Anti-war protests and tax dollars

A little background first… (link)

SOLIDARITY APPEAL: Defend Tukwila Teachers Threatened with Termination for Antiwar Student Walkout

Nov 26, 2007
By Tukwila Teachers and Students Solidarity Committee

*Urgent Call for Solidarity*
Defend Teachers Threatened With Termination for Antiwar Student Walkout
BRIEF BACKGROUND:
On November 16th, over 1,000 students in Washington State walked out to protest the war in Iraq and the presence of military recruiters in public schools. Students at Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington organized and 150 walked out, saying “Money for Schools, Not War.”

Foster students rallied at the school flagpole, marched down to the I-5 overpass, and then marched to the Tukwila City Hall. The march and rally were student generated and entirely peaceful.

In reaction the Tukwila School District has done the following:

• Suspended one Social Studies teacher, Brett Rogers, who supported his students in a student generated democratic movement
• Threatened administrative action against five other teachers
• Threatened to discipline students for exercising their First Amendment Right to free speech

And now for a good-old-fashioned rant. Regardless of your position on the Iraq war, I think everyone can agree that high schoolers taking an interest in politics is good. I think we can also agree that educators, particularly educators who teach subjects like… say… social studies should be encouraging their students to form opinions and be passionate about them. Apathy is the greatest enemy of Democracy, and it reigns supreme in our high schools.

So, at a time in my life when I’m feeling personally just a wee bit frustrated by the system, I get a link from a friend of mine who teaches in the Seattle area, and it frankly pisses me off (the teachers involved are his friends from his old school, and he’s not the sort of guy to keep his mouth shut in the face of stupidity– but it would still piss me off even if I had no emotional connection to anyone involved). I remember when L.A. was burning in the wake of the Rodney King trial. Many of us wanted to walk out in support for all of the people who had ever been wrongfully beaten down by the system, whose pleas for a revision in the way that justice is carried out were met with a deafening silence. I remember how mad I was. I suspect that kids today, many of them with fathers and mothers who are out on extended tours, have already come home in a casket, or (more common, certainly) have come home missing crucial parts of their psyche, their body, or c) all of the above, have very strong feelings about Iraq. At least I hope they do, goddamnit. I know I would if I were that age today.

One day, folks. We’re not talking about a massive campaign to shut down the school, we’re talking about one day’s worth of our tax dollars going to help our kids understand that their voices count… that their enthusiasm and desire to make a difference are contagious and important.

If you feel the same way about this, I’d encourage you to drop a line to the school administrators and defend these kids’ right to learn something important about civil disobedience. “We don’t want to hear you, and we don’t want you to teach kids that they should be heard” simply isn’t the message that I feel we should be paying taxes to promote.