I'm kinda foaming at the mouth just now. I have to think a lot more before I have some solid concrete thoughts on this, but I ought to blog it, because those whom it concerns directly, well, can't

My gf just read me the text of this article, as it's the high school she attended not so many moons ago...

Daily Record - Local News - Blogging ban provokes a debate over cyberspace

Reader's Digest Version: If you go to Pope John, you are not allowed to blog. Not on school time. Not on your own time. If you are a student and they catch you having a blog, you will be suspended.

So, the first thing I'm going to point out is that this is a private school, so a lot of the usual legal objections don't apply. Of course, pretty much all the usual moral objections still apply.

One of the many great things about the way we've set up our country is that its public schools could not pull a stunt like this.

Maybe you're having a hard time understanding why this is a cause for concern -- I'm not even all up in arms on a First Ammendment basis. It's not like that. This time, it's not even about freedom of speech. It's about overreach. To illustrate my point, here are some things that they could equally well suspend you for doing (these are not, to my knowledge, actual offenses at Pope John, but there is no legal reason they couldn't be):

* Wearing clothes which violate the dress code. Not at school, but, say, at the mall with your parents on a Saturday.
* Watching an R rated movie in your living room on a school holiday
* Working on Sunday
* Having sex with a member of the gender of your choice outside the bounds of holy matrimony
* Reading an unapproved book on your summer vacation
* Listening to that heathen and devil noise called "Rock and Roll"
* Having an unacceptable Body Mass Index (Pope John High School: No Fatties)
* Living in an orange house.
* Proposing, on your own time, that the Earth goes 'round the sun, and not the other way around

I half-salute their intentions; who doesn't want to keep kids safe? But me, I happen to think the school's control over the lives of its students should extend no further than the final bell (excluding school sponsored extracirricular events). (Cliche time: Shouldn't what the kids are doing on-line be their parents' call? I am very troubled that if I wanted a blog, and mom wanted me to have it, my school could veto it.)

Think about it, won't you?

And remember, Thoughtcrime is death.