27 Oct 05 Catholic Priest Suspends 900 Students’ Freedom of Speech

I recently came across an online article from my old hometown newspaper, the Asbury Park Press:

When students post their faces, personal diaries and gossip on Web sites like Myspace.com and Xanga.com, it is not simply harmless teen fun, according to one Sussex County Catholic school principal.

It’s an open invitation to predators and an activity that Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta will no longer tolerate, the Rev. Kieran McHugh told a packed assembly of 900 high school students two weeks ago.

Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to dismantle their Myspace.com accounts or similar sites with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension, students were told.

This doesn’t surprise me. My senior year of college, a Catholic priest who would later be appointed president of the whole college declared that the “goodness of a human life” outweighed a student’s right to free speech.

This sort of stuff, obviously, ticks me off to high heaven, you’ll pardon the pun. I believe that the high school has a legal right to do this, as a private institution.

But the school now certainly has a great deal of bad press as a result.