Club Anarchy: Why high school sucks.

• Author: Walker, Jesse
• Position: Citings - Brief Article

THEY DON'T CARE much for anarchy at Sissonville High. Late in 2001, the West Virginia school barred 15-year-old Katie Sierra from starting an Anarchy Club, then suspended her for three days when she leafleted students to join the club anyway. It also scolded her for wearing a T-shirt bearing this handwritten comment: "When I saw the dead and dying Afghani children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense of national security. God Bless America." In November, the Kanawha County Circuit Court upheld the school's right to do all of the above.

The local Charleston Daily Mail praised the decision, arguing that "Americans cherish the freedoms guaranteed them under the Constitution, but the thoroughly egocentric exercise of those rights becomes tiresome." For those worried that tiresomeness might not be a legal doctrine, the paper added that while free speech is...