A Vancouver Island principal is defending a decision to cut a grade 10 student out of the high school yearbook because of what he said about her in his write-up.
Staff at Lake Trail Secondary School used scissors to chop Brandon Armstrong's picture and comments from about 150 copies of the annual, saving only a single intact copy for Brandon himself.
In his entry, Armstrong had criticized principal Lori Carpenter, saying she had spent the school's money on a fence and not on textbooks.
Wow! Although it does sound like the comment was libelous. However, you'd think that if they could take scissors to the books, it wouldn't have taken any more time to ink it out with black magic marker.
It's what learning is all about, erecting barriers. Isn't it? All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
I think if I was one of the other students and had paid for a yearbook, I would be racing a stink about receiving a defaced product. An excellent way for a principal to deal with dissent.
Actually, it wasn't the principal who ordered that the student be sent down the memory hole, but a teacher at the school.
And good news, it is being reprinted . . . though the student has been asked to provide a new comment.
Actually, it wasn't the principal who ordered that the student be sent down the memory hole, but a teacher at the school.
And good news, it is being reprinted . . . though the student has been asked to provide a new comment.
So let me get this straight.
A 15-year-old kid is asked for a comment - he makes a comment (which he very likely believed to be true) - the authorities only notice once it's been printed - and then the teacher not only chops him out of the book, but inserts an explanatory note in each and every book stating, "I will not allow anything to be published that is hurtful and untrue."
I think the principal, and the teacher who ordered the excision, should look for careers in other fields.
I think the principal, and the teacher who ordered the excision, should look for careers in other fields.
There's no doubt about that.
what the hell is wrong with people writing and threatening the teacher and principal?
Seriously I do not get it!
I don't agree. I don't think that a principal should have to withstand clear libel in a school yearbook, even if it was inadvertent on the part of the student.
There's a difference between a statement of fact and a statement of opinion. Claiming that a public official misappropriated funds is a statement that is either true or false, not a matter of feeling, not subjective. If he'd said, "I don't like the principal" that would be different than accusing her of doing something she didn't do.
I still think the problem would have been better solved by inking out the statement, though, rather than cutting out his picture.
Remind wrote:
what the hell is wrong with people writing and threatening the teacher and principal?
Seriously I do not get it!
Caissa speculates that they had already finished their letter to Libby Davies.
Claiming that a public official misappropriated funds is a statement that is either true or false, not a matter of feeling, not subjective. If he'd said, "I don't like the principal" that would be different than accusing her of doing something she didn't do.
Wow, you totally did not get what the student wrote and what was false about it.
He never accused anyone of "misappropriating" funds! He poked fun at wrong spending priorities - building a fence instead of buying books. The only thing "false" about his statement was that it was the district, not the principal, who made that decision, a subtlety he likely wasn't aware of. To describe it as "libel" is quite severely over the top:
"My comment was [that] my favourite Lake Trail memory was when Ms. Carpenter spent all the school's money on a fence instead of new textbooks … I felt it was true, but funny, I guess," he said.
I didn't say they should have left the comment in. It was erroneous. But had he said, "The school district spent all the school's money on a fence instead of new textbooks" - a statement of opinion based on actual fact - should that have been chopped?
My comment about getting other careers was seriously meant. The principal and teacher handled this situation neither with competence (they let it get printed in the first place) nor with sensitivity (the bullshit statement inserted in each book and taking the kid out altogether until masses of people protested) nor, and this is crucial, by putting the child first and helping him understand the problem rather than worrying about their own image.
Did the principal or teacher think their career opportunities or reputation would be harmed by a jocular comment beside a high school photo? They need retraining or a new perspective on life.
I think this is excellent training for the students in how "the real world" operates. This is exactly the kind of crap they are going to face in academia, in any bureaucracy and in any workplace. The obvious solution (slipping a print-out of the minutes from the board of education where the decision was apparently actually made, into each copy of the yearbook) should never be entertained when there is the option of a heavy handed slap-down... Truly an educational experience.
I remember having to cut out – by hand – the work of a viciously anti-Tory writer at our student paper, who the editor only belatedly realized had libelled the entire Tory party. Two thousand copies, I believe it was.
