File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_1999/anarchy-list.9912, message 501


From: "danceswithcarp" <dcombs-AT-bloomington.in.us>
Subject: Re: Anarchism; more popular than marxism? (fwd) 
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 16:59:52 -0500



From: <OOTSONATI-AT-aol.com>

> I read an article in a consumer magazine some months back about a student
> getting suspended from school for wearing a coke t-shirt on pepsi day. I
> think this was in Georgia.


The student simulation  we had this week was very interesting.   I wrote up
three phony discipline reports and in each class we drew lots to see who got
them.  Two were for "horseplaying" (roughhousing) in the hallways and then
the perps were found to be wearing the anarchist t-shirt and the bud-light
t-shirt so they got referrals on those two for violating the dress code.
The third was for a student then saying the "school is like a jail and the
teachers all think they're prison guards" and then that student was also
found to be wearing the Statue of Liberty smoking dope shirt and that got
tacked on too.

The students then were then randomly assigned prosecution or defense roles
for group wirk (WIRK?) and collectively attacked the charges in their roles
on both the "violence" in the hallways, and the free speech issues.  There
were three classes and they had two days to prepare.  I gave them copies of
Tinker v. Des Moines Board of Education which is THE landmark case in the U$
on student rights, another case from Indiana called "Price v. State" which
said the police could not arrest someone for disorderly conduct for shouting
politcal opinions at police as they arrest someone as long as the shouter
doesn't interfere, and then several other cases relating to the ability of
administrators and teachers to maintain order in schools and classrooms.

The kids, 8th graders,  almost 95% took it serious.  After the questions and
issues were researched I then re-assigned everyone using random drawings of
chits as jurors, witnesses, or lawyers.   The lawyers used the information
already researched and the trial lasted two days, and the jury deliberated
for one.  I was the accuser in each class and got called a "pig" by one
student, but lots of other students were assailed for playing their roles
too.  In each class there were suprise "witnesses" who were secretly
instructed to say that the various shirts "offended" them and made it
impossible for them to study because they had friends killed by drunk
drivers, knew people who were shot (the anarchist t-shirt had a gun pictured
on it.).  The trials were a hoot and free speech reigned; kids even got to
cuss without  discipline--as long as it was well constructed.

Not suprisingly, all three classes found the accused all either "not guilty"
of any speech violations for the wirds or shirts, or found the rule to be
flawed and unjustifed (juries can do this to the law in Indiana).   What was
really suprising was the jury in all three classes found the kids accused of
roughhousing in the hallways "guilty" and didn't even question the
legitimacy of the rule, even though they could have thrown it out.   There
were lots of questions and statements about being in "safe places" and the
potential for "roughhousing" to escalate during the trail phase, but those
verdicts really suprised me; five of the six were unanimous.   Last year
there were a lot of race fights in the school but this year it's been cool.
I guess the kids are just sensitized to the violence issue.   Oh, yeah,
there were majorities of femyles on all juries and they evidently were tired
of getting banged around in the hallways by jocks getting their testosterone
out.

Anyways, free speech rules, but violence seems to be something kids don't
mind regulating.

That's what I did this week.  Anyone else have fun?



carp















   

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