By Mark
A friend of mine in Clark County (Washington) sent me this link
from the local newspaper which details that the Westboro
Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group known for its frequent anti-gay protests
as well as protests at military funerals, will be targeting a school in the
district neighboring hers.
From the article:
No one’s sure why the Orchards school was singled out for a
30-minute demonstration, which would be the notorious group’s first in Clark
County… Early June 1, the group will picket Portland’s Grant High School
before the first bell, the [Westboro Baptist Church] website shows. That
same day, it will gather at Heritage from 2:15 to 2:45 p.m., chiefly “to picket
the rebellious brats and lying teachers,” the website explains.
I'm curious to see how the school, and the students, handle
this "constitutionally protected exercise of free speech." If you
knew this group was coming to your school, how would you recommend that your
school, students, and community respond?
And there are so many other questions I'd love to ask…but
this blog is probably not the appropriate forum for them…so let's focus on
how teachers, administrators, students, and the community can best respond to
this provocative and potentially volatile situation.
Oh, I can only imagine the outrage if a parade of drag queens came by. Parents would be protesting to protect their children. Cops would don riot gear.
Gahhh! Westboro is like the worst sort of sloppy mess that I can’t help but be fascinated by, like that show about hoarding.
What the heck? Do they have any cells in reality? Do they look around, learn anything, read anything, experience anything but what’s fed them by their narcissistic and ignorant leaders?
My favorite part is the quote from Chuck Atkins, where he says that the police department takes “a neutral stance. As long as they don’t impede traffic, driveways, foot traffic, etc.,” That perfectly captures our society’s tolerance of craziness. The best part is that a big parade of drag queens would be given the same respect by the police. And drag queens aren’t crazy.
If they picketed my school, I’d hope we just ignored them. I’d hope the media resisted the impulse to cover it. I’d hope they would crawl back into their sad, shallow little angry lives and went back to where they came from.
David, thanks for posting those links. I think it is a testament to our students when they understand the value of discourse, as opposed to shouting at one another across a street.
Things like this also open the discussion about freedom of speech in terms of the right to speak versus the right TIME to speak. We tend to think that just because we have a position or opinion, others should have to listen to us, since it is OUR right to speak. It’s the old freedom of speech versus freedom FROM speech debate (more commonly freedom of religion/from religion).
I would try to ignore them, but probably my curiosity and temper would get the better of me and I would feel obliged to engage with them in a spirited debate, which I would neither win nor lose. So it’s a good thing that I don’t plan to be in the area on that day. Good luck to those of you who have to endure this.
This group just came to my community on Jan. 29th. We have two high schools in town. I work at one (Palo Alto High School), and they came to the other (Henry Gunn High School).
Once the group had their permit for their protest, the school admin. just moved the start time of school that day to avoid traffic. They also encouraged students to ignore the event, but students have their freedom of speech too, and they refused to ignore it. Instead, they gathered together, smiled, waved, hugged each other, sang songs, promoted tolerance and unity, and ended up generating a fairly positive vibe. It’s unfortunate that it takes a negative to produce a positive, but I suppose it turned out well.
So, I agree ignoring them is the best option, but if there must be a response, the total opposite response is best, I guess.
Check out this video – I think you’ll find it useful and interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEiwBCpiA0E
And here’s a news story from our local paper/website:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=15503
I can only hope that the school they’ve targeted isn’t one of the school that has stopped teaching social studies. As off-putting as this group may be, I think if handled well, the protest can offer a perfect teachable moment. Teaching about our rights as citizens and the Freedom of Speech, is a good place to start. I think if the discussion turns into, “why these people are vile,” the educational opportunity would be lost. Focus on how we can express ideas in a democracy and how we can challenge ideas respectfully. For there will always be ideas out there we find distasteful and offensive, but we still all have to get along somehow.
Ignore them utterly and completely. Engaging the trolls only emboldens them. No press, no disruption of classes, no nothing.
I would probably take the day INSIDE the school to have a workshop on the First Amendment and the implications of truly free speech; the conversation would quickly work its way around to why these people are vile, but necessary to the working of a strong republic.