Should a school apologize for this?

[BucephalusBB]

"Strength lies not in defense, but in attack." ..."The great masses of people ... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."

*Whistles* Didn't Hitler speak Deutch?

 

[Faint]

Surely repeating the words: "The great masses of people ... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one." is of utmost importance since this is exactly what Hitler then went on to do. If we sweep them under the carpet then we widen the possibility of something similar happening again.

I agree with this, only I would add that the "big lies" are already out there, and people have already fallen victims to them. I won't get too much into that (as it's for a different thread), but things like the current religious climate in america, the money war Bush got us into in the Middle East, and the idea that illegal immigrants and everyone else in Central America have a "right" to live in in the US just go to show that Hitler's quote is right on the money.

For the record, I'm no Hitler fan. And I'm all for free speech, but I think there's some legal issue that allows schools (even public ones) to censor the students. I'd be interested in knowing exactly what the laws say about this as I was almost expelled on two occasions for distributing anti-establishment (i.e. punk rock) newsletters on my own High School campus.

Overall, I don't think these quotes should be censored. Someone's always going to be offended by the source of your quote. If I was reading a yearbook and saw someone quoting Jesus it would bother me. But I wouldn't go and raise hell about it.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I think that quoting Hilter could be constructive.

We should remember things that he said, and perhaps he was right about "The great masses of people ... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one." That reminds me of Powell telling the UN that Saddam was moving around WMDs in trucks to avoid detection.

 

[c0da]

The school shouldn't have apolgised or censored the quotes.

Neither of the quotes are offensive, even if Hitler himself is.

 

[PolyHedral]

I agree. I don't see a reason why it should have been removed.

 

[Mathematician]

I think this is part of a larger mistake by many people to view the world in black or white, when in reality even Hitler had shades of gray and white about him.

No one is completely "evil"/destructive, and no one is completely "good"/constructive.

 

[Revasser]

Ahhh, I smell Reductio ad Hitlerum.

 

[Comet]

Yes, the school should be punished severly and the students thrown in jail for this great misdeed to the world!

We should also never quote Thomas Jefferson again. He did own slaves afterall and it might offend African Americans. Get that darn Declaration of Independence out of our public schools!!!!!


Some people really do amaze me..... Being PC so we don't offend anyone has become more important than the Bill of Rights. Sad. Really, really sad.

(Rejected :clap )

 

[lasthope]

I think the quotes were in bad taste and done for the shock value. But if that is what they want to be remembered for, then more power to them. It's not like they said, " I am going to follow in Hitlers path." They just took a quote from a book. No, the school should not apologize. They should be proud of their students diversity and courage to stand up and do something they knew would draw attention and possibly bad publicity. Even though I am sure still sure it was for the shock value.

 

[MaddLlama]

I think it's really funny, and telling, that this is actually news. CNN news and not just News 12 - Long Island. Kids in the next school districts over get arrested fro assault and drug posession all the time. But, what makes the news is a sory about PC-ness.

I am convinced the creed of the media is "keep the public uninformed and distracted".

 

[Purple Thyme]

I beleive in freedom of speech and think Hitler overall was evil. But if the school asked the students for a quote then they should be able to use any quote they want even if its by Hitler. I don't find either quote offensive and I don't think the students or the school should apologize.

 

[kai]

I dont think they should apologize,the quotes are not offensive and at least they would be learning about hitler,some kids i know never heard of him,you cany brush it all under the carpet.

 

[Tigress]

Koulermos' read "Strength lies not in defense, but in attack." Compton chose "The great masses of people ... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."

I don't understand what the problem is. Both statements are true. The school should not be able to bar the quotations simply because they do not like the source.

*Thinks said quotations are a good idea for a bumper sticker*

 

[Smoke]

Do you think a school should censor student quotes (if they realized the potential problem earlier) based on who the quote originated from rather than the merits of the quote?

Absolutely not. For that matter, if the students are choosing their own quotes, the school has no business considering the merits of them, either. Anything more than screening for profanity is nonsense.

However, I do think the school officials should apologize to the students and community for overreacting.

 

[Comet]

However, I do think the school officials should apologize to the students and community for overreacting.

You hit the nail on the head with that one!

 

[MaddLlama]

Absolutely not. For that matter, if the students are choosing their own quotes, the school has no business considering the merits of them, either. Anything more than screening for profanity is nonsense.

However, I do think the school officials should apologize to the students and community for overreacting.

I think we should take all the school officials in the entire county and beat them.

Please? XD

 

[ProudWiccan]

Personally, I think that if the school didn't like the quotations then they shouldn't have allowed them to be published. Since the school is compiling the yearbook, they have editorial rights. It is their publication, and they have a right to edit things with which they disagree.

 

[Draka]

I think the apologizing by the school officials should be for ignorance of the quotes rather than the quotes themselves. Nice to know that the school teaches censorship of free speech and totaly disregards a certain fact about Hitler; that, while the actions he took were horrendous, the mind he had was intelligent. If he wasn't he wouldn't not have been able to do what he did. It takes quite a mind to manipulate people the way he did. While you may hate him and his actions, he still said things that are true. Just because we don't like the source of the quote, doesn't make it any less fact or inspired thought. I hear people on the news that I can't stand, but if they say something that stands out as true, I have to acknowledge it.

 

[MaddLlama]

Personally, I think that if the school didn't like the quotations then they shouldn't have allowed them to be published. Since the school is compiling the yearbook, they have editorial rights. It is their publication, and they have a right to edit things with which they disagree.

It isn't edited by the school though. The school simply puts out the money to publish it. Part of the student run newspaper committee puts the yearbook together, and the club advisor screens it for profanity and other inappropriate content. The district doesn't place that kind of limitation on it's publications. They don't hand out guidelines for what you can and can't use as a quote source. In a private school maybe the school officials can just wantonly edit things they don't happen to like, but they don't get to do that in public schools.

 

[ProudWiccan]

they don't get to do that in public schools.

While that sounds good in theory, it is not practice. The United States Supreme Court, in the 1988 Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision, upheld the right of public high schools to censor student publications, including newspapers and yearbooks.

In essence, the majority opinion of the Supreme Court said that the rights of public school students are not necessarily the same as those of adults in other settings. The decision said it said that the newspaper (and by extension yearbook), was not a "forum for public expression" by students, and thus the censored students were not entitled to broad First Amendment protection.