September
2, 2003, 1:45 p.m.
One Up for the Asterisks
The
F word and Drew LaMar.
he incident took place back in May, but the thunder heightens, and on
September 1 it occupied the attention of Bill O'Reilly and his million
listeners. Did the administration of the Lawrence Central High School
in Indianapolis go too far in punishing Drew LaMar?
What
happened is that Drew bore a brief against Ms. Elizabeth Granger, who serves
as faculty adviser to the student newspaper. He waited until the last issue
of the year and published a piece on something or another, but the discerning
eye caught the real meaning of the piece, which was a valedictory shaft
at his teacher. If you studied it, which everybody at Lawrence Central High
did, and abstracted the first letter of each paragraph, together they spelled
F * * K G R A N G E R.
The administration
did not think it funny, elevated it beyond the level of a mere school
prank, and prohibited Drew from attending the graduation ceremony.
Oddly, not all the
students booed the administration's decision, some of them deeming Drew
a little bit callous and unquestionably opportunistic. But most thought
the judgment harsh, and raised the free-speech argument. Central High
was ready for that one. Assistant principal Mary Ann Burden reminded the
community that in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier,
the Supreme Court had in 1988 okayed censorship in school-sponsored student
publications when there was an educational reason for invoking it. Moreover,
in the 1986 Fraser decision the Court had okayed penalties for lewd and
indecent language in school-sponsored assemblies.
Lawrence's decision
upholding a blue-law approach to the F word was cheerful news for those
who cling by their fingernails to a wasting code that seeks to segregate
that word from acceptable intercourse. If the word's use in print under
formal auspices is unchecked, there is movement in two directions. The
word loses its bite, and the community loses one more battle against lewdness
abounding. What is said routinely on The Sopranos is not said,
and shouldn't be, in student newspapers.
Reactions to the
Lawrence Central High School ruling, expressed on FreeRepublic.com (a
"Conservative News Forum") have been spirited and sprightly. The high-school
principal had held that the text was "a threat against the teacher." One
reaction: "This dumb*** needs to go back to school himself until he realizes
that saying F**k Granger is an insult not a threat." Another: "This is
ridiculous! It's not like the letters are even together. Punishing this
kid for the first letter of each paragraph is a thought crime. The kid
should have just said that it was one hell of a coincidence." How had
the hidden message been detected? "This guy must have bragged about it.
In my high school nobody bothered to read any of the columns in the school
paper, much less try to decode hidden messages."
One resourceful
commentator spelled out his judgment in his own text, the first letters
of whose sentences read, "K I S S M Y ***." Another commented on the Court's
action in Fraser: "Perhaps as an exercise in zero-tolerance they
should dispense with the alphabet entirely. Someone in possession of one
can find all sorts of unprotected speech in it." And compliments are being
paid: "Give the kid an award for being able to craft an anagram--a mighty
feat, considering our brave new schools." And, "I think this kid deserves
a commendation for his efforts. His ability to subliminally tell the teacher
off is a great stress reliever. There have always been bad teachers, and
what better way to tell them so-without actually saying anything?" And,
finally, "Why is this just now getting attention in the media, if it's
such a big deal? It is now mid-July. The kid was an idiot for going through
with his stupid plan. His punishment, though, was rather harsh."
The net of it is
that the school's right to exercise authority was affirmed, no court case
is likely to spring from Drew LaMar's anagram, and the F word's girdle
of asterisks is fought for, and won. No one opines that Drew's career
is permanently damaged, but his sensibilities may have been sharpened.
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he incident took place back in May, but the thunder heightens, and on
September 1 it occupied the attention of Bill O'Reilly and his million
listeners. Did the administration of the Lawrence Central High School
in Indianapolis go too far in punishing Drew LaMar?
