I looked and didn't see any forums for political stuff so, I'm going to poat these two articles here.:
No. 1
Mass, CA and now New Hampshire!
A recent post discussed a young man's yearbook photo and it's exclusion. Thought you all might like to see where we're heading...and this in one of the most GUN Friendly States in the Union. It's bleeding accross the border from Mass and makes me want to cry...Don't ask about my DeMolay Shooting Team.
School editors discuss flap over yearbook gun photo
By BRIAN ECKHOUSE
Union Leader Correspondent
LONDONDERRY The posture and pose are perfectly acceptable, Londonderry High Schools yearbook editors said yesterday.
But their consensus judgment deemed the shotgun slung over senior Blake Douglass shoulder unsuitable for yearbook publication. They added that a firearm is inappropriate for a school with a strictly enforced zero-tolerance violence policy.
Blake looks appropriate, hes handsome and has a good smile, said senior Danielle Taylor, the yearbooks senior class editor. But you cant have a gun in the photo. Guns are not allowed on campus.
Senior Chris Malone, the yearbooks sports editor, agreed.
In a photo taken by his family, Londonderry High School senior Blake Douglass appears in the pose rejected for his high school yearbook. (COURTESY PHOTO)
I didnt think it was a bad photo, but I knew right away that it didnt belong, Malone said yesterday during an hour-long interview with six of the yearbooks 10 editors. You cant bring a gun into school, and the yearbook is school property. You just cant put that in the yearbook.
The four other editors either chose not to be interviewed or missed the midday interview conducted with Principal James Elefante in his conference room.
Senior Rachael Oleson, the yearbooks photography editor, said, The yearbook is an extension of school, and the school rules extend to the yearbook.
But Penny Dean, Douglass attorney, argues that the school is discriminating against trapshooting, her clients favored hobby. Further, she contends, through Londonderry High Schools 25-year history, the administration has permitted students to feature their hobbies in their senior yearbook photos.
In last springs yearbook, one student is pictured holding her in-line skates; musical instruments figure into two other photos.
But you put a gun into a yearbook, and it becomes controversial, said senior Aggie Gloskowski, 16. At a meeting Wednesday, she said, as a group, we decided we probably wouldnt put a sword in for fencing.
Long discussions
Before going to Concord for a Sept. 17 yearbook workshop with Jostens consultant Cole Harris, yearbook assistant adviser Steve Juster alerted his 10 student editors to Douglass dispute with the district; both he and Elefante had already deemed the submitted photo inappropriate.
Juster pulled the editors into the school garden and informed them that he and Elefante preferred not to print the photo, but added that if a consensus argument in Douglass favor could be offered, then they could be swayed.
Elefante reiterated that point in his meeting with the editors.
At first, I think six out of the 10 of us said we should put it in, said Gloskowski. (Juster) showed us the picture, and still six said we should print it. We then went to Mr. Elefantes office; he wanted to hear our opinion.
A 45-minute dialogue ensued. When it came time to vote, Juster said, only two students voted to allow the photo.
After further discussion, a second vote again favored the district, 8-2. But the group is not divided; the students reached a consensus that afternoon that holds two weeks later.
Some think as an individual, I dont think its a terrible thing, Juster said. But they also said, As yearbook editors, we cant let it go in. One girl said, I hate to think of guns as bad things. The other kids said, We understand that, but look at how it will it be viewed. She said as long as its understood that were not anti-NRA, then OK.
There's more local news in today's Derry-Londonderry edition, the hometown daily paper for those two towns, plus Chester, Sandown, Danville, Hampstead, Plaistow, Atkinson, Salem, Windham and Pelham.
Said Toni Runci, the yearbooks chief editor, At first, I didnt have a problem with the picture; I didnt think anything negative of it . . . But (then) I realized it would cause controversy, and cause debate. I felt if you put it in there, youre not promoting violence. Its almost like his school sport, but its not a school-sanctioned sport.
