Remember how we endorsed Harium Martin-Morris for Seattle School District Position No. 3? Holy fuck, were we ever stoned.
Now weâve put down the bong and are saying that you should vote for Michelle Buetow. Why? It turns out, as we reported on November 4, that Martin-Morris is trying to pass new rules that grant principals wide discretion to censor student newspapers for bullshit reasons. Specifically, Martin-Morris would prohibit everything from libel to content that promotes âwidespread shouting or boisterous conduct.â In other words, student newspapers couldnât report news that makes people, say, upset or joyful. He insists that the district currently doesnât have rules prohibiting students from libel and defamationâbut heâs wrong. The district already has rules in place, rules that place less ambiguous restrictions on student speech. We donât buy his argument that we need new rules that suppress student speech, particularly from someone who doesnât even know what the existing rules are.
When told that libel is already illegal in school newspapers, like every other fucking newspaper in the country, Martin-Morris replied, âThat may be true butâŚwhen you write it down, itâs real.â Clearly, Martin-Morris doesnât think state and federal laws are ârealâ enough. We sincerely apologize for endorsing this frothing idiot. Vote Buetow. Here's our new-and-improved, frothing-idiot-free cheat sheet:
All of our endorsements are explained here.
UPDATE: The school district has deferred voting on this measure until next year. But we're still hatin' on Martin-Morris.