INDEPENDENTLY THINK WHAT WE TELL YOU TO

Apparently, the town of Wawota, Saskatchewan is a hysterical
backwater police state. Who knew? Most people probably wouldn't,
considering Wawota is seemingly just another small town dotting the
map of this fetid and deteriorating nation. Like hundreds of its
brethren, it will gain national attention once in it's lifetime for
the type of absurdity you can't ignore, and that only a small town is
capable of fostering.

I'm sure that by now you've all seen the headlines about what Wawota,
Sask., does to its young people who educate themselves during their
free time. In case you've somehow missed this bizarre civil rights
twister, I'll give you a recap of the atrocities you can expect to
face if you ever decide you want to raise your children in small town
Saskatchewan.

A few weeks ago Kieran King, the hapless extoller of common sense and
centerpiece of controversy, was sitting in his Grade 10 class at
Wawota Parkland School, undergoing an attempted brainwashing by an
audiovisual presentation on the dangers of drugs. Now I'm sure you
all know what I'm talking about - the type of high school
presentation that portrays marijuana is a dangerous and addictive
substance that young people ingest before turning into horrible drug
addled hobgoblins who will rape your women-folk and suck out the
eyeballs of your children blah blah blah. The Evils of Marijuana
presentations, which for some unknown reason, despite being factually
incorrect distortions of the truth, continue to play in schools each year.

Kieran King, a 15-year-old honours student, who, by all accounts,
does not smoke pot and, in fact, has never even seen the drug,
decided to do some research himself. Despite his age, I'm willing to
believe Kieran's drug-free position, regardless of the fact that his
own personal drug use or lack thereof is irrelevant since what
happened next has less to do with drugs, and all to do with free
speech and an intelligence that most human beings lack. The result of
his research was that Kieran learned a widely recognized fact outside
of government and school policy, and that is that marijuana is
probably the least dangerous drug on the planet. So he told his
classmates of his findings -especially the widely accepted truth that
alcohol and tobacco is far more dangerous, to the point of
ridiculousness considering the availability of both.

I can identify with what happened next, because I've worn these
shoes. The abhorrent abomination known as the public education system
really helps foster independent thought in young people - especially
when it threatens to call the police, which principal Susan Wilson
did in order to crush the life out of anybody who stands to threaten
government propagation of lies about drugs.

Kieran felt his rights were being threatened, so he organized a
meagre protest outside the school involving a half dozen social
radicals. The school was thrown into lockdown and the RCMP were
called, who arrived to find Kieran, his brother, an NDP member, and a
few members of the Marijuana Party standing quietly in the parking lot.

As a result, Kieran was suspended during exams, dropping his grades
30 points, which won't cause him to fail since he's an honour
student, but will damage his overall grade. Wawota Parkland School
has drawn media attention to what is an embodiment of disaster in the
public education system. All across the country, officials are making
a farce out of the concept of education by disseminating the only
things they know - long incubated distortions of the truth about
history, drugs, gender roles, politics, etc.

It's not just the threat to free speech that has been embodied in
this Wawota fiasco - it's the widely encouraged insult to common
sense and thirst for learning. School lockdowns and police
intervention; because one student took it upon himself to undertake
what all students should be encouraged to undertake: the pursuit of
knowledge on one's own accord.

But I guess that sort of initiative doesn't have a place in a system
designed not to produce thinkers, but obedient, half-asleep,
corporate knobs. Yes, this has all marked another sad chapter in the
downward spiral of this nation. The public education system is rife
with travesties such as this one. With the retirement of so many baby
boomers in the next few years, the tide will turn quickly towards a
younger generation of new teachers, which I'm hoping will cause an
upswing in the integrity of public education, and hopefully, much
needed changes to the foreboding spectre that it has become.