Free Kids Are Americans Too by Bill O'Reilly

arguable right to determine what students are taught—but the point is that, in a way very different from the New York story, the community got involved.
    So, here’s the bottom line: Your rights as a kid are sometimes going to be determined by the ideas and beliefs of the community in which you live.
    You can decide to buck the tide and try to change the community. You can protest. You can get the ACLU or whomever to represent you in court.
    But when the community’s interest is involved, it’s probably best to get everyone to calm down and negotiate.
    This free-speech thing is pretty tricky. Particularly when politics is involved.
    Pink, a singer you probably know something about, shocked some Americans and amused others, I guess, when she came out with a song called “Dear Mr. President.” The lady does not like George Bush, his actions and policies, and maybe his pet dog. She pulled no punches.
    Fine. But when Molly Shoul, ten years old, decided to perform the ditty at her elementary school’s talent show in Coral Springs, Florida, the principal stepped in. By now, you know thedrill. The principal said the song was too political and otherwise inappropriate for kids in grammar school. Molly’s mother, a high school teacher, accused the teacher of “just running scared…[not wanting] to upset any parents.” Molly herself noted only that the song is “really cool.”
    And about a year before, the same school district allowed a high school kid to sport a shirt charging that the president is an INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST . He won the right after some back-and-forth with officials, but still.
    Molly was pretty flexible. She substituted a song about teenage girls competing for the love of some boy.
    What does all of this mean? You tell me. But for one thing, these debates are springing up in schools all across America, and you can bet that’s going to continue. You can also bet there will always be at least two sides, and two interpretations of rights. Here, what’s most important? Molly’s right to attack Bush in song? The principal’s right to protect the other children from disturbing words? Mrs. Shoul’s rights…the rights of the other parents (who are probably divided)?
    You decide. Because, sooner or later, you’re going to have to.
    STICKING UP FOR OTHERS
    Any kind of bullying is a bad thing. I make that point again and again on The Factor. I have to. The bullying stories come in from all across the country like a weekly tsunami. I mean it.
    So wouldn’t it be a good thing if a kid in East Hartford, Connecticut, writes a letter to the school newspaper that exposes bullying?
    Well, maybe, but the school principal wouldn’t let the letter be printed.
    This quote from the student’s letter may offer a clue to what irked the principal:
    Why is the staff so bent on us wearing I.D.’s and not swearing, but when they hear someone getting ranked on they have nothing to say?
    You got it. The principal didn’t like the idea that the letter supposedly suggested, in his words, “that all the teachers look the other way.”
    Oh, and he also said the paper has a policy against printing letters that are unsigned.
    See, the kid who wrote it wanted to remain anonymous. He was afraid that he would be (I know! You guessed it!) bullied because of it.
    You can see that I think the principal is a pinhead. But, and here is the point, school administrators can almost always exercise their right to keep something they don’t like out of a school-sponsored publication.
    End of story?
    No way. Several students were inspired to make an end run around their principal by sending letters, signed and unsigned, to the local newspaper, the Journal Inquirer. So, what could have been a discussion on campus sparked by a letter to the schoolnewspaper turned into a big controversy that got the attention of the whole community.
    Good for you, kids.
    Not too