NJ police don't like student's art
From NCAC email
A similar dynamic (see DU post http://www.democraticunderground.com/11681362 ) was at work at a school near Camden, New Jersey, where a display focusing on police brutality and community relations was taken down after complaints from the local Police Benevolent Association. As NCAC reported (http://ncac.org/blog/policing-expression-nj-school-removes-student-project/ :
The display, part of an awareness campaign project in Clearview Regional High School’s humanitarian studies class, featured a silhouette of a person with raised hands and posters stating statistics on crime, brutality, and police in the community. It was, one student said in an interview (http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2015/06/nj_students_protest_over_alleged_censorship_of_pol.html , meant to converge the ideas that police are society’s protectors, yet are still human and are not infallible. The project does not, students note, defame the police or cast them in a negative light.
Clearview's principal decided the display should be removed because the criticism of the project was "causing a disturbance." He also stated that the controversy "raises the need…to reevaluate our formal policies on class projects." As in Maryland, students at the school have actively protested the administration's censorship.
But outside pressure doesn't always win out. In another New Jersey town, a student art show that included work addressing police brutality drew intense criticism on social media, and even made it to the Fox News Channel. But the show went on, and Westfield Schools superintendent Margaret Dolan attempted to defuse the controversy by releasing a statement stressing that "information that has been passed along via social media and elsewhere has not told the entire story" of the art show. And last month in Madison, Wisconsin, local police groups strongly objected to the installation of a piece titled "Don't Shoot" at a local library, saying they "find this publicly-sponsored art display both offensive and indicative of terribly poor judgment." But they did not request the painting be removed, and the library held its ground.
It's understandable—and predictable—that confrontational art will be offensive to some individuals or groups. And they are well within their rights to explain how or why a particular work offends them. But the most valuable lesson that school officials can teach students is how to manage that dialogue without resorting to censorship.
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