Socialist Action /January 2002
Youth in Action
FBI and colleges attack student rights
By DAVID BERNT
Using the so-called war on terrorism as a pretext, the FBI, in collaboration
with colleges and universities, is trampling on the privacy rights of students.
The FBI has sought out, and in most cases obtained private student records,
which by law are not to be released without a student's written consent.
To date, some 200 colleges and universities have handed over sensitive
information about suspected students to the FBI, INS, or other governmental
agencies, according to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars
and Admission Officers.
Under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, colleges and universities
are not permitted to release student records. Officials at universities
have used a loophole allowing for release of information in the case of
a "health or safety emergency."
Under the recently passed USA Patriot Act, government access to student
records becomes even easier. According to the ACLU, "The USA Patriot
Act allows law enforcement officials to cast an even broader net for student
information without any particularized suspicion of wrongdoing."
The act allows the government access to information gathered for statistical
purposes. Until now, this information has been confidential. The USA Patriot
Act allows an official to gain this information by certifying to a judge
that the person in question relates to a criminal investigation.
The FBI and INS have targeted immigrants from Middle Eastern or Muslim
countries, or in some cases students with Arabic-sounding names.
In one case, at a community college with a heavily Arab and Muslim population,
the FBI inquired about the local street address of a student with an Arabic-sounding
last name who has a student visa. According to a lawyer for the college,
the college handed over the information without the consent or even the
knowledge of the student.
It is clear by the U.S. government's recent actions that the attack on
student rights, and the rights of working people in general, are intended
to increase the state's ability to control the people it rules.
Students, especially foreign ones, are being attacked as a result of
the broad antiwar movement that swept across campuses in the wake of Sept.
11. Student and workers must stand up to these threats. Only a mass movement
of workers, students, and the oppressed can win back the rights that have
eroded since Sept. 11.
Young People in Argentine Upsurge
The pictures of the street fighting in Argentina on Dec. 19-20 that that
toppled the capitalist austerity government of former President Fernando
de la Rua showed very young people playing a leading role.
In its issue no. 4, the on-line bulletin of the Argentine Movimiento
al Socialismo, Socialismo o Barbarie, highlighted the role of youth in the
powerful protests against the devastating effects of capitalism and imperialism
on the masses-and in particular the young generations-of the undeveloped
world:
"In all these actions, we need to single out the eruption of a
vanguard made up basically of young people. In this area, the 'generational
renewal' is evident. In all sectors of the working people, the young generations
have been most dynamic in the struggle.
"This militant young component includes students, downtown office
workers, and sectors of superexploited workers. Among the latter, the 'motoqueros'
[motorcycle couriers], played the outstanding role.
"These young people work in conditions of superexploitation. Every
day they risk their lives. They played a leading role in many of the street
battles we have witnessed in past weeks, in particular in the Plaza de Mayo
on Dec. 12, in which a number of them were murdered by the police."
High School Students Confront Anti-Gay
Bigotry
By ADAM RITSCHER
DULUTH, Minn.-In 1996 Jamie Nabozny, a young gay student from northern
Wisconsin, made national headlines when he and his family successfully sued
the Ashland School District for failure to protect him from constant verbal
and physical harassment.
Throughout his school years Jamie had been heckled, beaten, and even
urinated on because of his sexual orientation. All of this took place openly
in the halls and locker rooms of Ashland high school, and despite frequent
complaints to the administration, Jamie received little or no relief from
his torment.
The federal court that heard Jamie's case found the Ashland school district
guilty of failing to protect Jamie and punish his tormenters. The school
district was forced to pay him $900,000.
This event five years ago brought an unprecedented amount of attention
to the small town of Ashland, Wis. Articles covering the case appeared in
The New York Times, and MTV requested to visit the high school and speak
with students (a request that the school denied). This did not, however,
prevent the same thing from happening again, this time in nearby Duluth.
Jesse Montgomery, who successively attended Lakewood Elementary School,
Ordean Middle School, and East High School in District 709 of Duluth, was
awarded an undisclosed settlement in December after he too had been forced
to sue the school district for failing to protect him from harassment.
Jesse's harassment began way back in elementary school, and got progressively
worse as he got older. In middle school he was frequently called derogatory
names such as "faggot," "fag," "Jessica,"
"princess," "fairy," and "bitch."
In high school the harassment escalated to the physical. Jesse reported
to the school administrators that other students would come up to him and
grab his genitals and buttocks, trip him, beat him up, rub up against him,
and even throw him to the ground and mock rape him. Students in his ninth
and tenth grade choir class would grab his torso and inner thighs while
chanting insults, all to the laughter of most of the students present.
Attempts by Jesse's family to get the school to respond failed, and eventually
he had to transfer to a high school in Two Harbors, a town 20 miles away
from his home.
While it is fortunate that both Jesse Montgomery and Jamie Nabozny were
able to win compensation, such awards, if that is an appropriate word, do
little to compensate for the incredible agony these students, and thousands
of others around the country, have had to go through. End anti-gay bigotry
now!
Socialist Action /January 2002 |