Was it right to arrest high school students for reading George Orwell's "1984"?

Question

Two students were arrested and another 15 to 20 staged a sit-in at Old Rochester Regional High School Wednesday in a protest that began after students briefly commandeered the intercom system during MCAS testing, school officials and students said.

Thomas Buckley, 17, Mattapoisett, and Zachary Sherman, 17, Rochester, were charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and disturbing the school, according to police reports.

The incident unfolded around 8:30 a.m. when two to five students used a special code to access the school-wide intercom via a classroom system, officials and students said.

According to ORR High School Principal Sheila Haskins, one of the students read a passage from something they apparently were studying in an English or history class.

However, some students said it was from George Orwell's book, "1984".

What do you think the students were trying to accomplish?

Answer 1

George Orwell was a great thinker and writer and "1984" has been read in schools for a very long time. You probably didn't understand the book. You will be happier avoiding books and just watch TV shows like "American Idol."

Good luck, kid.

Answer 2

I hope they were trying to wake up the students  to what is going on in our country.

Ref.

The central banking cartel which controls our currency, the Federal Reserve, is creating the inflation that is devaluing our currency and is causing poverty in this nation.

Most Americans cannot read a parking ticket so this discussion may only be understood by a few.

We loan our real property to the central bank who

then creates interest bearing notes based upon that value.

BUT, the notes needed to pay the interest do not exist.

And, as only the central bank can "monetize" a thing, they get to then dump into the economy, their notes that they print up to cover the interest due.

It is theft on such a scale as most Americans cannot comprehend.

Crime creates poverty.

The central banking Federal Reserve is the greatest theft ring ever created.

The central bank become wealthy by loaning back to us, our own wealth and CHARGING AN INTEREST.

This is why you are poor.

Note: The Federal Reserve Bank is no more federal than Federal Express.

Answer 3

Uh that book was weird. But I actually liked it. I think the kids were just trying to play a joke. I wonder what passage it was though. Maybe they were implanting their minds with communistic ideas. haha well i really don't think that worked, if they got arrested.

Answer 4

Since the students took over property that wasn't theirs, the arrest is warranted if they refused to heed warnings to stop what they were doing.  I have no idea what they thought they were trying to accomplish.

Answer 5

Reveal comparisons between Orwells Totalitarian state with a fake history designed by propagandists. Kymer Rouge and Cambodia provides an example though perhaps not what the students had in mind. Think American Ant-Communisti Gov orders the bombing and invasion of Cambodia including Vietnam. The continues to twist words and say Communists murdered millions of people for Utopian idea of Agrarian Reform. Forced people to farm and killed those who would not . What a crock a person says to theselves.

Answer 6

Where were students arrested for reading a book? Certainly not in your example!

Answer 7

No.

Don't think that will be a necessary.

The reality and horrors had became a nightmare in the real world.

It will be just another ghost stories in time.

To be forgotten in time.

Luke 9.60

What do you think?

Answer 8

Well.......consider first they weren't arrested for reading...they were arrested for "disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and disturbing the school"....no matter if they read Orwell or Dr Suess.  

To know what, if anything, they were trying to accomplish, one would have to know if they were the type student who could, and would read "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and they could be applying a comparison of the book to today's society.