To the editor:

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” – M. L. King Jr., 1963

Whether applied to public officials choosing official policies, to citizens choosing candidates to support, or, to school officials weighing one student’s right of free expression against another’s perceived offense, those are good words to remember.

I would offer a few observations in echoing the Daily Journal’s excellent May 12 editorial concerning a local school official’s muzzling of a student’s yearbook quote. To a layman’s reading, the referenced 1988 Supreme Court case (Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier) allowed a principal to restrict school newspaper articles that either compromised some students’ privacy, or, ran afoul of accepted journalistic standards of fairness.

The high court’s decision permitted school officials some latitude for “legitimate pedagogical concerns” — in short, when the teaching process may, legitimately, be compromised. Publicly expressing “Build that wall!” simply does not threaten privacy, standards of fairness, nor compromise any teaching process.

A more appropriate court case to cite may be the 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District. There, the USSC sided with student political free expression in protesting the Vietnam War on campus.

Imagine a local student in the late 1980s selecting President Reagan’s iconic 1987 admonition, “Tear down this wall!” as her yearbook quote. Then, say, a student claiming socialist or communist sympathies lodged an objection, perhaps claiming “hurt feelings.” Would the official muzzle have been applied?

Like a scene almost fit for Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” the image of local school officials collecting distributed yearbooks is more troubling than the student’s quote submission. A more satisfying explanation is due from officials than the pablum that has been forthcoming. Could the Trump quote stifled today begin the dreaded “slippery slope” to the King, Kennedy, Obama, or Jesus Christ quote that is gagged tomorrow?

Douglas Smith

Rockingham

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