Since it's a tad slow...article

NicoleSahara

I am going to address this part of the article specifically:

"If one is a practicing Christian, Jesus states in the Bible that homosexuality is (a) detestable act and sin which makes adopting wrong for homosexuals because you would be raising the child in a sin-filled environment."

1. Nowhere does Jesus actually say this.

2. This is the dumbest argument I've ever heard, I guess you could also say ""If one is a practicing Christian, Jesus states in the Bible that not loving your neighbor is (a) detestable act and sin which makes adopting wrong for people who don't show their neighbors love because you would be raising the child in a sin-filled environment." Or insert any sin in there you want. This whole world is a sin-filled environment, I guess we need to ban all adoptions.

3. I think using the Bible as an argument is a big waste of time when you're talking with people that don't believe it's true anyway.

4. To answer the actual question, I think having an opinion column where opposing views are discussed can be beneficial, but I also think it can be done without calling any of your fellow classmates an "abomination." And if that's not possible, then maybe the school newspaper isn't an appropriate place for those views to be discussed.

acaponi87

It annoys me when people try to draw such a harsh line between schools and religion.

It affects politics, society, music and history. No you don't preach in school but if a question comes up, answer it. If a student chooses to use their beliefs in an opinion article to back their opinion then so be it. Schools shouldn't be a little anti-religion bubble. Yes there is a separation but to act like it doesn't exist or it isn't okay to talk about is irresponsible in my opinion..it breeds ignorance.

Summer2011Bride

FYI, I was interested in this whole topic, so I did some searching and found this article (a little old).

CN:  The principal deleted pages from a school newspaper that was discussing teen pregnancy (more details in the article). It went to court and the court decided it was not against the First Amendment right.

From the article:

The Court said schools could censor any forms of expression deemed “ungrammatical, poorly written, inadequately researched, biased or prejudiced, vulgar or profane, or unsuitable for immature audiences,” or any expression that advocates “conduct otherwise inconsistent with the shared values of the civilized social order.”

The key: “Educators do not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school-sponsored expressive activities so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.”

futuremrsbruno

I think there's a big opinion in schools that if students write articles that cause an uproar inside the school, that the uproar will spread out into the community, which could compromise the perception of the school or the school's reputation.

When my principal called me in about the paper, all I heard over and over again was we need to change people's perception of the school. Great. But we also need to let our students give their opinions about things going on in the school. I didn't even come close to winning that argument.

I think the article in that paper was taken out of context. Especially when you put it up against the other side of the argument. I'm not at all surprised at the reaction, though.