Sudent Union

[citizen_142002]

We are starting a student union at KHS. The student body really has little recourse in dealing with the administration, and the student council is useless unless you're putting on a dance.
What do you think about student unions, or unions in general.

[AlanM]

Unions? Well, I never met a Union I liked. Perhaps they exist, somewhere, or perhaps they can exist. Most unions are all for the use of force. Find me a union that runs according to ZAP, and I might like it.

[Kat Kanning]

What will the student union do?

[Lloyd Danforth]

In a couple of campuses I've been to, the Student Union is a place.

[MattLeft]

Yeah, most campuses (campusi?) have Student Unions.  They're buildings, kinda like a town square or communal congregating area.  Never heard the term "student union" actually mean a union of students.

[Russell Kanning]

You could create a student union hangout and then plot the overthrow of the admin from there.

[Gabo]

I really wish the people in my school cared enough to make a successful union.

We could stop the disgusting random searches and drug dogs, not to mention the awful dress code and locking us in at lunch.

[Kat Kanning]

Radom searches and drug dogs?      Is this a school or a prison?

[FTL_Ian]

Radom searches and drug dogs?      Is this a school or a prison?

Sounds like a typical govt school.  Many of them look like prisons.

[BaRbArIaN]

Even a Student Union would be powerless to stop Police State thug tactics.  Your parents don't have the power of the purse against the school, so they can't punish them if they don't like their policies.    All they can do is complain to the school board.   All you as students can do is shut up and obey or be ground into the dust (i.e. have criminal offenses on your "permanent record" from resisting).  Sad.   Maybe some of the administrators can be reasoned with, but I doubt it.

[Eli]

I think you should install some (literal) red herrings.

[Gabo]

Even a Student Union would be powerless to stop Police State thug tactics.  Your parents don't have the power of the purse against the school, so they can't punish them if they don't like their policies.

Not so.
Parents may not have a choice with the money, but the children ARE the money.

For example, on random days an administrator picks people to get searched as they enter the school.
If we had a student union, all students could refuse to come to school on any day they see that there is going to be a search.
The school gets funding ONLY when students are there, so it would lose a TON of funding every search day.

They would be forced to stop the horrible searches, or go into the red.

[Russell Kanning]

I love it.

[GT]

The school gets funding ONLY when students are there

I heard a while back that the reason there is little out of school suspensions anymore is the same reason. If the kids are not in school they don't get funding.

[citizen_142002]

I'll sat this for KHS, our civil liberties are mostly respected. We are not searched when we enter the school. There are no metal detectors and your car is not searched in the school parking lot. There are kids who have guns in their cars. The kids who actually have guns in their cars, are the least likely to shoot up the school, and would be the first to stop the criminals in the event of a school shooting. There have been no drug searches in the 3.5 years that I have attended school at KHS. We are not hearded into hallways to be sniffed by drug sniffing dogs. The liberal spirit of Keene does help protect us from such injustices.

The student union is being formed primarily to address an overly strict attendence policy. Most people feel that they should be able to miss as much class as they want, as long as they can still pass a class. Many of us would like to be able to smoke on school grounds. The vending machines are turned of at lunch, which is bullshit. The dress code does not please us. Most of us feel that the law should be the only limit on dress at a public school. There is also a camera system at KHS, which many of us want to eliminate.

Most unions are socialist/communist. I will not deny that some of these elements will be in the union. Politics will lay no part in the student union. All students will be welcome, and actions will be determined by a simple majority. The union will be a private organization, which is conttactually agreed to. We may organize strikes, class room wlak outs, sports non participation, and not paying our lunch accounts. We won't be beating people up, or bombing teachers' cars.