Hearkening back to days of yore

I went to a pretty uppity high school. Here in this town of 40,000, nothing much exciting happens. The same held true for the inner halls of the secondary school that I attended. Maybe all the mischief was just hushed up by the deans and the principal, but I doubt it.

One of the few positively interesting things to happen during my stay (although back then I didn’t realize nor think it was very interesting) was the publication of a rogue school newspaper. The school’s officially sanctioned newspaper was called The Triangle. The newspaper staff had an agreement with the school administrata (I just made that word up) that the paper would never be censored, reviewed, etc. at all by the principal, school board, or any other high-ranking official. Just recently, this has gotten them in trouble for writing and publishing an article about oral sex (aka blowjob knobslobbery cocksucking fellatio dicklickery nickbakery ad nauseam), but that’s another day, another story.

The Triangle‘s motto went something like “there are three sides to every story.” Fox News, eat your heart out; these guys and gals were way ahead of their time. However, The Quadrilateral‘s (clever name, huh?) motto was “there’s four sides to every story” (clever motto, huh?). Okay, so the rogue paper scores no points on originality. It did, however, land its “editorial staff” in deep trouble due to the sorts of comments, off-color jokes, and general stupidity it contained in all of four pages. What you are about to see may shock you, if you click on the links. Are you ready for this?

Page 1 || Page 2 || Page 3 || Page 4

After reading those convoluted and decidedly highschoolish attempts at humor, you just might be thinking to yourself:

What the hell is the problem?

I’ll be honest. Back then, I found some of the paper funny. Hell, after re-reading it now, I still find some parts humorous. But seriously, if this was the school’s biggest problem, I have to wonder how much more snooty people can get. I don’t quite remember the “sentences” handed down to the creators of the paper—I suppose it doesn’t really matter now—but the fact that the deans, principal, and the like obsessed over this, demanding all the remaining copies, essentially “interrogating” those responsible (though somehow I doubt it was that harsh), makes me wonder how people can be so damn sensitive.

We’ve got kids in inner city schools shooting each other (ok, maybe not HERE) and getting a horrible education, and my high school’s staff is worried about some lame fag jokes?

This was five years ago. The Quadrilateral did have a disclaimer, after all; The Triangle did not, and probably does not have one now. Judging by the recent uproar over the oral sex article (the school board has gotten involved), I don’t think anyone has learned any lessons about free speech in the interim.

(Wow, this is the first posted article to be in four different categories. Hooray.)