COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Seniors Against War in Iraq Wear Black Bands to Graduation
Alan Schnepf, Hawaii Tribune-Herald
June 4, 2006
The black armbands seemed harmless enough, but to 14 Honokaa High School students, the meaning of the cloth was important enough to risk getting kicked out of their graduation ceremony.
Eli Bowman, the class's 18-year-old salutatorian, said a group of students decided to wear the armbands to the ceremony to protest the U.S. war in Iraq. When school administrators got wind of the plan, however, Bowman said they sent a clear message to his class at an assembly last week: Anyone wearing a black armband to graduation Saturday morning wouldn't make it inside the door.
So Bowman and some others decided to put their armbands on once they were inside the Honokaa Armory for the ceremony Saturday morning. No one was thrown out and Bowman actually was able to bring the issue up during a short speech.
"The graduating class of 2006 are wearing black armbands as a silent protest against the war in Iraq," Bowman told the capacity crowd. "A war that the majority of the American people oppose."
It was an applause line that forced him to pause for a moment and he made no other mention of the war or the armbands.
Principal Natalie Gonsalves said administrators had decided not to keep anyone out of the ceremony for wearing an armband. Initially, though, she said the administration told students they could wear the armbands only "before and after" the ceremony with no repercussions.
Then Gonsalves said she studied the law and decided the armbands were part of the students' freedom of speech.
She came upon a landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court Case called Tinker v. Des Moines. A pair of students at a public Des Moines high school filed a lawsuit after they were suspended for wearing black armbands at school in protest of the Vietnam War.
The Court ruled that action violated the First Amendment rights of the students.
"To me they're expressing their views in a calm way," Gonsalves said. "I was very proud of them."
Bowman, who was surprised when people clapped, said he was still under the impression that he risked being booted from the armory for wearing an armband.
"This is what we were told, but apparently it was an empty threat," he said.
The overwhelming majority of the class did not wear armbands to the ceremony and some had no interest in making political statements at the event.
"They could have brought it up on a different occasion," said 17-year-old Rudy Lopez. "It's a time for celebration."
Alan Schnepf can be reached at aschnepf@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
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