Can U believe this?!?!

[Shipwreck]

City settles protest suit

Associated Press

ROUND ROCK - Bringing an end to a federal lawsuit filed by some students and their families, the city of Round Rock is dropping charges against 70 students who participated in last spring's immigration protests.

The city and the Round Rock school district have agreed to pay $91,750 in legal fees and eliminate the incident from students' records. The students must attend a three-hour seminar on civics education.

The agreement was reached after mediation. The Round Rock City Council approved the settlement Thursday.

The protests were part of a series of marches nationwide against immigration laws last spring. On March 30, 2006, a group of Stony Point High School students left class to march to Round Rock High School. The next day, some Round Rock High students walked to Stony Point.

Police issued 209 citations against the students, accusing them of violating the city's youth curfew or disrupting class. The settlement applies only to the 70 students included in the suit against the city and school district. They had claimed their rights to free speech and to assemble had been violated.

http://www.theeagle.com/stories/041607/texas_20070416047.php

 

[45Frank]

If they left class they should be suspended and the parents should be held accountable. The city caved.

 

[quatin]

You lose your constitutional rights on school property. Isn't this a supreme court case? Students in school at present have no right to the 1st amendment.

 

[MrTuffPaws]

Good. It is nice to see youth actually act upon something these days. It is also nice to see them actually use and fight for their rights.

I think the immigration aspect of this will cloud the issue for a lot of people when the actual issue is rights.

Yeah yeah...I know...damn kids just using this to get out of class....blah blah. If only one of them actually protested the issue, any issue for that matter, it would be worth it in my book.

 

[SANman]

I live in Round Rock, and the problem is we are too close to ultra Liberal Austin. I agree in freedom of speech just as much as the right to bare arms. However, skipping out on class and causing undue disruption is not a right high school students have. Especially when it pertains to ILLEGAL immigrants!

 

[nrawling]

Free speech in schools...

Free speech in school is actually a really complex issue. There are a number of Supreme Court cases that together cover the basic "guidelines" for identifying protected speech.

Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1968)

Disruptive speech is generally not protected.​

Bethel Sch. Dist. No. 402 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986)

Lewd or offensive speech is not protected.​

Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kulhmier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988)

Speech that is "sponsored" by the school is subject to their control.​

This is also subject to whatever added interpretation in the local Circuit. The tricky part is always identifying was is sufficiently "disruptive."

 

[SANman]

Definition of "disrup(ed)"

dis·rupt /dɪsˈrʌpt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dis-ruhpt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object)
1. to cause disorder or turmoil in: The news disrupted their conference.
2. to destroy, usually temporarily, the normal continuance or unity of; interrupt: Telephone service was disrupted for hours.
3. to break apart: to disrupt a connection.
–adjective
4. broken apart; disrupted.

To march out of school in mid session is disruption by definition. They should be punished appropriately.

Something along the lines of, requiring them to listen to Rosie (Dough-nut) O' Donald rant on about her usual nonsense for 6 hours straight.

 

[Big Calhoun]

IMO, if you punish them for making a statement, whether you agree or disagree with the message and/or the means, then you are just helping to encourage another generation of sheep that just follows instead of having the courage to lead. I do believe some of our own freedoms that we hold so dear came through with some moderate disruption, to say the least.

 

[mek42]

There's not enough information in the article. If the students merely left classes and marched, I think that the best way to handle it would be some after school detention based on a civics lecture explaining that they are being detained as a consequence of their actions, but not castigating them for it - kind of a practical seminar on civil disobedience.

If when they got to the other school the students merely stood around, perhaps with signs, then I don't think that anything more need be done. The only police involvement should have been to tell them to walk back to their home school and drive a car or two with them to make sure they went back.

From the article, I don't see any sort of disruption - I don't see how merely skipping class places a difficulty of learning on the students who stayed in class. As for the lack of rights, I've never understood this - only the voting amendments specify an age requirement.

 

[Shipwreck]

Well, I've heard enough on the news over the past few months since it happened. I think they should be reprimanded. Their 1st amendment rights were not violated. They could just wait until AFTER school. Instead, they chose to walk out in the middle of school time.

If you or I did that during our worktime - just got up and walked out to protest something - we'd probably be fired. If they couldn't wait until after 3pm, then they deserve being in trouble. They should get the same punishment as if they just left campus to go home.

 

[c_yeager]

If you or I did that during our worktime - just got up and walked out to protest something - we'd probably be fired.

You do realize that your employer pays you in exchange for your labor while school attendance is compulsory, right? The difference seems pretty significant to me.

Everyone whines about how we are turning kids into sheep and when a hand full of students step out of line with the administration we are the first to cry for stronger sanctions, sickening.

 

[plexreticle]

It's a public school. You don't lose your 1st amendment rights when you walk in the door.

This is the same problem we face with the 2nd. Too many places we lose it by walking in a door.

 

[Autolycus]

Lots of kids all over walk out of school to protest things. Its good that these young kids are learning to stand up and speak their mind when it comes to politics. Would you rather that the kids just sit there and let the government cram laws they dont like down their throats without protest?

Yes they could have waited until after school but then their actions would not have been as dramatic and gotten the attention they or their movement was seeking. All social movements seek the best time and place to gain the most media coverage and to spread their message the loudest.

