Civics Student...or Enemy of America?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: October 15, 2005 4:58:33 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: [IP] Civics Student...or Enemy of America?


Dave,

I recently interviewed the point woman for one of the U.S.'s largest
drugstore chains about their policy regarding not only inspection of
prints that are developed from film, but also prints generated from
digital cameras and other media.  I was told that it is policy that
every single print must be inspected ("for quality control") and
that in the case of digital prints, copies are held locally for
varying amounts of time.  This applies to *all* prints, even ones
generated from their "self-service" kiosks.  I was unable to learn
the details of their corporate policy for the handing over of
"suspicious" prints to law enforcement.

However, doesn't it make you feel better to know that the Secret
Service has the manpower and resources to investigate such cases?
They must be rolling in dough these days.  Of course, if there were
a sudden surge in such anti-Bush materials showing up in drugstore
photo prints, the consequences for our national security might be
devastating indeed.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
  - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com

  - - -


> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: "Robert J.Berger" <rberger () ibd com>
> Date: October 15, 2005 3:55:09 PM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Dewayne Hendricks
> <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Subject: Civics Student...or Enemy of America?
>
>
> Civics Student...or Enemy of America?
> By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
> Posted on October 7, 2005, Printed on October 15, 2005
> http://www.alternet.org/story/26503/
>
> Selina Jarvis is the chair of the social studies department at
> Currituck County High School in North Carolina, and she is not
> used to having the Secret Service question her or one of her
> students.
>
> But that's what happened on September 20.
>
> Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class "to
> take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of
> Rights," she says. One student "had taken a photo of George Bush
> out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red
> thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb's-down sign
> with his own hand next to the President's picture, and he had a
> photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster."
>
> According to Jarvis, the student, who remains anonymous, was
> just doing his assignment, illustrating the right to
> dissent. But over at the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, where the student
> took his film to be developed, this right is evidently suspect.
>
> An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty
> Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the
> matter over to the Secret Service. On Tuesday, September 20, the
> Secret Service came to Currituck High.
>
> "At 1:35, the student came to me and told me that the Secret
> Service had taken his poster," Jarvis says. "I didn't believe
> him at first. But they had come into my room when I wasn't there
> and had taken his poster, which was in a stack with all the
> others."
>
> She says the student was upset. "He was nervous, he was scared,
> and his parents were out of town on business," says Jarvis. She,
> too, had to talk to the Secret Service.
>
> "Halfway through my afternoon class, the assistant principal got
> me out of class and took me to the office conference room," she
> says. "Two men from the Secret Service were there. They asked me
> what I knew about the student. I told them he was a great kid,
> that he was in the homecoming court, and that he'd never been in
> any trouble."
>
> Then they got down to his poster.
>
> "They asked me, didn't I think that it was suspicious," she
> recalls. "I said no, it was a Bill of Rights project!"
>
> At the end of the meeting, they told her the incident "would be
> interpreted by the U.S. attorney, who would decide whether the
> student could be indicted," she says.
>
> The student was not indicted, and the Secret Service did not
> pursue the case further.
>
> "I blame Wal-Mart more than anybody," she says. "I was really
> disgusted with them. But everyone was using poor judgment, from
> Wal-Mart up to the Secret Service."
>
> When contacted, an employee in the photo department at the
> Wal-Mart in Kitty Hawk said, "You have to call either the home
> office or the authorities to get any information about that."
>
> Jacquie Young, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart at company
> headquarters, did not provide comment within a 24-hour period.
>
> Sharon Davenport of the Kitty Hawk Police Department said, "We
> just handed it over" to the Secret Service. "No investigative
> report was filed." Jonathan Scherry, spokesman for the Secret
> Service in Washington, D.C., said, "We certainly respect
> artistic freedom, but we also have the responsibility to look
> into incidents when necessary. In this case, it was brought to
> our attention from a private citizen, a photo lab employee."
>
> Jarvis uses one word to describe the whole incident:
> "ridiculous."
>
> Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive.
>
> ---
> Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC.
> Voice: 408-882-4755 eFax: +1-408-490-2868
> PGP Key: http://www.ibd.com/html/rbergerPublic.gpgkey
> http://www.ibd.com
>
>
>
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