The University Daily Kansan emphasizes the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
EDITORIAL: Has free speech been violated in a public school? The Supreme Court will decide soon. See Kansan.com for more opinions and Free for All comments
MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2007 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
PAGE 5A
OUR VIEW
Court case ridicules First Amendment
In 2002.
Joseph Frederick,
a high school
senior in Juneau,
Alaska, unfurled
a 14-foot sign
that proclaimed,
"Bong Hits 4"
The first amendment is a serious matter; it's not a superfluous law that allows people to annoy others.
Jesus!" in front of passing news cameras at a school field trip to the Olympic Torch Relay. After his school principal, Deborah Morse, tore down the sign and gave him a 10-day suspension. Frederick sued the school on the grounds that, under the first amendment, his right to free speech had been violated. He won.
Five years later, the case of Frederick v. Morse, otherwise known as bratty pothead v. anail principal, is in the Supreme Court, making a mockery of the judicial system. Unlike famous past cases that made groundbreaking rulings to establish civil liberties, this case won't really establish anything for the better. No matter who the Supreme Court sides with, their decision is problematic.
Frederick was on public property, and his sign was both innocuous and nonsensical. Whether Morse should have taken the sign down, she shouldn't have suspended him. Free speech doesn't have to be intelligent speech. However, if the justices side with Frederick, who publicly admitted he wanted to irritate school officials and be televised, and has, incidentally, also been arrested for distribution of marijuana, the decision could cue misbehaving students around the nation to abuse their right to free speech and disrupt school cohesion.
Morse did or believing that a school official could (and should) block a student's illegal drug reference from public
On the other hand, it is not difficult to imagine acting as
television on a school outing. It certainly doesn't seem fair that Morse should provide monetary compensation to a kid who pushes limits to irritate school officials. If the lusties side with Morse, their decision may hinder students' ability to constructively voice opinions or to oppose school policy.
Grant Snider/KANSAN
The verdict? Please, have some respect for the judicial system.
The first amendment is a serious matter; it's not a superfluous law that allows people to annoy others. While we enjoy it daily, we also learn to leave certain unnecessary comments at the door, particularly in institutional settings. Employees are expected to act appropriately in a work setting; students are expected to act appropriately in a school setting.
At the same time, the first amendment can be unjustly violated, and it is important to ascertain when free speech is being unfairly limited. For example, should school officials have the ability to limit productive class conversation about illegal substances? How much control should schools have over students' studies? These are questions that need to be seriously addressed.
Unlike these hypothetical cases, however, bratty pothead v. anal principal creates more confusion than clarification.
— Alison Kieler for the editorial board.
>> LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Guster to promote environmental change
Members of the band Guster, campus environmental groups, and the Campus Climate Challenge invite you to join us in a town hall forum to discuss sustainability on campus today at 2:30 p.m. at the Kansas Room in the Kansas Memorial Union.
This open meeting is a key part of Guster's Campus Consciousness Tour, and the collective environmental goals of the band and its touring partners. We believe college campuses are epicenters for social change in this country and are in a unique position to lead the way in sustainable practices and technologies.
The mission of the Campus Consciousness Tour is to inform, inspire and activate students and above all to leave a positive impact on each community and college/university that the tour reaches. We aim to support the groups on campus who are working to make the school more "green" and have asked them to play a central role in this forum, which will be half presentation and half open discussion.
Endowments Institute will also speak about how schools can use their enormous shareholder power to create positive change. Did you know over 350 billion dollars are being invested through college endowments in this country?
Mark Orlowski of the Sustainable
Attendees will also have a chance to check out the biodiesel-powered tour bus as part of the "Pimp My Clean Ride" demonstration.
Guster's tour itself consists of many eco-friendly elements including biodiesel powered busses and trucks, biodegradable cups and plates for backstage catering and organic cotton merchandise. The Stonyfield Farm Shift Pavilion will be set up at the concert where you can learn about renewable energy and alternative fuels, offset your personal energy use by buying a "Big Green Friend" Carbon Offset sticker and donate canned goods to your local food bank.
Anton Bengtson writing for Guster and the Campus Climate Challenge.
