The First Amendment, Education and Profiling Violence

It turns out the First Amendment is a second-rate issue to many of those nearing their own adult independence, according to a study of high school attitudes conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut, and billed as the largest of its kind.  More than 100,000 learners, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators at 544 public and private high schools took part in early 2004.

The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.

Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school learners said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees.  Only half of the learners said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.  Scary thought.

The learners are even more restrictive in their views than their elders, the study says.  When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of learners did.

The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four learners saying they took the First Amendment for granted or did not know how they felt about it.  It was also clear that many learners do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.

Three in four learners said flag burning is illegal.  It’s not.  About half the learners said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet.  It can’t.

The study suggests that learners embrace First Amendment freedoms if they are taught about them and given a chance to practice them, but schools do not make the matter a priority.

And on a final note: a profile of a teenager who killed many people recently emerged—one of a Native American who was described as a "NativeNazi" and who other fellow learners said was regularly “picked on” for his odd behavior.  While many will seek to frame this incident in moral, racial, political, socio-economic or other terms these next months and years, and while such violence cannot be condoned or justified, neither can someone be conveniently “labeled” and dismissed.  For in all the strangeness to us of the ways someone else may think or speak, we still live in a society that was founded so we could do just that…