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The Kid Who Wouldn't Be King (UPDATED)
From the Daily Breeze:
"Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Jerry Davis said school and district officials stand behind the suspension. 'There's always consequences for actions," Davis said. "We believe it disrupted homecoming activities ..." (It would be interesting to know if the Unified School District knows that George Washington refused the offer of the Contintental Congress to be the first American King.)
"Suspension papers signed by Griffiths and the school principal charged that the 17-year-old Griffiths 'disrupted school activities or otherwise willfully defied the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, administrators, school officials or other school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties.' Other offenses that warrant suspension include gun possession, drug use, theft or destruction of school property, and physical violence."
"Griffiths was a member of one of the six couples who lined up with their parents during halftime of last Friday's football game to hear the royal announcements. When his name was called as homecoming king, he placed his crown on the field and walked away. He later said he had planned all along to make some sort of statement about the warped value system in schools like his (Mira Costa High School) if he was elected king, but he never dreamed he would win. 'The idea of winning was so far-fetched,' he said. 'I knew I'd have a fair amount of support from the downtrodden, my friends. I'm just trying to get more people to think about and re-evaluate what we value and if [contests like] homecoming should be encouraged.'" says the Daily Breeze story.
He returned to school this week. His parents are considering legal action to force the school to expunge the suspension from his academic record. Griffiths isn't a classic victim. He was definitely poking the bear, but in a good cause. He said he welcomed any and all media attention because he wants to use the spotlight to encourage people to think about the way schools promote popularity contests and pit students against one another. "They martyred me," he said. "Which was a great thing."
Instead of a suspension, Griffiths ought to get an award for challenging the insane culture facing so many individualistic kids in American schools. Students like Griffiths have few if any Constitutional rights. They have no privacy or right to due process, and are routinely sent home, suspended, or forced into "special education" programs for dressing oddly, speaking honestly, or playing the wrong kind of computer games. As he was trying to point out, the pressure to conform, be normal and popular is enormous -- creating environments that are hostile and alienating to people outside the mainstream. This ethos has hit bright, idiosyncratic and creative kids especially hard, as the volumes of Hellmouth messages testify so eloquently.
So here's to Patrick Griffiths, who deserves better than his own school. He's a hero in the classic American sense, and in the country's best traditions of thinking freely, daring to be different, and willing to pay the price.
Author's Note: The source material for this column was the Daily Breeze paper linked to above, a wire story, and about 20 e-mails, including two from local reporters urgingme to write about this. Reading over this now I can see there is a paragraph that should have quotes from the Daily Breeze [note: since corrected -- t]. I didn't do it because I probably used material from the wire story and/or because it was linked. The comments, opinions and language about the story are obviously mine, since the point was to write about the issues he raised and the conformity question, which the paper and the others didn't raise.
Don't run if you don't plan to accept. I would have accepted and given a speech rather than ungratefully ignoring the attention of the student body.
This kid was just plain selfish. He could have given everyone a voice who couldn't speak for themself, and instead he wanted to show off that he could walk away.
A suspension, however, is totally out of line for this sort of thing. He should have been escorted out and a new king chosen on the spot. But a suspension is uncalled for.
a kid comes along and wants to reject these values, and not only can they not accept it, but they fear it enough to pronounce him guilty of "disrupting school activities" which of course is usually code for "we didn't like the way he looked" but in this case has been expanded to "we didn't like the way he thought."
pezpunk
Internet killed the video star,
i could live a little longer in this prison
Schools have no business taking disciplinary action against students that fail to produce the correct theatre for them. If they think they were embarrassed by his rejecting the crown, I imagine they realize they've made a more serious mistake now.
Also, I hope the administrators at Mira Costa are named personally in the suit, as well. Their disruptive activity by failing to use appropriate channels to "express dissatisfaction" with this student should not go unpunished.
disrupted school activities or otherwise willfully defied the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, administrators, school officials or other school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties.