At the yearbook workshop later on Sept. 17, Harris endorsed their collective decision.
He said he didnt believe (the photos inclusion) was a wise idea, and that it would be very controversial, Runci said.
All six students interviewed yesterday strongly stressed that they were not pressured to back the district.
If anything, we were encouraged to give our opinion, Malone said.
Privilege vs. right
Although Dean argues that Douglass First Amendment rights are being infringed upon, the editors contended that having a gun is a privilege, not a right.
Gloskowski agreed.
Everything you have in the yearbook is a privilege, she said.
Dean does not agree. On Wednesday, she argued that the district was unjustly selective by approving a saxophone last year for a yearbook headshot but not a sports shotgun for this springs yearbook.
But junior Meagan Griffin, a yearbook photography editor, disputed Deans argument, saying guns and musical instruments are unrelated.
Firearms were created to be used as a weapon; a saxophone was not, she said.
The student editors yesterday acknowledged that Columbine, 9/11 and the recent Beslan, Russia, school siege factored into their decision.
Since Columbine happened, and 9/11 happened, theres a greater sensitivity, especially on school property, Taylor said.
Runci agreed.
Its sad, in todays world, you must realize you cant do things your parents or grandparents could do, she said. My mom tells me they had a smoking section at her high school in Massachusetts.
No such section exists at LHS.
And people might think, Londonderry, they allow a gun, Gloskowski said. They might have thoughts that we might not like.
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No. 2
One more, political correctness run amok!!
School yanks invite to first lady
Illinois officials heed advice of gun-control activists
Posted: September 30, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Local Illinois school officials who invited first lady Laura Bush to read to students for 30 minutes withdrew the invitation following the pleas of gun-control activists critical of President Bush's policies.
Hubbard Woods School Principal Maureen Cheever extended the invitation early last week, reports the Wilmette, Ill., Pioneer Press. But local Democratic Party and gun-control activists told her there was no place in the "sacred" halls of Hubbard Woods School for a representative of the Bush administration, which they argued has a lax stance on gun control.
Mrs. Bush had not formally accepted the invitation, but she was in Winnetka Friday afternoon for a fund-raiser luncheon. Cheever called the White House two days before Bush arrived to retract the offer.
Earlier that day, Cheever met with the vice chairman of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, Bob Williamson, whose two daughters were at Hubbard Woods School on May 20, 1988, when 30-year-old Laurie Dann shot six students, killing one.
During the meeting, Williamson warned Cheever he planned to hold a press conference across the street from the elementary school if the first lady indeed visited the school.
Bush's visit came less than two weeks after the expiration of a federal ban on assault weapons, an extension of which Bush said he would sign off on if Congress approved it. Williamson, however, said the president took a "two-faced" position on the ban, saying publicly he supported the extension but doing little to help the measure pass.
Jeanne Bishop, who is on the steering committee of the anti-gun-violence group Million Mom March, called Cheever to express the group's "great pain and distress over what we felt was a really insensitive juxtaposition of location and timing."
Bishop, whose pregnant sister and brother-in-law were gunned down in their Winnetka, Ill., home in 1990, said such a visit could anger those who watched the tragedy of the school shooting unfold.
"When I think of those people having to see children at Hubbard Woods School be political props as part of a campaign swing from a president who has been so closely associated with the NRA (National Rifle Association) and has done so little to promote sensible gun laws, it was just hurtful to me," Bishop told the local paper.
Pressure on the school to retract its invitation also came from local Democrats who said Bush's 30 minutes with the children would amount to a photo-op for the Bush campaign.
Superintendent Rebecca van der Bogert denied that the district had yielded to political pressure, though she acknowledged having conversations with Cheever over a number of calls that had come in. Van der Bogert agreed with Cheever's decision to pull the invitation, which she said was driven by the meeting with Williamson.
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We are paying for this stuff! With OUR tax dollars! Talk about the tail chasing the dog?
