Supporting Waseem Salahi Versus Hart Administration

Update: My blog was mentioned by someone who started a topic on the Signal forum under:

Waseem Salahi Article used for Middle East Propaganda - See

I here will reply to the notes he mentioned about me leaving space to Yaman and Waseem to reply in their own words to his attacks even though I think they're not even challenging.

The fellow posted this line:

"a blogger has used Waseem's story to editorialize against "censorship" in the United States."

Well you can't actually call two-paragraphs introduction as editorializing, can you? I am merely a supporter, so i am not sure how "propagandist" a supporter can be! I mean you haven't even checked my "propagandist" blog: I, and very recently, have posted several posts on censorship in my country Syria; all you have to do is scroll down and check my recent posts: I have reported, posted and was interviewed about censorship in my country and now I am organizing with fellow bloggers and friends an event against internet censorship. So i dont "use" people's articles to blog on censorship, i "blog" on censorship.

As long as freedom of speech is abused, I am going to be blogging about it, regardless where this abuse is located.

And let's say I am "editorializing against censorship in the United States" in my introductory paragraphs, you mean I shouldn’t? for I am from the middle east? Why my ethnic origin is of interest to you? Would my two paragraphs be read differently by you if I am an American? that I wouldnt be a "propagandist"?

I think your problem with me and with the Salahis is that you don’t deal with "texts" as much as you deal with the "authors" of these texts labeling them according to their ethnical background. Hence I don’t think you are capable of reading "any" text whatsoever since they don’t exist to you in the first place.

I do not know what to say to a guy who thinks the mere act of "republishing" a post as a propaganda!? but i guess to a racist like you, "any" thing happens in the middle east and by middle easterns has to be propagandist.

And about this question of yours:

"I ask you Mr Waseem Salahi, "What is the connection between your brother, and this blogger? "

I am afraid your logic is amazingly ridiculous, are you saying, that the mere support of people could be motivated by a "connection"?
Does this mean, that my support of the jailed Egyptian blogger, Kareem Suleiman, is motivated by a "connection" with him? or that my support of the Syrian blogger Rukana Hammour against the Syrian intelligence is motivated by a "connection" with her?

I think you are simply a causeless person whose attacks and support are merely motivated by personal racist triggers.

I couldn’t agree more with what Yaman and Waseem had to say to this guy:

Yaman's comment:

While I appreciate your interest in this, if it can be given that name, I have to say some of the allegations and "concerns" you've raised are absurd. Your accusations that Waseem's article is "Middle East Propaganda" is pathetic and desperate, considering that you only used it in your subject line to get attention and then did not even follow up on the claim. So what if people around the world are reading this story? Don't you see international stories when you watch Fox News? To make things clear, I did not post about this anywhere but my blog, which is published under the CreativeCommons license, so folks are allowed to reproduce my posts wherever they like.

That tidbit aside, yes, I stand by my statement that a request for substantial, content-based changes amounts to censorship. Imagine if the Mayor of Santa Clarita requested to read all stories concerning the city government before they were published, and then requested that small "changes" be made to improve his image. Of course, those in office would try to "change" anything that made them look bad. But what that kind of change actually entails is replacing critical content with neutral or positive content. It is absolutely a form of censorship, especially when the censors are interested parties who, given their reaction to this ordeal, are rather embarrassed by the fact that they got attention beyond Hart campus, and probably never would have tried to do this had they known that those were the consequences of their actions.

As for the potential of causing conflict on campus--now that the article has been distributed around campus, and we can look at it retrospectively, was their a riot? Was there violence? Did Hart High School go down in flames with the distribution of the article? Did Santa Clarita go down in flames when The Signal printed the editorial? No--people are not as stupid as you'd like to think. The claim that someone's idea is too "dangerous" to be discussed freely has always been the refuge of dictators from Syria to Jordan to Libya to Algeria to Saudi Arabia etc who have nothing but power to back themselves up.

Maybe you disagree with Waseem's article or tone, and that's why you're angry that The Signal published it. But if that's the case, you would look a lot more reasonable if you actually responded to the merits of his article, to the substance of his claims, rather than cast all these vague accusations that he's a "Middle East" propagandist or that he "craves and desires the publicity." I suppose the fact that you said absolutely nothing at all about his article reflects poorly on you and it definitely brings the intentions of your post into question--are you friends with one of the Hart administrators?

Waseem's comment:

Well, let's first start off by saying I'm a little creeped out by the amount of time and effort you put in to make a loose connection between my editorial and Middle Eastern propaganda.

Before you ask me any questions, please, in quotations, point out the specific parts of my editorial or my issue of the Smoked Signal that somehow implicates that I am publishing a piece of Middle Eastern propaganda? See, that's where the problem starts. You can't.

