CFAR 2007 High School Conference

The 2007 High School First Amendment Conference will be squarely focused on how students, school administrators and parents can cooperate to strengthen demonstrations of citizenship in school and to provide opportunities for dissent where students are able to exercise their First Amendment Rights. We plan a town meeting format with break out sessions for developing processes and issues for dealing with student expression in school. The break out sessions will consider special problems and the students own First Amendment problems. Each group will report to the experts about their deliberations, raising questions, concerns and possible resolutions. It will be a very busy and involving day but a very worthwhile one. Moderator will be Nelson Beaurois, principal of a First Amendment abiding high school in Maine, who because of his positions in his school has been in much demand as a speaker and keynoter and moderator nation-wide. We will again have a panel of experts to address student concerns. The conference will take place on Friday October 5th at Hoffman Auditorium, Saint Joseph College, Asylum Ave, West Hartford. The conference will start at 8:30 AM with a continental breakfast and there will be a small snack at 10:30

Students and teachers attending this year's high school workshop will be able to see first hand Wilton high school students performing scenes from their controversial student production, "Voices in Conflict." Student actors will participate with the audience in a talk back session on their experiences with censorship and the first amendment.

Handouts:

• First Principles: Understanding the First Amendment [PDF]
• Public school student speech rights in the U.S. Supreme Court [PDF]

Complimentary continental breakfast and snack drinks generously donated by Bruegger's Bagel Bakery, Whole Foods Company, West Hartford store and Switchbeverage, a new natural carbonated fruit juice drink. Please let them know of your appreciation of their support for community events and CFAR, Inc.

Students and Teachers Rate 2007 HS Workshop [PDF]

CFAR 2006 High School Conference

CFAR's 2006 High School Conference drew the largest audience ever--318 people. In addition to the students and their teachers, six administrators attended to learn more about the First Amendment in schools. This is understandable in view of the numerous First Amendment issues springing up in schools all over Connecticut, the Constitution state! In preparation for the 2007 10th anniversary High School Conference, CFAR devoted the theme to high school issues again in 2006. Featuring our old Connecticut favorite and leading expert and litigator on High School issues, Professor Martin Margulies, and that national favorite, Mark Goodman of the Student Press Law Association, the conference was a lively one. Andrew Mangino, a Yale student, also responded to student queries and discussed his view of the need for First Amendment expression within high schools. The question and discussion period was lively as usual.

CFAR 2005 High School Conference

CFAR's 2006 High School First Amendment Conference assembled 185 strong in the comfortable Auditorium Building of the West Hartford University of Connecticut Campus (known collegially as "The Old Law School Building") to hear and discuss First Amendment issues with two old favorites, Keen Umbehr, now now longer a trash hauler but a full fledged honors college graduate and law grad who had opened his own office the week before the gathering and Professor Martin Margulies.

Attorney Umbehr, who had not addressed a CFAR audience in some seven or eight years, told of his experiences as a trash hauler who wrote op-ed pieces for a local weekly about the inadequacies of local government, the effort of government to censor him, and his case, ultimately won in the U.S. Supreme Court, Board of County Commissioners v. Umbehr.  His main focus was on the strategies of using First Amendment freedoms in daily life and the students were fascinated, had many questions of him and were involved in the discussion.  

Professor Margulies discussed the rights of students, including the contrasts between student rights inside of school and the broader rights outside of school  Students were, of course, very interested in their own rights and had many questions for Mr. Margulies.  Their evaluations showed that they found the boundary between in school and  outside of school most interesting.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the 2006 Conference is that for the first time a student group discussed their need for more First Amendment education and made many suggestions for a variety of formats which CFAR is developing now.  The students suggested in school debates, First Amendment Clubs in each school, pilot curricula in their schools and a "first amendment road show" or circuit of traveling speakers just like the ones at the Conference, but at each school.  CFAR was impressed with the impact of a little First Amendment knowledge and the originality of the student suggestions both at the Conference and in the evaluations.  The students have put CFAR to work and we are working on it. Any students, faculty or administrators interested in First Amendment Clubs at their schools should contact CFAR ASAP at 860-541-3339 or ethel@cfarfreedom.org . CFAR would be grateful for your in-put.

