By Mark David Blum, Esq.
Yesterday at dinner, my High School aged daughter sat down and began bitterly complaining about school. It wasn’t the typical “I hate school” but rather a heated and frustrated response to new measures taken at the high school in Manlius. Specifically, she and her peers all noticed the installation of security cameras throughout the facility. In her own words, “it feels like I am being watched all the time.” Her mother’s response was to learn to accept it as being the way of the world these days.
I smartly remained mum and looked back to a presentation I had made the same morning at Jamesville Dewitt High School. In my opening discussion, I asked the class, "who, according to our Founders, is the greatest enemy of the People of the United States?" After having some fun with answers ranging from Al Qaeda to George Bush, I pointed out how this nation was conceived on the principle that ‘government, though a necessary evil, will always be the most dangerous enemy to liberty and freedom.’
The comment to ‘learn to accept it’ was at the crux of this discussion. It presupposes that We, the People must stand quiet while government slowly and in small steps strips away our freedoms and our privacy. Those who opine that we should learn to accept it present an argument treasonous to our nation and its history.
It was not long ago that I raged against the FM school district for its policies of quashing free speech, maintaining a very racist stance, bringing in dogs and engaging in random drug searches of property and persons, and which had isolated itself from the world at large. Fueling the rage was the Fayetteville Manlius School District announcement of its intentions to spend more than $1.2 MILLION for such non-education disbursements as “(1) Placing an intercom system at the doors, so visitors coming to the main door once school begins would talk with the office via intercom. It would contain both an audio and video feed. (2) Installing cameras at the periphery of each building to observe the entrances. They would record activity, but not be constantly monitored. (3) Replacing exterior doors throughout the district to make them more secure.”
It is unimaginable and beyond belief that my daughter’s high school requires me, a parent, to speak through a video and audio intercom so as to gain access to her school. Has paranoia struck that deep? Remember who is the enemy.
High school is not a prison. It is a training ground for young adults. There, social skills and educational training are fine tuned and honed toward adulthood. Our young adults-in-training are there to develop their minds and bodies and be ready for the responsibilities and liberties that come with self sufficiency and ‘life’. Holding them behind iron bars, stripping them of their freedoms and liberties, and isolating them from reality is not only counterproductive. It is criminal.
I recall giving two presentations last year at a Syracuse City High School. There, I met more energetic and socially aware students that would ever graduate from FM. Students laughed when I told them FM banned all dances because students were doing the ‘Grind’. I was told there would be a riot if such a ban were enforced in Syracuse. It was plain as the ugly nose on my face that the ban at FM was pure unadulterated racial and cultural intolerance. To be fair, I reminded students that while they received rave reviews for their recent play, “Fences”; that had such a play been produced in Manlius, the public response would have been far different. Hypocrisy is everywhere.
When I shared with the students the attitude of Nottingham High School and its locking of the bathrooms as a means of collective punishment, one sophomore spoke up and said he would fight such a rule. Challenged to his position and when asked how far he would go, without even being prompted, he said he would pee in the hallways. His teachers concurred.
As I age and watch children grow and society change, I have come to the conclusion that whenever adults base their policies or beliefs on “doing what is right for the children”, that is code for “give up your freedom”.
It is appalling that my daughter’s high school is more isolated and more akin to a Gulag than an institution of education. What is it she will be taught – giving up freedom and liberty for a perception of safety and security is a good thing? How many students at Fayetteville Manlius High School graduate without ever having read the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution or the New York State Constitution? If just one student read any of those documents, no way would there be another demand for another $1.2 million from taxpayer funds for non-educational uses.
The problem as I see it is that the folks on the ‘Hill’, or out at the ‘Preserve’, or at ‘Mallards Landing’ will be graduating our nation’s next generation of leaders in business and government. These are the monied ‘white folks’ who excel in their education, have strong families and good support systems, and who are all college driven. Their names and faces will slowly start to pop up in local and regional politics and business as their family names and other ties open doors.
Unfortunately for many, the closed minded ignorant white folks will be in positions of power and control over those who understand liberty and prefer it to safety. Those who see their privacy and liberty as being precious and are willing to fight for it are going to crash into the ideologues from FM. I, as attorney, am going to be caught in the middle.
On balance and on whole; what I seek is an institution of learning that is open and free. Students should be focused on education. Teachers and administrators should have 100% of their energies devoted to their primary mission. The public should never have to talk into a video camera to gain access to a public High School.
Instead of funding a prison system at the high school, perhaps the FM district could fund one teacher to teach the law and constitution to students.
If you need a volunteer, …