Simply because my article was supported in blogs doesn't mean I have any association with them. It's like claiming that The Signal is promoting Middle Eastern propaganda because their publication of my article was republished in Middle Eastern blogs. Pretty ignorant, eh?

If, however, you are implicating that somehow, by the mere fact of me being Middle Eastern that my words are therefore propaganda, then I would appreciate an apology from your blatantly racist and unnecessary remarks. Maybe you should reread my editorial, and then you'll get an idea that you're one of the catalysts that causes the division to occur in society.

Does that make you feel good about yourself, Mr. Petz? Do you get a feeling of accomplishment there?

----------------------------

I have read Waseem's piece and I am really astonished by the high school administration's decision to censor his article. Instead of supporting a student, who raises questions and challenges policies I think reconsidering them, as Yaman said, can only be in favor for the welfare of the campus community and to Santa Clarita Valley's community as well, Salahi was deprived to have his say! I cannot see how an educational institution i.e. a school, that is all about teaching students in classrooms to question and challenge their teachers, to argue with and against a certain topic in their papers, and to come up with problematic counter arguments, is itself censoring a "divisive" argument!

One thing that caught my eye in Waseem's piece is his argument on social, economical and political exclusion. Here in this region, Syria and Lebanon, people "assume" that the US is a cosmopolitan society, a multicultural community, I remember I was arguing against that in Balamand based on how America's media agencies and industries represent themselves; they don’t mention Mexicans unless if they're poor, don’t mention Blacks unless they're "violent", don't mention Asians unless they're mafias, and needless to say, they don’t show Arabs unless they're "terrorists". The American reporter, actress and journalist, is exclusively White, and when she/he isn’t white, she is a hyphenated White as in a White-Black. Americanism becomes "White". Indeed there are multi communities and multi cultures in the United States, but they are segregated and not integrated. I might be wrong, but I find Waseem's piece highlighting one of the reasons why America is a segregated society.

Below I republish Waseem's brother, Yaman Salahi's detailed post on Waseem's case as a support to Waseem Salahi versus Hart High School Administration.

Taken from Yaman Salahi

Censorship and Exclusion at Hart High School: Community divisions in Santa Clarita

My younger brother Waseem Salahi is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of his high school’s newspaper, “The Smoke Signal.” As is standard with almost all high school newspapers, the administration “reviews” the paper before it goes to press every month. This month, the administration called Waseem into the office 1-2 hours before deadline, where he was met by the principal and three vice principals. The administration made it clear to him that the article needed to be “changed,” ostensibly to avoid creating “division” on campus. However, while Waseem was talking to administrators, the journalism adviser told students to replace the article with an advertisement, and the publication was sent to press while Waseem was still arguing with the administration.

The administration denies that this was an act of censorship, and instead claims that it merely wanted “changes” to be made to the article–however, according to my brother, the requests for changes were not merely regarding wording, but had to do with content and substance. Before I discuss the actual article, which expresses criticisms of the administration and the school’s Associated Students Body, I think it’s important to say this clearly: even a request for “changes” amounts to censorship. Even worse, the school administration may have broken the law in trying to enforce those requests.

In California, high school administrators do not have the right of prior restraint (that is, the right to prevent speech before it actually happens) for any student publications, even ones that are officially recognized and funded by the school in question. As far back as 1977, California has protected students’ rights in this respect in Section 49807 of the CA Education Code, which states:

“There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official school publications except insofar as it violates this section.”

Violations are enumerated in the following way:

…expression shall be prohibited which is obscene, libelous, or slanderous. Also prohibited shall be material which so incites students as to create a clear and present danger of the commission of unlawful acts on school premises or the violation of lawful school regulations, or the substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school.

To put it in other words, high school administrators in California only have the right to block or modify student publications if they are either:

(1) obscene
(2) untrue (libelous or slanderous)
or
(3) create a “clear and present danger” on campus

Merely creating controversy does not fall into any of these categories. According to my understanding, the concern that administrators voiced throughout this entire ordeal was that the article in question would be “divisive.” They did not say it would start riots, they did not say it was factually incorrect, and they did not claim it was obscene. They said, in essence, that it was too controversial to print–but it is more likely that it was stopped because it was critical of the high school administration as well as the ASB. Furthermore, according to this advisory by the California Department of Education in 1988, before censoring material prior to publication, school officials

…must notify the student and give specific reasons why the submitted material may not be published. Absent extraordinary circumstances, such notice should be given in sufficient time to allow the student to either modify the material (particularly where the problem is journalistic) or to seek review of the school official’s determination at the school district level.

Two hours before the deadline does not seem like a reasonable amount of time to allow anybody either to significantly modify an article or to challenge the administration’s decision at a higher level.

At this point, I couldn’t be more proud of Waseem, who responded to this brazen act of interference by the administration in the smartest way possible: by contacting bigger press and also self-publishing and distributing the article on campus himself. One Santa Clarita community paper, The Signal, printed a front page story about this issue, as well as the full text of Waseem’s censored editorial in solidarity.

