To the editor:<\/p>\n
Where to begin? Well, first the praise: the Feb. 13 issue of The Breeze was a true public forum serving the entire community. Nice job.<\/p>\n
Repercussions possible for student walkout protesters. Ooo\u2026 sounds ominous. If the administration can establish \u201cguardrails\u201d such as outside school buildings, during non-instructional times and without disruption on campus, then students may exercise their right to protest. Sounds more like a pep rally led by the coaching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtest\u201d IS disruption of business as usual to make a point not otherwise possible. By definition a protest is a cooperative public act of objection, disapproval or dissent by a group. It is not an administration sanctioned school scheduled event under staff supervision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One board member said this is a teachable moment. She was right. Unfortunately the lesson is questionable: She said things got out of control at SOME schools. Well then some students at some schools might need a different approach from the others. But the overarching question is whether broad and\/or vague\u00a0school \u201crules\u201d trump the constitutional right of students to protest. (Pun intended)<\/p>\n
Now for the letters. One applauded student protesters; another called out the schools\u2019 complicity with ICE, calling it a violation of arguably a school\u2019s major responsibility: making children feel safe. A third letter, from a regular contributor, claimed protests against ICE are the \u201ccause of turmoil in American cities.\u201d (So sit down, shut up and obey our leaders?) Students have a right to express their opinions, but \u201cdoing so during school hours\u2026 should result in suitable disciplinary actions.\u201d (Catch 22) The writer goes on: \u201c\u2026many individuals in this generation face challenges\u2026 comprehending complex political issues\u2026 a troubling decline in our educational system.\u201d Perhaps we should be encouraging\u00a0\u00a0student involvement\u00a0in politics \u2014 including protests \u2014 not punishing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A separate section of letters was devoted to reactions to the Breeze Editorial \u201cWe Cannot Look Away.\u201d Here too equal space to both sides was published. One writer complained that political opinions do not belong in Editorials. (Welcome to \u201c1984\u201d) Forget the videos you saw;\u00a0\u00a0wait until the government tells you what was faked, rigged or a hoax, and what you should believe. Another writer cited a SCOTUS decision from 1942 stating \u201c\u2026words are EXEMPT from First Amendment protections when they\u2026 fail to contribute to the expression of ideas with social value for the truth.\u201d That sounds opaque, convoluted and subjective to a non-lawyer like me, but that opinion was written in the early days of World War ll when civil rights were not a concern\u00a0and protest was pretty much absent. <\/p>\n
The writer lists terrible things done by protesters TOWARD ICE in Minneapolis; \u201cthey (protestors)\u00a0were instigators and must be accountable,\u201d especially \u201cAlex Pritti who spit at law officers and attacked them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Look at the videos again; Alex\u2019s attack was to kick and spit at an ICE vehicle that was driving away from him after he was roughed up.<\/p>\n
Billy Herman<\/p>\n
Cape Coral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: Where to begin? Well, first the praise: the Feb. 13 issue of The Breeze was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-162103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}