HANNA: ALARCON MUZZLES STUDENTS' RIGHT TO PETITION

By Juan Montoya
In 1965, student expression against the Vietnam War was at its peak.
Marches, speeches, and rallies against the U.S. military southeast Asia adventure were the norm across the country's college campuses.
And so it was that in Des Moines, Iowa, a group of high school students (the Tinkers) decided to express their sentiments against the war by wearing armbands in protest. The school administration moved quickly and suspended them. A subsequent U.S. Supreme Court ruling came down in favor of the students and the court observed, "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
An so Tinker vs. Des Moines established that in order for school officials to justify censoring speech, they "must be able to show that [their] action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint," allowing schools to forbid conduct that would "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school."

The Court found that the actions in wearing armbands did not cause disruption and held that their activity represented constitutionally protected symbolic speech.

Just last week, a group of students wanted to petition the Hanna High School administration to allow the campus to open during lunch time so that those who did not want to eat in an overcrowded cafeteria or the school fare food could either go home or go outside the campus and buy their own lunch at local restaurants. There is a Subway and Dairy Queen (as well as a Capt. Bob's) and Mexican food restaurants within walking distance from the school.
"It was basically saying that us students don't agree with what she's doing our lunch, that its a fire hazard and there's kids sitting on the floor which is unsanitary and it would take forever to get out of school pretty much," said a student who organized to petition Principal Terry Alarcon.
Reports from inside Hanna indicate that Alarcon went up to the student circulating the petition and seized it from him saying that it was making some students "uncomfortable" when they were asked if they would sign.

Alarcon didn't say which students complained or what caused their discomfort. However, once in her possession she now knows the identity of the students who were in agreement with the request that the campus be open at noon to give students the option of seeking their lunch elsewhere. That might cause some discomfort to them, it would seem. As the student put it, Alarcon alleged something that was far from the truth.
(She said) That I was pressuring kids into signing and making them uncomfortable but I explained to her how I approached the students and explained my cause which shouldn't have pressured anyone," he said.

So far, there has been no further action taken by the students who organized the petition. However, the organizers say that they will request that Superintendent Carl Montoya listen to their request.
The student said that no students told him that being asked if they would sign a petition caused them any discomfort.
(She said that) I was making kids doing something that they were uncomfortable with which isn't true cause they could say no at any moment," he said.

In partial response to the students' requests, the Hanna administration has placed folding tables outside during lunch. However, this token act is a band aid response to the more important issue of encouraging impressionable students on the value of exercising the right to petition authorities for redress and to allow them to freely express their opinions. Instead, she seized the petition and kept it.

A more important issue, however, according to a local attorney who specializes in First Amendment rights, is the unilateral prohibition of the students' right of free expression.

"What kind of a school does she think she is running?" he asked. "It seems to me that the students were not engaging in disruptive conduct or passing around anything lewd or obscene. It would seem to me that she would encourage their right to petition. After all, they were merely asking that the district listen to their request. She cannot run a school like a dictatorship."