Is religion a part of school?

In San Diego, Tyler Chase Harper was suspended from school for wearing a shirt that stated, "Homosexuallity is shameful." Because of this, Harper filed a law suit against the school district saying that they were in violation of his first amendment rights of freedom of speech. This action taken by Harper was a result of a bible passage that stuck out to him and he believes that because of it, " homosexual behavior is immoral, damagin to the practitioners and to human scoiety in general, and is demonstrably contrary to the teachings of the bible," which was written in Romans 1:27. Religion is aa very influential part of each and every one of our lives, and should be a part of school. It is important for each of us to know the teachings of different religions and to learn the backrounds of religions. This information is important and can help bring some people guidance they have been looking for all their life. Also, the school place is a marketplace of ideas where students can challenge themsleves and think critically about which ideas and beliefs hold true to them. By wearing his t-shirt, i believe that Mr. Harper helped bring an idea into the very active marketplace of ideas even though his words may offed others. It is important to bring vulgar ideas to the surface to question what is truly right because, "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric," and without the opposing side, choices are biased and made rationally. It is very important to have religion in school and to be learned about.

7 Days in September

The film, 7 days in September, was very moving as it gave an in depth summary of what happened on September 11th and the days after and how it affected the people of New York. In the beginning of the film they showed the planes crash into the towers and showed the magnitude that it had on the city. I hadn't see the crashes in video until the movie, and seeing them on the movie was one of the scariest things i have ever seen. Until seeing the crashes on video, i didn't fully understand how large and how much area the crashes wiped out. As you watched the buildings fall down, your heart could only dropped and your eyes can only water. It is painful to watch something so destructive happen in our own country. After watching the buildings fall down, which from this day on is something i will never forget, they showed the aftermath of the collapsed buildings. There were clouds of dust and ash everywhere and people had to hide in buildings because they couldn't breath outside it was so bad. This made me feel even worse as i could see the damage that had been done and the aftermath was just as bad as the buildings falling. This movie, 7 days in September, was very moving and made a huge impact on me as i truly understood the devastation of September 11th.

Speech Codes

After reading and learning about the speech codes, i would have to say that if i was a President of a University, my school would be a yellow light school. This is because i think that it is important to allow people to express their opinion even if it it vulgar because like in the case of Cohen vs. California, Paul Robert Cohen wore a jacket that said, "F*** the draft, and was tried for breach of peace. The courts ruled in Cohen's favor saying that one, "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric." This shows that people like Mr. Cohen should be allowed to wear vulgar shirts and clothing that do not intentionally disturb the peace. The reason that i chose to be a yellow light school though is because for instance someone wears a shirt that insults a certain race or has racial profiling, that is simply unacceptable because it directly disturbs the peace, and makes an uncomfortable and unsafe environment for some students in the community. Freedom of speech is very important, but there comes a point where people take too much advantage of their freedom of speech and should be prohibited from taking certain actions that are socially and should be legally unacceptable. The speech codes are a great thing because they allow people to speak their mind, but they are also a great thing because they help set standards for what is alright to be said and what is not alright to be said. This structure helps make everyone feel safer and feel comfortable in society.