The Plight of the Last
In the late 60's and early 70's, the freedom of students in America was at an all-time high. The student press, in particular, was given incredible latitude in what they were able to print. Those liberal students and their peers have become today's parents. Frightened by their memories of excesses and compelled by generalizations, many of them continually push for stricter control of students, even if that means compromising those students' rights. It is in this age of paranoia, generalizations, and widespread fear of the youth, with concepts such as "zero tolerance," "immediate action," and progressively more restrictive curfews, that it is most important for the students to empower themselves. Sadly, there are many more parents who sit at home, watch football, and tell their kids not to get in trouble than those who truly care about their childrens' rights and development as citizens of a democratic country. The real tragedy, however, is that most students do just what they're told and grow up not being troublemakers, but not being active citizens either.
It all began for us last Spring at our public high school in Greenfield, Wisconsin. Last year at the end of first semester our principal of many years retired and we got a new one. Our school has implemented a few odd policies since then and experienced an inordinately large amount of expulsions (many for stupid things like squirt guns and inch-long pocketknives) and a committee for beautifying the school. They've spent an extraordinary amount of money on such things as plants and new paint for the hallways. This would be nice, if our teachers weren't some of the lowest paid in the state. Our official school newspaper, because of the incredible limitations on what they can print, really doesn't cover the issues at the heart of the student population. If it does, it is usually in terse statements of obvious facts. One day I was sitting in my Japanese language class with a couple of my friends listening to my teacher preach about morals and how we can be successful. I thought the speech was a little out of place (it felt like one of those guidance lectures you get in grade school). That's when we realized how badly the students at our school needed a medium for expressing their true opinions. Since we had some knowledge of desktop publishing, we decided to get together and work on it. Thus, "The Last" was born. We've had six issues since then which we've distributed at school by passing them out through friends. We also post them on our webpage at http://www.oblivion.net/thelast. We've made it our policy to accept writings and drawings from anyone, about any subject, as long as they aren't strictly for harmful purposes and don't blatantly violate the law. The concept is that people can express their ideas freely and anonymously without fear of retribution. To say that our school's administration has been less than hospitable to us would be a major understatement.
Although the administration publicly says that they have no problem with the paper itself, they have found ways to persecute us. We've heard that there have been various other independent papers before us and that those were crushed by attacks similar to the one made against us. It happened on the last day of regular classes (before exams) just after the second issue was distributed. We had been talking on IRC (Internet relay chat) to a student in Minnesota who was interested in our paper for about a month. Imagine our surprise when those IRC logs were used as evidence against us and we found out that the supposed student from Minnesota was actually someone from our school (we still can't figure out who, possibly one of the administrators themselves) who disliked the paper. Everyone mentioned in the IRC logs and anyone else who was known to be one of our friends, even though most of them had nothing to do with the paper, were called to the office individually. I remember walking into the principal's office and being immediately told that I was going on suspension and I would have to leave the building. I had to ask her what I had done wrong. I also asked to see whatever evidence they had that I had even written the article in question, but I was refused. They cited my article about the incompetency of my Japanese teacher and another article about a teacher being forced to leave because of making an off-color joke as libelous. The student accused of writing the article about the teacher and I were suspended for three days. My suspension stuck and I had to make up my exams. The other suspended student, however, had his suspension lifted after he proved that he didn't even write the article. The principal called my mother while I was on suspension and told her that I could get it lifted under two conditions: I didn't make a scene (I said something about talking to the ACLU while I was in the principal's office) and I apologized to the teacher. I didn't take her advice on either point. The article that they took the biggest issue with, though, was one by Justin Boucher about hacking the school's network which contained some obvious computer tips and some starting points for guessing passwords. They called it a disclosure of restricted information and he was subsequently expelled. We went to the the local ACLU offices with him and they appointed him a lawyer to appeal his expulsion. He was in school for a while on an injunction pending the court's decision. Recently, however, a seventh-circuit court upheld his expulsion.
What happened last year left me with a feeling of utter disgust. Despite it all, though, we've managed to keep the paper going. We continue to print every month and we're getting together some people to take over for us next year when we graduate. We also recently won the Youth Civil Libertarians of the Year award from the Wisconsin chapter of the ACLU. There have been many difficult decisions and I've questioned whether it is worth it on various occasions. I always come up with the same answer though, and it keeps pushing me forward: If students don't fight for the rights guaranteed to them, nobody will, and people who grow up without those freedoms entitled to them by this country do not grow up to be citizens who believe and participate in it.
The Last
P.O. Box 21898
Milwaukee, WI 53221-0898
thelast@oblivion.net
http://www.oblivion.net/thelast/