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April 3, 2009 - By Charlie Shi
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Corona del Mar High School has acquired a reputation for having a rather tense and hostile environment. The school recently temporarily cancelled a production of ″Rent,″ possibly because of its sexual content and portrayal of homosexuality. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sued the school's officials for fostering a ″sexist″ and homophobic″ atmosphere.
The complaint by the ACLU includes the school's actions in regard to the play but focuses mostly on the case of a particular student. This student, a young woman, was targeted by Corona del Mar High School football players in a video posted on Facebook. In the video, three football players threatened to kill and rape the young woman while using offensive slurs used to label homosexuals. A student who posted the video supposedly threatened the female student at school as well.
The female student naturally felt threatened and her parents expressed concerns about her safety. However, the school officials, according to the ACLU, took few actions to provide protection for the student or to punish the boys involved in the video. The ACLU complained that the school officials purposely chose to ″ignore obvious signs of a school culture gone awry.″
″Gone awry″ is a mild way to put it. Though discrimination in its innumerable forms will always exist in all societies, the degree to which it has been perpetuated in this case is shocking. There is something undeniably wrong with a situation in 21st century America in which discrimination based on sexual orientation has been taken to the point of death threats.
Corona del Mar High School, as well as all institutions across the country, have every obligation to step in and put a definitive halt to such overt expressions of discrimination. The actions of the school officials are frankly extremely disappointing.
This incident brings up another issue: free speech rights versus morality and public decency. Many people rally behind the First Amendment as a justification for socially disturbing commentary. The situation at Corona del Mar High School is definitely an example of the abuse of the free speech clause. This Constitutional protection, combined with Internet anonymity, promotes the existence of socially inappropriate material online.
However, there have been many cases in the past where the right of free speech has been limited for the good of social welfare. The Supreme Court case Gitlow v. New York, in which the government stopped Communist manifestos from being distributed, is an example of the law stepping in and censoring socially disturbing material.
Videos, blog posts and other possibly harmful Internet materials definitely need to be monitored and controlled. Schools especially need to take punitive action in cases like this one where lives could very easily be endangered.
In this age of technology, school administrators should be especially aware of the increasing use of the Internet to spread potentially dangerous material and attitudes. Small restrictions of personal liberties are well worth the possibility of preventing unnecessary violence. Necessary measures need to be taken to inhibit violent intentions both at school and online.
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