Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

Matthew Dulin    Geronimo Rodriguez      Cara Sarelli          Lisa Street

'Momma said knock you out'

In January, a 17-year-old high school student was expelled from high school and forced into an alternative school.

Terry Carter didnit take a classmate hostage with a plastic fork. He didnit get caught with a Ziplock bag of green leaves. He was punished for reading aloud a rap poem, which was part of an extra-credit assignment for his theater arts class.

No wonder kids these days have no hope in the system.

The Dunbar High School studentis mother, Shena Murphy, filed a 22-page lawsuit against the school for actions she said "violated school district policy and the U.S. Constitution by permanently removing" her son from school and "reassigning him to Trimble Tech High School without due process," The Associated Press reported.

Why shouldnit she? School officials trampled on her sonis rights, failing hat to recognize the student was reading a poem -- a form of writing often recognized as a ‘spur of the momenti expression.

Officials who called for his removal cite the fact that a girl felt threatened by the lyrics: "(Her name), but I got myself a gun, ready to pull the trigger, for any gold digger," the AP reported.

But the officials didnit do their homework before reacting to the case. Where does this end? The action looks a lot like censorship, in that the student wasnit able to read his poem in its original form without having to serve a "time-out."

Whatis next? Will all studentsi work be filtered to prevent it hurting anyoneis feelings?

The officials might build their argument on the fact that the girl was directly mentioned in the poem. Theyill add that her name was followed by the words "gun" and "trigger." Itis fine to think of what the poem is implying, but was Carteris poem a direct threat on the classmate? Only he would know.

But now that heis gone from the campus, everything is fine, right?. Not really.

If every issue were handled in this manner, all schoolyard enemies would have to do is play tattletale on one another. With the suit, the Dunbar officials should have realized their mistake, and re-evaluate their decision before Carter gets the last laugh.

If the decision is not overturned, students should protest by never expressing their opinions for a class assignment again.

To the school officials: investigate the matter a little more before judgements are made.
 Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu