Anti-war activists fight school censorship

Issue 

BY JESS MELVIN

MELBOURNE — On April 3, a student from the prestigious Melbourne High School received a detention. His crime was mentioning the war in class and questioning his principal.

"I don't think it is appropriate for the school to be providing students with details of the war and I don't think our teachers should be initiating discussion about the war within the general curriculum", Melbourne High School principal Ray Willis told April 2 Age.

The censorship of student anti-war views at Melbourne High School is a response to a directive sent to every school in Victoria by the state education department. The directive states that teachers should refrain from "deliberate acts or words that attempt to impose upon students or to use students for propagation of their beliefs, opinions and practices".

For schools to remain silent about an issue like the war in Iraq is not for them to be neutral, it is for them to simply, through their lack of questioning, propagate the federal government's and corporate media's pro-war position.

While repression of student anti-war views, such as that at Melbourne High, is still rare, it sets dangerous precedent. It is vital that the anti-war movement acts now to stop this repression in its tracks.

On April 2, members of the socialist youth organisation Resistance handed out free copies of Green Left Weekly to students at Melbourne High School and provided them with details about coming anti-war actions. They also kicked off a petition campaign against censorship of anti-war views in schools.

"If they [the Melbourne High School administration] want to be tight arses, it's not my problem", Con Palasz, a Melbourne High School student told GLW. "I am not prepared to compromise my beliefs."

Palasz is one of the students who is helping to spread the Freedom of Information and Opinion About the War campaign at his school.

For Victorian students wanting more information or to get involved in the Freedom of Information and Opinion About the War campaign at school call Jess on 0421 404 138.

From Green Left Weekly, April 9, 2003.
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