 

CFAR 2004 High School Conference

Clear and Present Danger: The Palmer Raids

Background Materials Read about this year's topic, including information on the Palmer Raids and the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917-1919.

The 2004 High School Conference was held September 30th at the University of Connecticut School of Law, Starr Hall.

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High School Students of 2004 - and the 1920 Palmer Raids

by John J. Simon

A few weeks ago, on Thursday, September 30th, one hundred and sixty students from all over the State - from Stamford, Darien, Easton/Redding, Trumbull, Hartford, Avon, and several other high schools - and their teachers - served for the morning as members of the 1920 United States House of Representatives, and in that capacity were asked to hear arguments as to whether or not to impeach Louis Post, the Assistant Secretary of Labor in the last years of the Wilson administration.

The event was held at the University of Connecticut Law School in Hartford, and was sponsored by the Center for First Amendment Rights, a statewide organization devoted to the development and presentation of educational programs about the First Amendment. I have recently become the President of that organization, and have been actively involved in the development of their programs and the plans for their presentation.

The “hearing” took the form of a play called “A Clear and Present Danger - the Palmer Raids.” It is part of an ambitious program that uses theater to educate teenagers about issues of law and justice. The play had been written and developed in Boston by a group called Discovering Justice, which operates out of the Federal Court House there. The students watched a professional theater troupe re-enact an episode that has been almost lost to American history: the 1920 Congressional inquiry into raids directed by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer - and his then new FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover - against foreigners suspected of supporting terrorism. The Russian revolution had taken place just a few years before, and the fear of radicals - of Bolshevism - was rife in the United States. In that climate, Mitchell Palmer, the last of Wilson’s Attorneys-General, sent agents into immigrant communities and arrested several thousand foreigners with the intent of deporting them. He said that they were connected to terror groups that had started a wave of violence and fire bombed Palmer’s own home.

When Louis Post, and Assistant Secretary of Labor, refused to sign many of the deportation orders, indicating that there was no indication or proof of any complicity in seditious activities, Palmer demanded that Post be impeached for undermining national security. The House Rules Committee then met to hear Palmer’s charges.

A great deal of “A Clear and Present Danger” is taken directly from transcripts of the Congressional hearings, and from the testimony of many of the people inappropriately and improperly seized and detained, and re-enactments of the raids and detentions are all part of the presentation to “Congress” - the students gathered in the chamber. Palmer argued that the threat of terror attacks justified extraordinary steps like mass raids and deportations. Post replied that there had been little or no evidence against many of those arrested, that many had been mistreated while in detention, and that American law should protect suspected terrorists as much as anyone else.

In the play, a cast of seven actors portray dozens of different characters - Palmer and Post, of course, and Wilson and J.Edgar Hoover, and Lenin, and FBI agents and lawyers at the hearings. Palmer and Post - and their spokesmen and lawyers - make their points, and argue their respective cases. And the “Representatives” were able to question them all - always in character - and engage in dialogue with them. The questions were sharp and perceptive - and when it all was over the students - acting as the “House of Representatives” - were asked to vote. And they voted against recommending impeachment 134 - 25. The vote was similar to the action taken by the actual House Rules Committee in 1920.

And then there was a continuing discussion between the students and the cast members - now out of their roles - and in the course of the morning almost forty of the one hundred and sixty assembled students, rose and engaged in questioning and dialogue. What a wonderful few hours - and what an impressive group of students! I asked several of their teachers whether the students they brought had been hand picked, and discovered that indeed none had. Each school’s fifteen allotted slots had been filled - after posting notices - on a first come - first served basis. How wonderful that eleven teachers saw the possibilities of such a thrilling and free presentation, and responded to the invitations that had been issued - issued indeed to every high school social studies department in the State - and how exciting that they had taken advantage of the opportunity to work with their social studies classes and prepare them for the events of the day.
What an unusual and special educational experience! And how very pertinent to the times and events through which we are now living!

I wrote several months ago of another special day - one we presented on different subjects for middle school students back in April. It was equally exciting and special, and was attended by almost three hundred eighth graders from several schools. I commented then that I was disappointed to note that no Westport students were there, and I was disappointed once again to see that there had been no response to this invitation either on the part of the Staples Social Studies Department, and that no Westport students were present. What a missed opportunity!