Day's events are part of a community dialogue

I am a senior at Sandpoint High School. In order to recognize the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, there is an organization in Sandpoint that put together a peace march, community forum, and viewing of the documentary, "The Fog of War." This organization put together a poster to advertise for these events for March 20.

I approached a school administrator to get permission to post two of these signs at SHS. After going through the bureaucracy, I spoke with another administrator and was told that the signs appealed to a liberal point of view, and that the school couldn't support either sides of the political spectrum, they had to stay neutral. After I debated that point, I was then told that the reason I couldn't post the signs was because of a liability issue. If a student from SHS attended the peace march, and the event got out of hand, and the student was injured, the liability would fall on the school district.

The peace march is a public event, not a school function, and by posting the signs in our hallways, the school would not be supporting the event. The school would merely be allowing me to exercise my constitutional free speech rights. We reached an agreement that the advertisement would be read in the daily announcements that each classroom listens to in the mornings. This does not make sense; I cannot post signs for the event, yet we can have the announcement read over the intercom daily?

The day's events that I was trying to publicize are intended to be a community dialogue. Given the low amount of attention paid to civic issues by America's youth, is it desirable for our educational institutions to promote awareness of opportunities to gather, learn, and share thoughts about civic issues and activism? I think so. As a society, we collectively face many challenges — environmentally, socially, and politically. Our educational facilities should take every opportunity to encourage participation and engagement with other members of the community on these important issues.

JESSIE MASON

Sagle