Kids Are Americans Too Read Free Page A

him. He received a death threat.
    There’s more, but that’s enough. Matthew’s family is now suing the local board of education, and the beat goes on.
    Is this a case of one courageous kid standing up for his rights to free speech? The “free speech” in this case, of course, is going public about the teacher’s comments. Is this (also?) a case of one boy defending freedom of religion, meaning that he doesn’t have to listen in school to material that is associated with Christian fundamentalism?
    Maybe it started out that way, but now it’s one heck of a mess.New rules, lawyers on both sides, angry quotes in the press, kids choosing up sides. To me, the lesson is pretty clear. The teacher was way over the line, but Matthew’s unusual action stoked the fire. His classmates may be acting badly, but they felt they were dragged into something they didn’t want to become involved in. School officials may talk the talk about keeping religion out of the classroom, but they are steaming because the whole thing got so much public attention. (And this book is another example of that!)
    As I’ve said before, sometimes it’s better all around—better for your friends and your school and your community—if you try tact first. Matthew said the recordings were necessary because, otherwise, officials would not believe him. Maybe he’s right. We’ll never know. Maybe the officials would have covered the behind of the teacher, a fourteen-year-veteran. Again, we’ll never know.
    What we do know is that a lot of people are angry, and it looks as if neither side, so far, is happy with the outcome. Matthew’s a kid like you, and he’ll learn a lot from this. I hope he learns only good things. And I hope you learn that conflict like this should be thoughtfully, skillfully avoided.
    In my opinion, Matt should have kept his tapes private, using them as notes. He should have stated his objections clearly and calmly to school administrators, and if they did not believe him, then he should have let them hear the taped remarks in private.
    Going public with the tapes should have been the very last resort. If Matthew had taken the steps I suggest, I believe he would have won an early victory.
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    !THIS JUST IN!
    Months later, there was a final (one hopes) footnote to all of this.
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    In a settlement between the LaClair family and the town board of education—one of those agreements, by the way, in which no one admits any “wrongdoing” in the matter under debate—Matthew won two points.
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    The board decided to ask the state’s chapter of the Anti-Defamation League to begin teaching both students and their teachers about the need for public schools to keep ideas of church and state separate.
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    Also, the board offered to praise publicly Matthew’s “courage and integrity” while the kid’s parents in turn agreed to applaud that body for its actions.
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    After all of this was over, the boy himself felt that he had learned “how hard it can be sometimes to go against the grain, and that a lot of times, even though things may be tough, you still have to go through with it and finish it.”
    Sounds good. I’m okay with that. But I still recommend cool heads over hot words, whenever that’s possible. When two sides have to agree to commend each other in public, that’s ridiculous.
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3
WHAT IS YOUR FREEDOM ALL ABOUT?
    F or openers, the Constitution guarantees all of us, in a famous phrase, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
    Fair enough. Who could argue with that? I want to live, and I bet you do, too. I want to be free; so do you. We both want to “pursue happiness”…
    Uh-oh. Just what the heck does that mean? Well, let’s say we’re both taking a train (after all, I do live in the New York City area): Is it okay for you to “pursue happiness” by shouting into