OUT & ABOUT: When To Speak … And When To Hold Your Tongue

SOPHOMORE Samantha Pawlucy found herself the center of national media attention when she appeared for a rally in her defense outside her Charles Carroll HS, where she drew criticism from her geometry teacher for wearing a Romney t-shirt.

If you’re a frequent reader of this column, you know that as far as I’m concerned, the 1st Amendment came down from Mount Sinai on a stone tablet. But one thing I have always recognized about the right to speak guaranteed by the 1st Amendment is that you don’t always have to use it.

The latest example of the dichotomy of the 1st Amendment comes to us from Charles Carroll HS in Port Richmond. Last week, sophomore Samantha Pawlucy came into school wearing a t-shirt that showed her support for the Republican Presidential ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

Because no one sane schedules geometry first thing in the morning, I’m pretty sure Samantha walked around the halls of Carroll High without anyone else paying much attention to her shirt for a big chunk of the day. I mean, we’re talking sophomores here. I have seniors that I teach who believe the fact that they know absolutely nothing about the world around them is somehow “cool”.

But once Samantha walked into Lynnette Gaymon’s geometry class and the teacher saw her shirt, that’s when the fun began.

Instead of ignoring the shirt and teaching her class, Gaymon chided the kid, something that led to what can generously be called a cascade of crap.

Because Samantha went home and told her parents what the teacher did. Her parents went to the school and demanded that something be done.

Instead of the apology her parents wanted, Samantha and her sister got bullied via Facebook and Twitter after that instead. The parents, needless to say, weren’t happy. They got a lawyer and tried to work something out with the school.

Meanwhile, a group of activists reached out to the Pawlucy family and scheduled a protest which brought out local media … and was supposed to end with Gaymon apologizing to Samantha. Thanks to the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, that didn’t happen. And the apology Gaymon did give Samantha ended up making the situation worse.

Now I mentioned earlier this situation was one of those examples to me of why freedom from speech is sometimes the best course of action. Why? Because Gaymon didn’t have to say anything. She could. She did. And now she’s probably made herself a Fox News cause célèbre. But she didn’t have to say anything.

She could have let this student exercise her 1st Amendment rights and maybe fostered a discussion about politics and speech. But she didn’t. And that’s too bad.

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