Way to go. Get an early start preparing the kid for the kind of open-ended "don't interfere with authority" laws he will experience as an adult. In 15 years, when the no-knock warrantless search comes based on the flimisiest excuse for probable cause, he'll already know just how far over to bend.
-- In the future, everyone will code Perl for 15 minutes. --
The kid's actions are slightly reminiscent of John Carlos and Tommy Smith at the '68 Olympics, although I'm sure he wasn't afraid of being picked off by a sniper.
Free speech has its place, and must be protected. I applaud this high schooler for his display of non-violent civil disobedience.
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Gort! Klatu Barata Nikto!
Unless I'm mistaken, bestiality is against the law in most states. He's lucky he just got suspended -- he could have been clawed to death.
True, but no one would have heard about it. When making a political statement it is important to be seen, and heard. How does one win the congressional election? By out spending all the other candidates in advertising.
The suspension was probably more an act of self defense by an insecure school official that a response to a legitimate threat to the learning atmosphere. How dare someone make a political statement at my school. What would happen if the students realized they have more power in the school than me? Although extreme there are probably the thoughts running through the official's heads. They couldn't tolerate not having control. And to think, the reason America has public schools is to ensure that we have an education so we participate in a democracy
Superintendent Davis said that if Griffiths didn't like the homecoming court selection process, he could have spoken to student government leaders, the school newspaper or any administrator on campus.
"There are many opportunities for any student to express dissatisfaction at Mira Costa," he said. "(Griffiths) was within the organization that plans homecoming. At no time did he express dissatisfaction with the process or the program. That's where it should have been expressed and dealt with."
Griffiths said he figured renouncing his crown at the homecoming game would make the strongest statement
So, he got suspended for voicing his opinion publicly. Sure, it was probably a disruption to the ceremony to have him walk away. If I were handing out the crown, I'm sure I wouldn't have known how to address the crowd at that point--but to suspend him? That's a bit much.
Besides, if he had spoken out to administrators, what would've happened? He would've been removed from the team he was on, someone else elected, and no one would've given it a second thought--except him. His voice would've been silenced before it could be heard.
-Llew "I've wrestled with reality for years, and, I'm proud to say, I won" Silverhand
Sweet Athene, you went to all that effort to make a protest, and now you want them to expunge the record? Are you NUTS?
By all that's holy, I'd demand a copy and get it FRAMED. I'd write a manefesto railing against the poverty of culture in highschool, staple copies of the record to the top, and include it in my college applications.
Do you understand how good this could make you look to college admissions officers?? (At the good schools -- Podunk State would be scared, but MIT would love it.)
I wish I'd thought of this when applying to college!
-*- Any technology indistinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced -*-
Umm, I didn't pay a lot of attention to this in high school, as I hung out with the band and role playing cliques, but emperically it's the most popular guy.
There is an election in the fall, at the high school footbal (American Footbal that is) homecoming game, the announcement of the winner is made, and the homecoming king and queen are announced.
The a screen is dragged around them while they consumate their victory.
No, wait, that last part is from a video I rented, Homecoming sluts.
Don't believe it? Try going into a linux channel on IRC and asking a 'newbie' question...If you're lucky, you'll just get kicked. Usually you'll be insulted and then kick banned...
Try asking Tom Christisen anything about perl...
Etc...
Most every group is guilty to some degree of the type of terrible 'in-crowd' behaviour that JonKatz always attributes to 'the Jock' types in High School...It just manifests itself slightly differently in different forums.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I was an A/B level honors student as well as being in the JROTC program etc at a school where Jerry Davis was principal. Generally a smart and responsible guy. But because i refused to 'play ball' many times my record was marked by Jerry Davis and the other administrators.
I would go against the administration whenever I had a chance and they hated it. I would write letters to the editor of the school paper and make other statements when the moment was right. Never disruptive or disrespectful but always pointed.
The result? I was labelled as a problem child and under suspicion. They even told me once 'Just do not publically go against the administration and everything will be fine.' It even went so far as to them threatening to not let me graduate!( As if it were in their power, a fact I pointed out many times ).