Speakers should provide solutions
COMMENTARY
BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
KANSAN COLUMNIST
OPINION@KANSAN.COM
It should also be noted that in case a female student forgets to refill her newly expensive birth control, pharmacies are required to carry emergency contraception behind the counter, which can be obtained without a doctor's prescription.
contractual obligation should be fought for the sake of women's reproductive health and freedoms. I urge KU students to write their Congressmen, and express their concerns with the administration of the University. This is absolutely unacceptable.
birth control should be more affordable and more widely available for all women.
Wax, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke to an audi-
One shouldn't attack a culture, or anything for that matter, even if the attack is based on facts, without some sort of solution.
After listening to Amy Wax's social welfare guest lecture at the Federalist Society's monthly meeting, I was offended and angered that the University of Kansas School of Law would welcome a blatant racist to campus.
University should consider students' needs for economical birth control
Basically, Wax claims the reason 69 percent of children born by African Americans are born out-of-wedlock is because of the "crummy boyfriend problem."
and unnecessary abortions for those that are sexually active. The cost of birth control over time is cheap compared to the other far more expensive sexual consequences. That still doesn't mean that pharmaceutical companies should take advantage of this to exploit students and the economically disadvantaged. Regardless of abortion viewpoints, and perhaps even because of them,
"Black men feel totally entitled to play the field and not stick with one partner," she said. "And there is nothing more of an impediment to marriage than knowing other women have had your intended's children." Wax also said that every man lower class black women know acts like this that makes it hard for them to find stable companions.
ence composed entirely of white law students, myself excluded, about out-of-wedlock birthrate trends across different cultural, educational and economic levels.
>> LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I completely agree with Wax that there are cultural issues in the black community, as in any culture, that need to be confronted. And to be fair, in a private interview Wax told me, "These distinctions are based on facts. Blacks at all levels of education have a higher level of out-of-wedlock childbirths than white women. I'm just deducing that from observed behavior." That aside, it was not Wax's premise that irritated me. I respect and applaud her willingness to confront male African-Americans. However some of the statements made in her lecture were unnecessary
I was shocked to read "Birth control prices get knocked up," informing me my alma mater was going to be hiking up the prices of contraception for students. It absolutely baffles me that pharmaceutical companies and Medicaid would allow this to happen in the current political climate of anti-choice in the context of abortion.
This pharmaceutical/Medicaid
Jayme A. Aschemeyer Class of 2005
Birth control is the most effective tool against unwanted pregnancies
What was actually an extremely enlightening lecture on a behavior trend in America was stained by insensitive comments.
Additionally, Wax openly rejected Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas's research on the same subject presented in their book "Promises I Can Keep" in which Edin and Kefalas claim that all women regardless of education, race and culture.
Wax frequently made statements that associated upper-class Americans exclusively with whites and lower class, less educated Americans with blacks. It is true that most of the people below the poverty line in America are black. However Wax's discourse leads one to believe all blacks in the United States are poor.
lems? They need to wake up and do it for themselves."
When one wise student asked what "we" should do about "this ominous trend." Wax rudely responded, "We have to solve it? The people who do not have the problem need to solve their prob-
not just blacks, are marrying less because of increased expectations of their partners. Women want material security, like money and a nice house, before they marry instead of building it with their partner. The rich can afford to provide this security while the poor can't.
In an interview, Kefalas did not discount Wax's deduction that cultural aspects and "crummy boyfriend's" play a large role in the problem. However she graciously pointed out that, "The boyfriend can't get less crummy if they do not have a way to." Kefalas said that programs aimed at providing opportunities to inner-city children are not stressed enough.
"Everyone knows what a good boyfriend is," she said. "Everyone understands the process. But getting there is the problem. (Lower class black women) kind of drift into these relationships because there are not any other options."
Although Wax said that she was "more interested in dispelling conventional wisdom than providing answers" during her lecture at the University, that's not good enough for me. One shouldn't attack a culture, or anything for that matter, even if the attack is based on facts, without some sort of a solution. Solutions are gestures of the truly concerned.
In the future I would encourage all groups on campus to be cautious of the speakers they invite. Talking to the prospective speaker, even if it is only for a minute or two, can give a better indicator of their personality than a list of credentials. Also, find out other places this person has spoke at recently and get in touch with someone who listened to the lecture there.
However I am writing this under the assumption that The Federalist Society and other groups on campus do not support racists.
Chambers is a Paola freshman in journalism and political science.
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