Editor,
As a junior at CHS, I truly enjoy attending a school where students’ voices are heard and celebrated. However I firmly disagree with the decision to re-hang the offensive Teens for Life poster in the main cafeteria.
There are rules for signs within the school that have long been in place stating that club signs must only specify meeting times and dates rather than promoting a club’s agenda. I understand that some feel refusing to hang this poster would violate students’ first amendment rights, but the issue of the first amendment in schools has long been debated and at this time students do not have full first amendment rights within their schools. If CHS can be bullied into changing its rules and views by a few adamant students who decided to get lawyers involved, where do we draw the line on our policy?
Additionally, this poster is just closed-minded and offensive (as the original complaint against it stated). There are situations where adoption is simply not a viable choice, a fact that the poster ignores. Furthermore, there is a difference between a fetus and a human being. If the students responsible for this poster truly want to save lives, they should look into helping save children who actually are alive and in need.
Furthermore, this poster is offensive to me as a woman. I (along with many of my fellow students) have voiced concerns that this poster promotes the limiting of a woman’s reproductive rights. The school has claimed that by hanging up this poster, they are not endorsing its message, but that becomes hard to believe when every time I look up from my lunch tray I am greeted by a giant poster telling me I shouldn’t have the right to choose what to do with my own body.
In the end, this poster is not about pro-choice versus pro-life or even the first amendment, although those are both factors of it. This is about basic decency and respect within a school setting. I am calling on the Teens for Life club to remove this poster and on the school to make all clubs follow the rules, whether or not they call in lawyers.
Emily Worrell, CHS junior