Censorship Gambit Alive And Well: "We're Only Protecting The Little Children"

[DeSwiss]

Cross River Students Suspended For Saying 'Vagina' At Open Mic Session

By DIANA COSTELLO AND SUSAN ELAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
Speak out
Original publication: March 6, 2007

CROSS RIVER - Saying the word "vagina" during a reading at a John Jay High School open mic session has resulted in suspension for three female students and has sparked a debate about censorship throughout the community.

School administrators had warned the girls it would be inappropriate to say the word while reading a selection from Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues," but the students were willing to suffer the consequences.

Now Ensler, a playwright and feminist who grew up in Scarsdale, has offered to visit the Katonah-Lewisboro school district to discuss the matter.

Juniors Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson will each serve separate one-day, in-school suspensions this week, Reback said.

"When I was able to say the word 'vagina' and be proud to say it … and it wasn't crude and it wasn't inappropriate and it was very real and very pure, it was important to me," Reback said yesterday. "We were willing and ready to take whatever came."

The administrators' decision to suspend the girls has caused an uproar within the school, with students making T-shirts and posters to protest the punishment. A group opposed to the suspension has been created on Facebook.com, a popular Internet networking site, and had attracted more than 350 members yesterday.

The move has prompted parents to write to the Board of Education and circulate e-mails calling the suspension a "blatant attempt at censorship."

School board President Peter Breslin said the decision to suspend the students was not about censorship, but rather about insubordination. He said school administrators had been concerned about the use of the word because young children would be at the open mic session, and the girls had agreed not to say it.

more: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/NEWS02/703060363/1018&GID=xi+6X4FdPrduoI2j4z90HCGbIVUKXnx7c7Gbd64k1iw=

*** - So what happens to "young children" when they hear the word vagina? Or penis? Do they become obsessed with sex? Does it stunt their growth? Do they go and ask mommy and daddy a lot of uncomfortable questions like: "do I have a vagina or a penis? And... and.... what's it for???"

And what were these "young children" they're protecting, doing at a high school open mic session anyway? I'm telling you that if a person reaches high school and has never heard the word vagina before, whose fault is that? And given that fact that its pronounced liberally on TV and everywhere else, what's the point? But this jackass -- the school board guy saying that the suspension wasn't about "censorship" but about "insubordination" is just pure BULLSHIT. And it's statements like these that make me hate politicians and bureaucrats. There is no insubordination if there is no censorship you pea-brain!

:rant: