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PA Bill Number: HB777

Title: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...

Description: In firearms and other dangerous articles, further providing for definitions and providing for the offense of sale of firearm or firearm parts without ...

Last Action: Third consideration and final passage (104-97)

Last Action Date: Mar 27, 2024

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Cheerleader Runs Afoul of PC Police :: 11/30/2015

In Revere, Massachusetts, a high school cheerleader named Caley Godino made a colossal mistake: She antagonized the PC Police. For her sins, Revere High School has thrown her off the cheerleading squad for the rest of the year and has banned her from any school-sponsored social events.

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What did Godino do that was so heinous?

On November 4, her civics teacher sent out a Tweet asking students what they thought about the low turnout in the previous day’s city elections. According to the teacher, only 10 percent of Revere’s electorate turned out to vote. What did students make of that?

Godino, tongue likely planted in cheek, tweeted back: “10 percent of Revere voted because the others are not legal.”

Ohh, no you di-in’t.

Under normal circumstances, the civics teacher could gently admonish Godino for her inappropriate joke and get on with life. That’s how high school works, right? Or is this the first generation of high schoolers who are expected to never say anything stupid? Let us know how that turns out.

There are plenty of things Godino could have said that might have warranted such a severe punishment. “…because the others are [racial expletive]” for instance. But this? Come on.

“If you’re going to stand up and say something that other people will find offensive, then you need to be prepare to deal with the ramifications of that,” said Superintendent Dianne Kelly.

Absolutely! Ramifications being…people might get upset. The world being what it is, you might even be physically attacked. You might find yourself socially ostracized. If you run a business, you might have to deal with a boycott. These are the known ramifications of saying something offensive.

But that’s not what’s happening here. The government – in the form of the Revere School District – is punishing a student for exercising their First Amendment rights. This isn’t just “the way of things.” This is a fundamental violation of an American citizen’s freedom of expression. Granted, there are gray areas when it comes to things like these. We accept certain violations. And if Godino had said something blatantly racist, no one would have any problem with her punishment.

But she didn’t. In fact, she didn’t say anything about race at all. The school is applying their own perceptions to the tweet and handing out punishment based on those perceptions. What’s happening to Godino…this is exactly why we have the First Amendment to begin with! To stop those in power from censoring speech they don’t like.

According to news reports, this incident has inspired Revere High School to develop a diversity curriculum. Wonderful. That time would be better spent developing a class called: Stop Worrying About What Other People Think or Do.

Better for the school, better for this country.

http://www.leanrightamerica.org/uncategorized/cheerleader-runs-afoul-of-pc-police/