Threats?

Okay. I'm really happy that we as students are making our voices heard. I'm even happier that, for the most part, we have avoided personal attacks or petty retorts to the publishers of CleanUpDHS. We are making it clear that we aren't just a bunch of dumb, angry kids.

However, we also have to be careful about what we say to others. I just checked the CleanUpDHS site, and apparently someone threatened the freshman who posted the comment about censoring the Birth of Venus painting. While the author of the post did not explicitly state the threat that was made to the student, it still stands that there was a threat made. In a time where we all need to work together to defend the Squall, as well as the integrity of DHS as a whole, we simply cannot have people posting threats to others in the public domain.

CleanUpDHS is already having a field day over this issue. We cannot afford to fuel their fire. We just can't. It will put us in a situation that we definitely don't want to be in-- we, rather than the authors of CleanUpDHS will seem like the petty ones, something that will seriously hurt our argument, and may potentially give CleanUpDHS cause to sue.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is please, please, please keep defending the Squall and our school, but do it in a way that belies the fact that we are, in fact, intelligent kids.

"Please don't take any of this as a personal attack." ... Really?

Ok. So, every time I look at CLEANUPDHS it makes me more and more angry. The entire blog is basically telling everyone what to do, and not letting anyone who disagrees with them get a word in.

They said to a staff member of The Squall, “I appreciate that the articles in The Squall are for the most part, excellent. You guys are doing a great job. Please don't take any of this as a personal attack. Far from it.” But, that is a blatant lie. They rant about how inappropriate the paper is, that’s what got the whole blog started. And please, “Please don’t take any of this as a personal attack?” That is ridiculous, I can’t speak for everyone on staff, but I take it all VERY personally. I help produce The Squall, so if they insult it, they insult me.

In the same post they say, “What is to stop a different student journalist from printing porn? Seriously. Think about it. The answer is nothing.” NOTHING? Does this person REALLY think that the students that are a part of The Squall are going to put porn in it? That is just about the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard. She also obviously doesn’t realize that to obtain porn you have to be 18 years of age or older, meaning that we could no longer even distribute The Squall to almost all of the student population. And I am offended that she thinks a staff member would do that, and that other staff members would stand around and let it happen. To me, that is a PERSONAL ATTACK.

And what is all this talk about LAWYERS? Really? Common, all these people are doing is hiding behind a bunch of court cases and laws to make themselves sound smart. The real thing their trying to accomplish is to make sure that the students no longer have a voice. They don’t think The Squall is appropriate for their daughter, so instead of telling her that she can no longer read the squall, they think that no one’s kids should be able to write or read about what they deem inappropriate. We think this way, therefore everyone should think this way.
The Squall is an award winning paper that I’m very proud to be a part of. And I couldn’t ask for a better Journalism teacher. I’m so sorry that there are people out there that think so highly of themselves, that they have to try and ruin our paper for everyone.

A DHS Squaller

In response to the anonymous freshman.

On the Clean up DHS blog an anonymous freshman posted a comment concerning the content of the squall, the Birth of Venus recreation on the wall across from the CPA, and movies that her teachers show in class.

Here is a link to the comment.
http://cleanupdhs.blogspot.com/2010/03/comment_1712.html

To start, most of the articles in the squall are written in an informative way. The students writing have no intention of encouraging younger children to do inappropriate things. The writers do a great job of providing information and facts about the topic in their articles, and students can then form their own opinion on the subject.

“…isn't Venus on the wall next to the CPA pornography?” No. As a matter of fact it isn’t. The painting of the Birth of Venus is incorporated into a conglomeration of famous paintings, and is a very tasteful piece of artwork. It has even been altered from the original to cover her up more. If you think that the painting is inappropriate, then maybe you need to get your mind out of the gutter.

And finally, the inappropriate videos being shown in class... I cannot say too much on this matter, seeing as I don’t know what movies the girl is talking about. However if felt the way she did, I would probably take it up with my teachers instead of complaining about it on a blog. If she doesn’t like the videos being shown then maybe she should request an alternate assignment and not watch them?

I tried to post a response similar to this one on the other blog, and I guess that because I had an opinion that didn’t agree with the administrators of the blog, they rejected it. I don’t think what I have to say is that ridiculous, what does anyone else think?

A DHS Squaller