Most schools have a code of conduct for students. In student handbooks, school administrators spell out conduct that will not be tolerated. Various degrees of punishment are laid out so students can clearly understand the consequence of certain behavior.
The common denominator for most school rules is whether an action disrupts the educational environment. In student handbooks, after a long list of rules, one often finds a broad, catch-all statement such as, "Any other action by a student that disrupts the educational environment will be prohibited."
If Channel One News was a student, "he" would have been expelled from school years ago. Channel One News brings provocative pictures into the classroom (remember the "Topless girl commercial" in 2000?). Channel One News urged students to see movies that promote drug and alcohol consumption (remember "Dude, Where’s My Car? and "Loser"?). There is no way that Channel One could comply with a typical student handbook.
This 2002-03 school year, Channel One is showing students what we call "horror PSAs" which show a young person being shot in the head, another one shows a boy unbuttoning a girl’s blouse, and another shows a car striking a young girl on a bike. The trauma this causes some students is undeniable, yet this classroom bully, Channel One News, keeps on doing whatever "he" wants.
Administrators, who allow Channel One News to continue in classrooms, are contributing to the disruption of their school’s educational environment. When a school administrator allows Sharika and Britney Spears to dance provocatively, in skimpy attire, or use sexual inuendo on the Channel One screen, that administrator is undermining the purpose of public education.
Channel One has fun telling students to drive recklessly. Channel One News insults students. You name the offensive behavior and Channel One News has done it.
Channel One News brings guns into the school house. Movie ads that show guns blazing do nothing but glorify violence. Remember the simply horrific PSA that Channel One News sneaked into the classroom a few years ago that showed a baby being shot in the face by a sniper? (They stopped that when Obligation called them on it but the damage to children was done already.)
Parents, students, teachers, and other taxpayers need to calmly tell their school boards that it is time to escort this unruly, rowdy, delinquent out of the classroom.
[The New York State Board of Regents (NY’s state board of education) has always outlawed Channel One News from ALL New York public school classrooms. New York is Channel One’s home state.]
