I first addressed Eagle Scout Cole Withrow's suspension/expulsion for accidently bringing a shotgun to his high school in his truck in my blog post last week. Right away some good things, and some partial right steps, came out. Cole is at least allowed to graduate, but still not with his class. The story has national attention. And Liberty University has offered him whatever financial aid it will take for him to attend.
Despite all this, there are steps that could have been taken that haven't been. And today those of us who are members of the "Free Cole" Facebook group and fan page discovered that the fan page has been deleted and that the group administrators are trying to remove the group. This coming after the group administrators had already blocked group members from posting to the group about a week ago. The explanation you ask? There are claims that "severe threats" have been made and that taking down the group and page is "honoring the family's wishes." I'm sorry but that's a terrible explanation and taking down the pages because of "threats" is simply caving to the opposition and letting it win.
The fan page had over 5,500 "likes" before it was taken down and the group nearly 11,000 members as of this writing. If you make all that go away, how is the school board, or anyone who has authority in the decisions surrounding Cole for that matter, going to see that there is massive public support for him and his family? Yes a lot of us, including me, wrote emails to the superintendent of schools but emails can be deleted and tampered with. The authorities can't make the Facebook pages go away or dispute them (in theory anyway, you never know anymore). Taking down the page and group won't stop whatever "threats" were coming in but it will make it appear that public support for Cole has gone away.
Another shortcoming of the movement is that it appears no one close to Cole and his family would condone protests outside the school board or a boycott of school by students. Kimberly Boykin, the family friend quoted in the initial article by Todd Starnes, told several of us in a thread long since deleted from the group that we shouldn't be encouraging the entire student body to boycott school simply because student boycotts "are against school policy" and would lead to "automatic suspension." Your point, Ms. Boykin? It's called civil disobedience to protest an unjust decision by the school system. A man named Martin Luther King Jr. showed us all during the 1960s that civil disobedience can be quite effective in bringing about change. And if Cole's whole school took part, and I'm sure they would have, they couldn't suspend all of them because it wouldn't be practical.
The fact is that student protests and sit-ins can be quite effective in changing an unpopular decision by a school. When my Dad was in Catholic grade school in the 1960s the nuns who ran the school made a decision (I can't remember what exactly, it's been years since my Dad told this story) that was incredibly unpopular with the student body. In response the entire student body staged a sit-down protest at recess. After 10 minutes of chanting "Hell no, we won't go!" the nuns gave in. The decision was reversed. The students won. The protest WORKED.
Writing emails, praying for the school board to do the right thing, petitioning to have laws changed and waiting for this case to work its way through the legal system can only do so much. In order to effect real change, you have to take action. And from what I saw before posting by group members was disallowed, there were hundreds of people ready to organize that action and hold protests. Yet they were told not to. We were told not to encourage students to stand up for their rights and boycott an unfair decision. And if that's how this case is going to be fought, then I hope Ms. Boykin doesn't expect a positive outcome. I support Cole wholeheartedly and so do thousands of others. But we want to see real action. And refusing to take that action because of fear of punishment from the system is not smart, it's complacency. Last I checked, that doesn't win battles.
Jimmy Williams
I agree completely. Some of my supportive threads with no foul language, threats, or disparaging comments, were deleted from the facebook group despite likes and positive comments. I can only guess encouraging words to 'strike' or 'sit down' were the trigger. In my high school days three of the four boys bathrooms were locked because the administration smelled smoke in them and that was "not allowed!" So they posted 'guards' (teachers) at the last one to prevent further smoking. *I* organized a 'pee-in' where all 350 boys had to go with 5 minutes left in lunch break. With 2 urinals and a stall that was a problem. One guy even poured a bit of lemonade against the hallway wall for effect. It worked, we got out bathrooms back!
ReplyDeleteNobody is asking for any damage, any harm, any violence, just peaceful protest in support of a crazy decision.
Personally I suggested that when the students walk to get their diploma they refuse to take it, declare "FREE COLE" and walk off. Unfortunately that would likely be stopped after only 1 or 2. Boycotting the entire ceremony would probably work better.
Another excellent example. But sadly the correct steps are being discouraged. I almost posted a link to the post as a comment on the group. I may still do it.
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