This past week, Q-line asked: “Should students be excused from school to exercise their freedoms of speech, or does this open the floodgates for all students to skip out on classes for any cause?”
Here are your responses: ✆ “I think that Santa Monica should lower all rents here and make it like $200 for a two-bedroom apartment, so that all the illegal immigrants that are here and who are going to stay here and work toward citizenship, can at least afford to live in Santa Monica, too, because it’s not fair that only the rich should live here.” ✆ “You said it right in your question. It does open the floodgates for all students to skip class for any cause, and some of them need little incentive to be out of school. Most of them don’t have a clue as to the real issues involved in this present crisis. We are already overwhelmed by too many illegal immigrants, some of whom at least work, most do not. They are criminals, gang members and loafers here to live off and exploit our already overwhelmed society. The borders need to be secured to prevent terrorists, drug dealers, criminals and gang dealers carrying all sorts of diseases from pouring into this country. It is a frightening nightmare at present. If the positions at the borders were reversed, do you think Vicente Fox would stand for it for one minute? Our quality of life in this country is deteriorating rapidly. We the people on the front lines know it. We live it 24/7. The ivory tower politicians who are corrupt, inept, and devoted to special interests, don’t listen to us. They just go their merry, self-serving ways. That is, until we the people throw them out. It’s time people. It’s past time.” ✆ “No, the students should not be excused from school, for any one of the 101 causes making the rounds. However, excused or not, the rabble rousers will exploit them to break the law and rules of common sense and good judgment.” ✆ “It would be a sad day when students of any age could not express their views on the schoolyard in accordance to the first article of the Constitution of the United States of America, allowing free speech. I am totally against students of any age running out upon our freeways and roadways to make a point. This form of action could be very dangerous. Students belong in school. Students should start a letter writing campaign addressed to those politicians who are in office to help them, letting those politicians know it’s important for those students to live and love the American way of life. The pen is a very sharp weapon when used properly.” ✆ “These troublemakers should be punished for walking out of class like that. If they want to do it after school or on weekends, fine, but during class time they are supposed to be there, and they should be punished for truancy. Although, considering most of these are probably the troublemakers anyway, I’m sure a lot of the teachers will be glad to get rid of them. So if they should be punished for truancy and are illegal, they should ship them back to where they came from, because they don’t belong in this country. Most of them were probably waving Mexican flags anyway, so it shows you where their loyalties lie, not in this country.” ✆ “Test after test, study after study, demonstrates that Hispanic students perform the worst, have the highest truancy rate and the highest dropout numbers. Now there are those who want to excuse even more time out of the classroom. Fine with me. It’s better for the smart kids who remain seated.” ✆ “College students have the right to skip classes. However, high schoolers and younger kids legally are supposed to be in school unless they have a written excuse from the parents. If a young student leaves campus and is injured, the school can even be liable for not keeping a student on campus without notifying their parents.” ✆ “You asked a simply ridiculously stupid question and I’m sure you’ll get ridiculously stupid answers, but not here.” ✆ “Why not? They can’t be any less intelligent than the over-glorified teachers who confuse students’ peanut-sized intellect with racial and social nonsense. These young people who skip classes are already failing. Their futures are Starbucks, McDonalds or selling dope. What does an 18-year-old really know about anything, especially as something as complex as illegal immigration? Teachers and La Raza leaders do a great disservice to these young adults by using emotional manipulation to distort the truth.” ✆ “I think that the students are not losing a lot by going on a march, because this country is a country of immigrants, and let the kids learn some more. So I think it’s a good idea to let them march, and I think they should give them credit for it.” ✆ “I believe that the students should have the freedom of speech but they should do it on a Saturday or Sunday when there is no school. That is my belief and that is the way they should do it and be recognized as the right thing to do.” ✆ “I agree with letting the kids out of school to fight for their rights. After all, they are all stuck in the ghetto with landlords charging them $1,100 a month for a one-bedroom apartment and the politicians in this city don’t do anything for the Hispanic people. Let them out of school, let them have a revolution. The whole infrastructure of this country is falling down the drain anyways. It’s just a bunch of crooks in Washington, plus the crooks that are on this City Council.
Why don’t you investigate them? Maybe they will do something for the kids because nobody else seems to want to.” ✆ “Students should not be allowed to protest unless they are registered voters and I would ask for the evidence of their voter registration card.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 8, 2006. Read the original PDF.