Overall, this school district ( Jerry Davis and others ) do not so much hate individuals but rather hate individuals who do not agree with their social program. These are schools that literally have barbed wire fencing around them to keep students in, that discourage any kind of free discussion of school policy etc and are so patronizing to their student bodies that it makes one want to puke.
Until public educators understand that students are PARTNERS in this process we call learning and not SUBJECTS, these sorts of incidents will continue to happen and the truly smart seeds will flee to home schools and private schools. We treat our children like criminals, give them no say in their daily lives and then wonder why they disdain participatory democracy. Its ridiculous.
Anyhow, as someone who has actually EXPERIENCED Jerry Davis I will say that this story, while awesome in that it is getting so much attention, is nothing in comparison to the daily things the thhis administration does in the name of 'education'.
Were I a parent, I would congradulate myself on good parenting skills were my child to pull such a stunt.
I'd tell my kid how proud I was that he understood the troubles of mindless conformity.
The cake is a pie
So, he gets suspended for disrupting an extracuriccular, non academic activity outside of shcool hours? Man, talk about petty and vindictive. All he did was poke eliteism in the eye. Sure, the diehard school boosters and their ilk were cheesed, but did this really disrupt school and students learning? Was it on the same level as fighting on school grounds?
Meanwhile, given what I read about the guy in the Daily Breeze, he sounds like a hard core eccentric. Its interesting and hopeful that his peers elected a stand out non-conformist guy like him. To me it sounds like the student body is a whole lot more mature and well adjusted than the adults running the place.
Yeah, go ahead and flame me. But, everyone including Katz is supportive of what he did. So am I a little. However, the article (which I can't get back to now for some reason) said that he had ample time to step down before hand. Each person could've declined nomination before hand. Ok, yeah he didn't think he'd win. But, he had this planned if he did. It was disruptive. Granted, I myself think homecoming is worthy of being disrupted, but you have to pay the price for actions. If the price is a two day suspension, then so be it. He wanted to make a statement. He did. I think he did it wrong. Oh sure, more attention is definately brought to this means of statement. But, was the point delievered? Did people understand? Or did they just think that this was yet another misguided youth with a bad attitude? I'm not disagreeing with what he did. I'm just trying to say that some methods don't work as well as others.
I guess what I'm thinking is that he was deceptive. I think honesty and integrity are important. He should have backed down from nomination and been honest about it then.
I will say that I do feel that his suspension should be off the record and that it should not be held against his work at school. (Make up tests, turn in assignements, etc.) But, perhaps a better form of disciplinary reaction would be to required him to compose an essay/report of why he did that. Instead of just throwing him out of school, find out why he did what he did. Just my $0.02
For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.
It concerns people a lot more when people actually use real firearms.
My little brother shoots at sniper matches. Um, I mean "Precision Rifle" matches. Gotta be politically correct about that...
The cool part is that he's gotten to lug machine guns onto international flights to go to competitions... Not quite artillery, but close enough! Suffice it to say that security in London, England tends to find it a mite interesting when they find 18 guys with 50 machine guns :-).
National matches are also pretty entertaining; the guys on the national team are required to be heavily armed in order to protect the truck full of even bigger guns that they're driving to the tournament...
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
All right, let's talk about what "people skills" are, and what they're for. Suppose you live in a culture which actively detests intelligence (as demonstrated in its films, books, and all other modes of popular culture). Suppose you yourself are smart enough to have studied history and realize that
Wouldn't it be your responsibility to try to get others to think for themselves, before you simply try to take control and do their thinking for them (a la Gates and your other so-called "successful geeks")? The boy in high school who is smart enough and has enough integrity to fail to conform deliberately, with a funny and strikingly effective act of theatre that galvanizes such an unthinking response by authority, has a great chance of growing up to be one of our new "leaders."
