"We just want to provide a safe environment where the students can thrive."

March 1, 2002 8:41 PM

"We just want to provide a safe environment where the students can thrive." Cussing at school can get you ticketed and/or sent to juvenile hall now. Student free speech rights at risk? Tinker vs. Des Moines all over again?
posted by Kevin Sanders (13 comments total)

We just want to provide a safe environment where the students can thrive.
posted by dong_resin at 9:48 PM on March 1, 2002

Student free speech rights at risk?

It's called verbal assault.

I think if their problem is rampant swearing at others in public in the school, this just might be the right solution for it.
posted by azazello at 10:04 PM on March 1, 2002

"But sometimes those words convey an emotion other words can't convey"

Please. There is no place in school for cursing. Leave that to you, your buddies and the internet.
posted by owillis at 10:18 PM on March 1, 2002

school would be nothing if there wasnt things about it that you could rebel against.

this load of crap will motivate the fine kids of Iowa for quite some time, id imagine.
posted by tsarfan at 11:39 PM on March 1, 2002

I think that principal should be locked up in a dark little room until he thinks spiders are crawling under his skin.
posted by bingo at 2:06 AM on March 2, 2002

If those words convey emotions that the students can't convey using other words, perhaps they should pay more attention in English class. Unless, of course, dissatisfaction with their poor education and low intelligence ARE the feelings they want to convey.
posted by faceonmars at 4:12 AM on March 2, 2002

Maybe you folks forget your childhood years, but kids swear. I went to one of the biggest middle schools in the country, and I heard more filth in that school than any other time in my life. It didn't increase my use of those words, and it didn't enhance my knowledge of them either. I knew every swear word there is when I came to school. Be a good parent, and if you teach your kids to do the right thing, they will do it. I don't think the question here is whether or not these kids should be allowed to swear. The question is, should it be legally enforced on kids who do it for social acceptance, and various other reasons, and in which they are hurting no one. If they are teasing some poor kid, or disrespecting a teacher in public, that's another story, but by high school, I found, almost all of the really bad kids can't hack it, and they all fade away into the background. High school had a LOT less fights and ordeals because most of the bad kids were filtered out by then. Besides, studying in english class they are BOUND to read books that have swear words in them. What do they do about that? I used to be amazed when I came to public school after being at a private school and I was assigned to reading books with *gasp* swear words in them. Finally, in my defense I would just like to say, it wasn't MY generation that invented those words. So fuck off!
posted by banished at 5:02 AM on March 2, 2002

Kids need to understand that swearing a blue streak has no place in school. I'm really not seeing the problem. "If it feels good, do it" needs to find a stopping point somewhere. I don't really see where its out of line to have kids behave in school - worse things have been suggested, I'm sure.
posted by owillis at 5:11 AM on March 2, 2002

Part of the point to school is learning how to behave in society. It's not acceptable to loudly cuss at a friend across the hall at work, but it's okay to whip out some of the Anglo Saxons if you're having a quiet, private conversation; the same would be true in school. In that light, this is not so much about being a potty mouth as it is a lesson in being prudent. Don't draw attention, don't get in trouble.
posted by headspace at 6:21 AM on March 2, 2002

Besides, studying in english class they are BOUND to read books that have swear words in them.

I must take exception with your assumption that kids read books. I think such activity among the sophomoric swearing set is rather more the exception than the rule, sadly. Certainly, the influence of their peers is a much greater daily influence on most kids than what they derive through books.
posted by rushmc at 7:31 AM on March 2, 2002

Good.
posted by ParisParamus at 7:35 AM on March 2, 2002

Sorry, I don't see the problem here. That is not appropriate behavior for school.

Furthermore, this sort of thing begins at home. Perhaps washing the parent's mouth out with soap might be a good idea as well...
posted by hadashi at 8:31 AM on March 2, 2002

I pepper quite a lot of my speech with expletives, and have since I was in grade school. My parents made a point not ever to swear around me (because, as my father said, they respected me, which did my head in just a little bit), so I never used objectionable language around them, but once I got among my peers, I let rip with all the choicest four-letter words.

I've tried to cut back on it because frankly, when I hear other women curse it sounds trashy, but it was pretty much my only rebellion during my formative years (as opposed to, say, shoplifting), so I don't really think it's that big a deal. I never did it in front of adults, though, and perhaps that's the key difference here.
posted by pudders at 8:48 AM on March 2, 2002