RESIST THE BADGE.As a lawyer and older brother of two current Antelope Valley Union High School District The Antelope Valley Union High School District (A.V.U.H.S.D.) is located in the Antelope Valley area of California, in northern Los Angeles County. The district includes eight public high schools, one trade school, and two continuation high schools in the cities of Palmdale students, I will strongly encourage them to resist this badging nonsense (``Badges for students, like it or not,'' May 5) to the fullest when it is imposed upon their student body this fall. I hope they accept the challenge, if only for the pride of taking a principled stand against an arbitrary exercise of power. They are virtually certain to lose the battle in terms of their effect on policy, but they stand to win an enormous victory in terms of their character, resolve and sense of personal dignity. This issue is not remotely one, as board president Donita Winn so dismissively frames it, of a mere ``clippy pin'' attached to students' ID cards. This is a debate of values, and Ms. Winn's ``clippy pins'' matter only insofar in·so·far adv. To such an extent. Adv. 1. insofar - to the degree or extent that; "insofar as it can be ascertained, the horse lung is comparable to that of man"; "so far as it is reasonably practical he should practice as how students will be forced to employ them. Attach all the pins and colored lanyards you like, but there is a qualitative difference between the current cards and the future badges when students are to be compelled to display those badges at all times, on pain of penalty, for the convenience of school staff. The consequence is further desensitization desensitization or hyposensitization Treatment to eliminate allergic reactions (see allergy) by injecting increasing strengths of purified extracts of the substance that causes the reaction. to excesses of authority and acceptance of a social structure in which the desires of public servants are treated as the unquestioned commands of public masters. That is not the America dreamt of by our forefathers forefathers npl → antepasados mpl forefathers npl → ancêtres mpl forefathers npl → Vorfahren . Education officials Gene Smith and Al Beattie assure us that students will ``get used to it'' and eventually ``accept it as normal everyday operations." The Palmdale High School div style="float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 2em; width: 20em; text-align: right; font-size: 0.86em; font-family: lucida grande, sans-serif; line-height: normal;"> '''Palmdale High School wall is cited as an example: It was opposed by students during it's 1998 construction, yet today is stands nearly unnoticed by its captives. This is offered as favorable testimony? When the only opposition offered by student representatives to this new imposition amounts to concerns over enforceability and fear of asphyxiation asphyxiation /as·phyx·i·a·tion/ (as-fix?e-a´shun) suffocation; the stoppage of respiration. Asphyxiation Oxygen starvation of tissues. by lanyard, should we not, as a community, ask whether we are comfortable with the erosion of even this pitifully lean sense of sovereignty in our future leaders Future Leaders is a UK schools-led charitable organisation that aims to widen the pool of talented leaders especially for urban challenging secondary schools. It was founded in March 2006 by Nat Wei, a former founder of Teach First. ? Or is the proper question, sadly, whether it is already just too late? Clippy pins for all. Jonathan Vazquez-Smith Palmdale |
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