If you studied what used to be called "leadership traits," you'd know that political "leaders" are actually those who intuit or otherwise know (through manipulation, sometimes) how the crowd feels -- they get out front and lead them in the direction they already want to go. This is sad but true.
But we can imagine a society differently organized, can't we: a society in which individuals are free to speak many-to-many, can use reason in their low-level political discourse, and perhaps arrive at high-level consensus based on the merits (for a particular issue) rather than based on the "popularity" of the leader, or her/his conformity to the lowest denominator of popular values. Since you are online, and visit /., I have to hope you know what I'm talking about.
"People skills" are those skills which allow us to understand how others (who are different from us) think and feel; and to speak, listen, and act with them in a non-violent manner. Depending on your own personality, you may believe good "people skills" are those which allow you to become coercive, to manipulate others and accomplish your personal will collectively. Some of us, however, believe good "people skills" are displayed exceptionally well by individuals like the 19-century Quaker who single-handedly decided slavery was wrong, and visited every Quaker slaveholder to persuade them of the same, without any coercion, individually. By the Civil War, no Quakers held slaves.
There are many times I would despair of humanity, except that I note that despite the barbarism and inhumanity of mass warfare and genocide in the 20th century, the last century also saw the birth of civil disobedience movements, and non-violent intentional social change. My hope is in young men and women, like this young man who lay down his crown, to continue this brand-new form of "people skills" as practised by Gandhi, MLK, and a few other pioneers.
Point: What he did should not have resulted in suspension. It is goddamned ridiculous that the school would suspend him for declining an award, which is in no way "disruptive", since the rest of the evening can continue without pause. Furthermore, he wasn't defying school officials, since they didn't choose him for king. He was defying his peers, the possibility of which is exactly what makes the US the greatest country in the Solar System (not that we don't have problems here). I really hope that his parents triumph in any legal action they pursue, because the boy only exercised the rights accorded to a US citizen: freedom of speech. He made a statement that he didn't want to accept the award, and I applaud that.
Counterpoint: Although bold and to-the-point, he could have rejected the award in a more graceful fashion, by stepping up to a microphone and saying, "Thanks, but no thanks, I do not accept my award." This kid is clearly trying to feel like he's some kind of political activist, and it makes him look like an idiot and a fool. Just listen to some of his quotes about how schools ought not put glamor in these popularity contests. What a fucking moron. The more he talks, the more grace he nips away from his actions. I've seen more worthy causes in my toilet, and I flush those away. He's no martyr, he's just a moron who wanted to become more popular overnight than any Homecoming King award could have ever made him. "The downtrodden"? What the hell are they? Sounds like this guy is a real loser, who likes to complain that he's not popular, which just makes him less popular. I've always been a computer geek, and was in fact the best student in my high school. Although not popular by any measure, I was never shunned. I firmly believe that those who are shunned in high school put themselves in that position. It starts by a perceived alienation, so that the child withdraws until it becomes real. For some reason, the people who withdraw are those who enjoy being alienated, because it gives them reason to cry, whine, and attract attention. Of course, since everybody loves to be a victim, the child then claims he was an outcast from the start, when in fact it was he that withdrew. All this complaining just drags his friends' attitudes down, so that they eventually abandon him. Finally, whiny and alone, the child tries to make a statement (although it's a hollow one), by complaining even more, changing his personality, dressing differently, and associating himself with others of his type.
While I don't know if he actually wanted this much attention, it is very clear he wanted to act like a "grown-up". The problem is, he picked one of the political-activist grown-ups that behave like children to push their worthless causes down your throat. If he doesn't endorse this sort of popularity contest, he shouldn't have come. It's as simple as that. To think that he has some right to enforce his values on a mass of people just because HE wants to attend a school activity, is childish and self-centered at best. At worst, it's the sort of dictatorial attitude that RMS takes toward Free Software (I'll call it Open Source just to piss him off, Fuck You RMS).
