“I was leaving school one day last fall, and out of nowhere, there was this old man handing out little orange books. He looked as though he was in his fifties, wearing a 70s suit that was obviously too tight for him. His hair clung greased-back to his head. His eyes were blank, staring out into space like no one was inside. As students walked by him, they took the books automatically, as though they were inmates in jail getting their daily rations of oatmeal. Turning around to look, I noticed about 20 copies of his orange book floating around among the students. Some ended up on the floor, abandoned.
He was handing out the Bible
I picked up one of the books and read the title: “The New Testament.” This was really weird. Here, on a public school campus, which is supposed to be religion-free, a guy that looked like he could be a cult member was handing out bibles. Why did they let him do this? What if one of the kids at my school goes out and joins some freak cult organization like Heaven’s Gate? Some of the students at my school could get sucked in by something like that. Some are really screwed up, and when they come to school they are looking to attach themselves to things like drugs and people who seem more secure because they hate their lives.
This is not the first time that a person had distributed information outside my school. Last year pro-lifers distributed newspapers containing pictures of butchered fetuses and every couple of weeks or so, religious groups prayed next to the school. It always kind of bothered me, but this time it was different. I was there and people were just accepting it. Nobody seemed to care and that made me mad.
I went to talk to the principal, who said that the administration could not stop what was going on because the bible guy was not technically on school grounds—he was on the sidewalk. Because the guy was on public property, the First Amendment protected his right to free speech. But the school had a security guard to watch and make sure that the kids were safe. I was frustrated and angry. Why didn’t the principal care about this? He didn’t seem to think it was a problem at all.
My teacher didn’t like my idea
When I told my journalism teacher that I wanted to stop those people from giving out religious material, he gave me a look, the kind of look that said: “You’re wrong.” He told me that the First Amendment protected them and if students disagreed, then they did not have to accept the materials. “What’s wrong with a little religion? It’ll be good for them,” he added.
“What if someone joins a cult?” I said.
“There’s a big difference between a cult and some guy that likes God,” he said.
So I said, “Didn’t you tell us that we can write about whatever we want as long as it has a school-related angle?”
With a grin he replied, “You can write it, but that doesn’t mean that it’ll get published.”
I rolled my eyes. Why couldn’t I write about something that was slightly against his beliefs? I respect him, and I know that he is right about a lot of things, but just because my opinion was slightly different from his, does that mean I couldn’t publish it?
The story was held from the next issue. Finally my teacher allowed the topic, but only if someone else wrote an opposing view. At the editorial board meeting, two students had already written a pro-and-con about lights in the football field, so instead of assigning someone to write an opinion opposing mine, they decided to use the one they had.
Finally my article was published
Six drafts later, my teacher insisted that I read the article to the editorial board for approval. After a few changes, the editorial was finally published, with some things cut out because of space. (If you want to see the article as it was published in the Beverly Hills Highlights, look for it on the LA Youth website at http://www.layouth.com).
In my article I criticized the First Amendment for protecting the rights of these weird-looking religious people that were taking advantage of and influencing unknowing teenagers. At the same time I was fighting for my right (according to the First Amendment) to publish a story criticizing others’ use of the right.
I guess I should be happy that I was able to express my opinion without being censored. But I don’t think the students that I was fighting for even read the article. I keep fighting for things that don’t change, and that’s very discouraging. But I learned a lesson . . . I think. The lesson was that everyone should be able to say what they think but not everyone should be forced to listen. But I still believe those cult people shouldn’t play on the fact that some teenagers have no clue about what is going on and don’t know who they are.”