than necessary to the public in general or at school. As a result, Wayne County School District Board is convening soon to again review the dress code policy that is in place for our county. Uniforms and stricter dress codes are ever becoming the more positive choice at hand, both the educators and for parents like me. Much to the chagrin of my teens, I will be voting in favor of uniforms, or the strictest dress code policy options available.
Reasons given to these suspensions was that the school system did not allow for students to wear armbands in school. The parents filed a case against the Des Moines school system stating that they had violated the teenagers rights to peaceful protest and to freedom of speech. Tinker vs Des Moines reached the Supreme Court where they ruled in favor of Tinker saying that forcing them to stop a peaceful protest, that did not interrupt learning at the schools, by attempting to remove the armbands did infringe on the kids first and fourteenth amendment rights. Tinker V Des Moines outcome set precedent for future cases involving public school systems and First amendment rights, such as the Easton Area School District appeal to the US Supreme Court to uphold their ban on the "I Love Boobies" bracelets that many students in there schools were wearing. The board voted seven to one against the schools appeal stating that the students were wearing the bracelets for charity and that to ask them to remove them would violate
What is changing are the people involved and the environment where these freedoms are being questioned. In the essay Schools fail free speech 101, it is my observation that the author takes the position that the constitutional rights of students in American schools are being denied by teachers, principals, and administrators. The author uses many examples of these censorships of students as premises to support his conclusion (2007). In the article, the author reports about a Cincinnati high school student magazine that included a “mildly critical” article about the schools football team and the principal ordered the article be torn out of the magazine before it was distributed (Schools fail, 2007). I feel this is a strong premise to support the conclusion that administrators censor what students write in their publications.
To Ban or Not To Ban; Ban Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eyes sparks arguments regarding banning the book from several high school curriculums in the country. Although this is a powerful novel for adults, this book should not be in Bonny Eagle High School's curriculum. This book should be banned from the curriculum because of the references the book makes on topics such as: racism, sexuality, profanity, child molestation and child rape. The topics express deep emotions and realism that young high school readers should not be forced to read. In a small town in Ohio, beauty is only captured in white woman or in the deep blue of ones eye.
The University claimed that the photo is inappropriate for a teacher teaching under-age students which would be considered as promoting drinking. In old days if a person wants to start a new life, because he wants to forget his past terrible life mistake, he just had to move to another city or country where he can start from zero. There, no one knows him and his mistake would be forgotten. But today, due to social network sites like Google, Face book and Twitter, your past mistakes and life cannot be forgotten wherever you go. The Right to be forgotten is one of the controversial issues in our digital age.
There are pros and cons to states that decided to experiment raising the age. Every individual has the right to make their own choices. It shouldn't be the governments decision to decide if a child is to drop out or not. Raising the drop out age has had equally bad results as to good results. Students might want to drop out because they are struggling in school, getting bullied, have a health issue, have personal family problems, or just have a planned out future that doesn't require a high school diploma.
Fighting for Freedom of Speech in Schools (Good, 2007). It was ridiculous to send her home the principal should have gave her a warning and call the parents and talk to them about it but yet they choose to send her home. Breaking an middle school dress codes is far from drawing a portrait of yourself nude and displaying it into a art gallery. Virginian Pilot Newspaper was against Beth Reid 17