This kid thinks things should be his way just because he's an American citizen? Well so am I, and I want things my way. What's he going to do about that? If you want to abolish popularity contests, kid, run for superintendand of your school district in 20 years, then push to have them abolished. Quit whining now.
Finally, I feel sorry for the Homecoming Queen, who must have felt horrible standing there smiling while her king just walked away. What an asshole.
In response to the "Nerds 7, xxxx 0" post subject (I don't remember what the xxxx stands for), this kid is by no means a nerd. He's not a geek, either. He's just some whiny little kid who wants adverse attention. He wants people to notice him, and have respect for his political activities. A true nerd does one of two things:
Since this kid chose neither route, he's not a nerd.
I do not belong in the spam.redirect.de domain.
I just got in and was very sorry to see myself accused of plagiarism for the first time in my life. To me, it's a new low in the story of /. hostility to me and others. Tim and jeff are posting messages about this, but just to make it clear. I don't plagiarize, not now or ever.
The source of the bulk of this info is linked to in the introduction..it's the Daily Breeze, the local paper. I don't know how you plagiarize something you link to. I don't think that's even possible. But there were several other sources for one or two facts, including wire services, local TV and about 20 e-mails people sent me, including some school officials and reporters who didn't want to be id'd. So I respected that, and linked to the stuff that came from the paper so there would be no doubt as to the source.
I agree all factual material should be attributed which is why I always did it and a couple of paragraphs here or phrases should have had quotes on them, but it didn't all come from one source, which was the problem. Obviously the point, opinions and commentary are mine. Attribution is importand and valid point to raise. But plagiarism is an ugly charge and it's particularly vicious to make it in this way when anybody with any common sense or good faith could have seen the link or simply e-mailed me. If anybody has any questions, feel free to e-mail me now. This is a sad accusation for me, especially when it's made in so witless and irresponsible a way. Anybody has the right to ask anything here, but some of you really ought to ask yourselves some questions about the level of viciousness and cruelty you seem to take as acceptable in your writings. If anybody has any questions, e-mail me, or you can arrange to speak to me. There is no plagiarism issue here, only a question of attribution in one or two paragraphs. Nobody in the world is more of a stickler on this than me,as anybody can see by reading any of my columns...hardly a one doesn't have quotes and attributions. This is really a cheap shot, well over the line, but you're all entitled to an answer about it.
jonkatz@slashdot.org
It's like people here actually believe that they are B-movie nerds, waging an eternal war against jocks
I believe, because I lived though high school as what you call a B-movie nerd, in a town that makes the movie 'Varsity Blues' look benign. The war against the jocks was a very real thing, fueled by pure hatred and a desire for revenge. With the things that were done to me, how could anyone not fight back?
It's all over now, and I'm very pleased with the outcome. I'm making more money now (as a college student even) than 98% of the people in my old home town. As for the people who taught me what hell was like... well, their livelihood now depends on cows. In other words, I won.
Washington, DC: It's like Hollywood for ugly people.
Now, try #linuxhelp on undernet - one would think that this is a logical step BEFORE #linux, but generally not the case. The ops are helpful, knowledgeable, and manage to get most questions answered. The type that don't get answered are the, "Howz do I set up mailz??!" type of question. And even those get a good deal of help, considering their utter stupidity and lack of any intelligence - anyone that has any information at all about linux should know at least some semblance of what sendmail is. Even script kiddies know this. It's name itself even expresses what it is!
Granted, there are kicks and bans in #linuxhelp - but with warrant. Once again, look in the right places. It's generally not a good idea to go to microsoft.com and look for the latest software patches for linux - because they're not available there. Common sence, people - use it. :)
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CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
It may (we hope) have been an oversight, and perhaps you had no intention to mislead your audience, but this omission did, in fact, constitute plagiarism, and people had every right to openly accuse you and call for a correction.
To rise to the standard of plagiarism an act of literary misappropriation requires the intent to steal anothers work and pass it off as your own. This intent can be inferred a number of ways: when the extent of the misappropriation is extensive; if there are steps taken to disguise the source. In this case, providing a link to the original source is pretty clear evidence that there was no intent to commit plagiarism.
