The Repression of Students in America

[patrioticintellect]

None of the Democratic presidential candidates were asked about students having their civil liberties or more specifically, their freedom of speech rights violated. That could be because they don’t want students like me and the Morton West students to speak. After all, they have made it known to us what our place is in this society. It has been made evident through the CNN/YouTube debates, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and the way military recruitment has been sold to high schools across America: Students are allowed to speak out for America under their terms and their parameters.

Recently, the student movement in America gained a victory with the Morton West incident. The Morton West students who were to be expelled had their threatened expulsions dropped. This was a result of students all over Chicago in high schools and colleges coming together in solidarity to tell the establishment, “We matter and you will not keep us down.” Hearings, protests, media coverage, and a planned press conference during a week of action to show support for the Morton West students led to Superintendent Ben Nowakowski allowing 38 students suspended and those who faced expulsion to return to class. Because parents, students, local peace groups, Rainbow/PUSH and free speech advocates from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund all stood up, victory was won but after that victory, a new fight began.

Nowakowski and any administrators beneath him or on his level separated the students into those who participated and those who were “ringleaders.” Those who were not “ringleaders” went back to school on Wednesday while four other students were told they would have to wait until Friday to go back to school. Knowing full well that he had to send a message that would divide the solidarity of the youth at Morton West, he had to differentiate between those who arranged the sit-in that “disrupted” the education of students when it was held.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kevin_go_071115_the_repression_of_st.htm">Continued on OpEdNews