I guess kids dont have rights in high school. Does that mean that the techer can start to preach at them? What about have an Imam come in and start telling them about Islam and why they should convert? I mean they dont have rights in school. Does that mean that they should be patted down on a whim by police or strip searched because the police suspect they might have drugs or a weapon on them?

As a sidenote I for one stand with the kids and agree with them. Had I been in high school I would have walked out myself.

 

[Shipwreck]

Yes they could have waited until after school but then their actions would not have been as dramatic and gotten the attention they or their movement was seeking. All social movements seek the best time and place to gain the most media coverage and to spread their message the loudest.

If they cut class to cut class - there would be repercussions..

They chose to walk out during class - for whatever the reason. There should be repercussions.

By your viewpoint - if ONE student wants to go protest something, and he walks out on his own and does it, he should be treated the same way.

I guarentee you - if he was protesting the circus or something else (all I can think of), he would be punished. But because the city is afraid to stand up on this issue, they caved.

 

[45Frank]

Big Calhoun IMO, if you punish them for making a statement, whether you agree or disagree with the message and/or the means, then you are just helping to encourage another generation of sheep that just follows instead of having the courage to lead. I do believe some of our own freedoms that we hold so dear came through with some moderate disruption, to say the least.

Of course letting them make a statement is great and they should be able to do so .
BUT they left and disrupted school to do it. Wrong I beleive.
Why not after school, or the wekend, probably get a bigger following.

 

[jeepmor]

I have read thread after thread of people on this board complaining about how schools indoctrinate the youth and how we abhor it. And yet these kids stand up for something they believe in and you blast them for breaking some rules. Sounds like some people are talking out both sides of their mouth here.

Sure, they should face the penalties of skipping class. Something like detention, a civics class or what have you. But some of you are over the top in regards to the discipline you want brought down on them IMO. They are kids, they embrace the same values I read about on here daily. They should be encouraged to do such, but they should also be encouraged and taught to do it appropriately. The detention they would face should cover this.

The protest was appropriate, skipping class for it was not. Kids skip school, it's a fact of life. They actually skipped it this time for a good cause, encourage the cause, remind them that doing it during class will bring consequences and let them decide the itinerary for the protest. Separate the protest message from the truancy issue in the message delivered to them.

The city making a legal issue out of it is a waste of tax dollars. $90K plus in legal fees, jiminey crickets....damn lawyers always win.

 

[Geronimo45]

Personally, I don't believe the government's got any right to say whether a kid should or shouldn't be in school. It's the parents that ought to have that right. If their kid leaves, they should be told. If they don't care, so be it.

I think you give up more rights when going into a school than you do going into a lot of prisons. I believe corporal punishment's allowed in schools, while you'd get charge on top of charge for doing that to a convict. Not that it's not right, mind you. Just sayin' that you are pretty much subhuman in the area of rights when you're enrolled in a school - from what I've seen, anyways.

I reckon it's more of a political issue than anything else, though - nothing to do with the rights of families and all that, unfortunately. If they punish the students, the government's just a bunch of racists who hate Mexicans.

 

[c_yeager]

If they cut class to cut class - there would be repercussions..

Wanna take a stab at the repercussions that typically accompany the cutting of a single day of class in a public highschool? Think it maybe falls short of getting multiple citations from the police?

Your own words paint very clearly that the response by police was inapropriate. The penalty for leaving class to protest should be EXACTLY the same as leaving class for any other reason, but that was not the case here, and it seems that the courts agreed. These kids weren't penalized for cutting class, they were penalized for protesting and thats not how it is supposed to work in America.

 

[VanEasten]

What about the kids who didn't agree with the protest and wanted to go to class?

 

[Deavis]

And yet these kids stand up for something they believe in and you blast them for breaking some rules.

When you protest and break the law you have to accept the consequences. Do do otherwise is to defeat the purpose of protesting an "injustice". They could have waited until after school or organized something that did not break the laws concerning school attendance and function.

They broke the laws, they were cited, and the city should have punished them. If they truly were serious about their protest they would accept the punishment and use it to prove the righteousness of their case. To try and break the law and get away with it is cowardly. JMHO

 

[Autolycus]

Just like those founding fathers standing up for their rights and beliefs. How dare they!?!?

 

[Shipwreck]

Well, keep in mind that days before this protest, many schools warned the kids ahead of time NOT to go to these protests or suffer the consequences. SO, they got a specific remidner and did it anyway.

 

[Sage of Seattle]

In my mind, the students left the school in furtherance of their protest.

I'm not sure how clear I am in describing this, but I see strong parallels between the truancy and so called "protest zones" that el Presidente Bush created. Oh sure, you can protest -- it's your right. Just protest waaaaayyy over there somewhere, out of the way where no one really notices. As an aside, I think that was one of the first in a long line of egregious attacks Bush made on this country and the Constitution.

I see this protest as a fairly benign version of civil disobedience in trying to bring about more attention to whatever matter they are thinking important.

And, as long as they're willing to accept the consequences, then I'm fine with it.

The penalty for leaving class to protest should be EXACTLY the same as leaving class for any other reason, but that was not the case here, and it seems that the courts agreed. These kids weren't penalized for cutting class, they were penalized for protesting and thats not how it is supposed to work in America.

+1 to that.