This is no mere quibble -- it's the intent to defraud the reader and deprive the author that makes plagiarism an odious literary crime. What we have here is more of a faux paux, or perhaps a kind of literary misdemeanor bearing the same relationship to plagiarism that reckless endangerment has to premedidated murder. Where there is no intent to commit plagiarism, there cannot be plagiarism.
The passages quoted are neither so extensive nor scintillating that they would warrant any plagiarist's attention. There's just too many damned people in this world who like to wait in the bushes and jump out to say "Gotcha!"
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
This even happened to me during high school, so I'm not being delusional. During my junior year of high school, I discovered that my computer account was disabled. I E-mailed the system administrator, who told me to talk with my principal, who wanted my accound disabled.
I met with the principal, who told me that my account was terminated because it contained copies of three copyrighted programs on the school computers. It quickly became obvious that someone stole my password for my account and used it to copy copyrighted software onto my account. This is quite easily accomplished, since our passwords were our student ID numbers, and we were required to wear our IDs around our neck at all times (something I was a vocal opponent of), and we couldn't change our passwords. After seeing the list of what was on my account, it was obvious that this is exactly what happened -- someone (I still don't know who) who didn't like me decided to get me in trouble and didn't have much difficulty doing it thanks to the school's computer "security" system.
What made me mad wasn't the fact that it was disabled; I could more or less care less if I did in fact copy those programs, because that's the consequences you suffer for breaking the law. What angered me was that after politely telling my principal that I didn't do it, he told me that I would have to find out who did it myself and get him/her to confess to it before I would get my account back. That is quite clearly against their own rules -- copying the model in the Constitution, the school district's rules say that they can't do anything to me unless they can prove I did it, and they can't make me prove my innocence. He even said that I should have been grateful that he didn't call the police.
The only way I got them to back down was by coming back the next day and politely telling him that they should go ahead and call in the police and ask them to press criminal charges, and we would see who the police sided with. I even offered to dial the phone for him. Needless to say, the principal quickly changed his mind once he saw he was dealing with someone who understood his rights.
The point I'm making here is that the school didn't really care what was right or legal when they dealt out the punishment because of who I was. Although I'm not exactly a trouble-maker (I have no criminal record, and my school record is spotless, and my teachers would say that I was a model student) I was (and still am) a dissident of sorts. I was a vocal opponent of a number of the school's policies, and they were just looking for something to nail me with.
Lest you think this is sour grapes, I can cite case after case from our school alone where our school dealt harshly with people who acted just slightly out of the norm. A group of students, who felt that our pep rallies had become too much like 1984-ish loyalty tests, protested by reading newspapers during the pep rally, and they were given detentions. Letters to the editor in the school newspaper in opposition of school decisions have been censored. And a meeting used to pass a matter that was kept a secret for months and that many students opposed was the information was accidentally (?) leaked by a teacher inadvertently (?) leaving a memo from one of the closed meetings in the library, was not announced and was scheduled in conflict of an extra-curricular activity that many of the vocal students attended. (Or perhaps better stated, would have attended -- the meeting was flooded by angry students and parents nonetheless.)
The point I'm trying to make is that today American school systems (excluding higher education, who are thankfully mostly free from such problems) train their students for absolutely loyalty, and they punish anyone who disagrees with them. I'm not the only one to complain about this -- both fellow students and teachers have told me they agree, though they wouldn't tell the administration so. The school in question here apparently decided that they didn't like the student giving other people at the prom ideas, so they shut him down. What better way to make an example of what happens to you if you oppose policy than to publicly punish him at a heavily-attended school function?
Do admire what he did? Absolutely. Do I agree with you? Of course. Do I think it matters? No. So long as we as a society put up with the current school system, this is going to keep happening. Personally this scares me; my school robbed me of my faith in democracy and in education, and I don't want this to happen to future generations.