This morning, once the coverage in The Signal was out, Waseem was called into the office for a meeting with the school’s administrators, to which my mother was asked to come. According to my brother, the administrators expressed their disappointment that he had reacted in this way, and that given this reaction, they were “re-considering” whether he was responsible enough to continue in his position as Editor-in-Chief of the school’s paper. They also requested that he not distribute the copies of the article which he had printed himself, which are imaged to the side and which can be downloaded by clicking here. Of course, the administration here is mainly annoyed that it has been embarrassed because–the horror–somebody actually talked about the censorship itself. That’s the funny thing about censorship, it seems: it only works if nobody knows about it. Not only does the administration want to censor the original article, but it wants to censor anything that might be said about that initial act of censorship. Looks like a slippery slope to me.

Nevertheless, Waseem has been met with strong support from students on campus, as well as teachers, counselors, and campus supervisors. Whether the administration will threaten his position as Editor-in-Chief remains to be seen, but removing him either because of the original article, or because of the fact that he distributed it independently, is almost certainly against California state law. High school students in California have the right to distribute any publication or printed material on campus that they desire, even without the school’s endorsement or permission, as long as it does not violate any of the conditions above.

Of course, this story would not have been an issue if it weren’t for the subject-matter of Waseem’s article. He touched on a few things which really should not be news to anyone; all it takes is a stroll around campus to see the segregation on Hart’s campus. Everybody is well aware of it. Waseem’s article made the simple point that the campus community was not as unified or inclusive as the administration and the ASB like to think because:

(1) The high costs of participation in most school activities by default excludes those whose families are either unwilling or unable to pay (Waseem cites the number $2,910 as the estimated cost of participation in all senior activities–to put this number into perspective, the poverty threshold for a family of four in 2006 was found to be $20,444. That is almost 15% of a full year of income for a family living at the poverty line, or the cost of living for 2 months)
(2) That a sense of “belonging” and involvement of different communities on campus could be measured simply by looking at the ASB, which is incredibly unrepresentative of the student body as a whole (Even if there are no rules which lead to this lack of representation, there must be something else which makes certain communities feel that their participation in this institution is unwanted or unappreciated)
(3) That division exists not only racially, but academically as students are split between the “intellectual elite” and “midkids,” and linguistically between English and non-English speaking classrooms

This situation is not unique to Hart High School, but is actually a fairly common phenomenon for any school which serves a community so economically and ethnically diverse. The more serious thing to consider here is not the division on Hart’s campus, which is obvious enough at face value; but, rather, to consider the idea that perhaps the problems on Hart’s campus are emblematic of a wider problem in the Santa Clarita Valley. Things certainly are not dandy and, even if they are quiet at the present, they have not always been, and will not always be. Eventually, these divisions will surface again, and next time they may not be in the form of a high school editorial. Instead of tucking the serious issues away, as Hart’s administration has tried to do, perhaps it is time not only for a campus dialog but a community dialog about the real and perceived disenfranchisement and exclusion of Santa Clarita’s minority and low-income communities.

There are two ways for the administration to save face at this point. One is to pay serious attention to the issues raised in Waseem’s article and to figure out a way of involving students, faculty, and other community members in a community dialogue on how the issues can be addressed. The second is for it to reflect a bit on the way it deals with students and student activities, including student publications. There is clearly something wrong with an administration that tries to ignore a problem rather than confront it. Worse, this is not the only story of censorship I’ve heard regarding the school paper–I remember at least one incident during my freshman year when, after the paper had already been printed, students were forced to tear a specific article out of every printed copy because it was critical of the administration’s use of funds to renovate the school quad. I also received the following message today from one former Editor-in-Chief of the same school paper:

As a former EIC of “The Smoke Signal” I sympathize with Waseem’s plight. The administration has always actively worked to stifle the newspaper. We had several uphill battles against Fuller that always resulted in censorship. I hoped those days would end with Fuller gone but guess not.

There are probably countless other experiences to report. If this is how those who are most involved in the student body feel when they reflect about their experience in interacting with school administrators at Hart, then something is wrong. It is up to students and faculty at Hart, now, to make sure that they pressure the administration to modify its behavior and attitude towards the student body. After all, students, it’s your school. Not the administration’s.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and the legal information above should not be taken as legal advice.

Update: It looks like new media is in on the revolution as well. SCVTalk.com has a summary of the ordeal, and this anonymous blogger has written about it as well.

Yaman added a comment beneath his blog post:

I should probably add that I never used my time at Hart to do something cool like this. The brief couple of months that I joined journalism, I think I wrote an article about ketchup. I’m not joking. The closest I ever got was when an administrator called me into the office because some people were offended that a public announcement for an Amnesty International meeting referred to Guantanamo Bay prison as “unconstitutional.”