TALK-SHOW HOSTS AMOK

If Most Parents Aren't Upset, Why Do Caplis, Silverman Carry on So?

'With great power there must also come - great responsibility!" So
said the first Spider-Man comic book, in 1962. In the last few weeks,
talk radio's The Caplis & Silverman Show has abused its great power.

Since May 16, almost every C&S Show has incited a campaign against
Boulder High School. I wish that hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman
would focus their considerable talents elsewhere, rather than
harassing the Boulder High community, and attempting to impose the
censorious morality of outsiders on Boulder.

Last April, several panels of the CU Conference on World Affairs were
held, as is the custom, at next-door Boulder High. For the panel
"STDs: Sex, Teens and Drugs," some students attended on their own,
with parental permission; several classes were brought to the panel
by teachers. Not every teacher specifically restated the universal
policy at Boulder High - applicable to all films, books and speakers
- - that anyone who was uncomfortable could opt out.

In the ensuing fallout, the Boulder Valley School District
immediately stated that the failure to re-announce the opt-out rule
was an error. Moreover, the panel violated BVSD policy that a broad
range of views be presented on controversial subjects. The
responsible employees were reprimanded.

End of story? Not for C&S. Day after day it has been playing selected
quotes from the panel. Caplis has demanded that "each school
authority" be "severely disciplined." C&S has orchestrated an e-mail
and telephone deluge against Boulder High.

Conspicuously missing from the C&S daily expression of "outrage" is
support from Boulder High parents of students who actually listened
to the panel. One parent of a student who was brought in to hear the
panel complained at a school board meeting. Neither C&S nor other
media have found even a second upset family of a student who actually
attended the panel.

Given the school board's appropriate response to the single aggrieved
parent - ensuring that in the future every parent have the
opportunity to opt out of any CWA panel beforehand - C&S should have
moved on long ago from a story that merited, at most, a couple days'
attention. The silent majority of Boulder families apparently are not
as repressive as C&S about how free the speech in public high schools
should be.

Many parents who tell their teenagers to "say no" know that students
must learn to think for themselves. A comment on the Boulder Daily
Camera Web site aptly quoted John Milton: "I cannot praise a fugitive
and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies
out and sees her adversary . . . "

Harping on the need to protect "the children," C&S arrogates to
itself a decision that properly belongs to BHS parents.

Statements of panelists have been shorn of context. C&S tells its
audience that panelist Antonio Sacre said that he had stopped using
condoms because it "doesn't feel as good."

Literally true, but nearly libelous. What C&S did not tell the
audience was that Sacre explained his regret for his foolish choices
about condoms as a teenager. Sacre warned his audience that they
should always use condoms - even if the female is taking
birth-control pills - because of the danger of sexually transmitted
diseases, and because there is always a risk of pregnancy. (The full
transcript and audio are available at www.bvsdwatch.org, which C&S,
to their credit, have linked to on their KHOW Web page.)

Caplis insists that teachers should have driven the students out of
the auditorium because "within five minutes" the panel was promoting
drug use and sex. In fact, the opening 10 minutes consisted of
introductions and a presentation by Sanho Tree of the Institute for
Policy Studies, who simply critiqued counterproductive programs, such
as DARE, which loses credibility because of its reckless exaggerations.

C&S claimed that the panel was in accord with panelist Joel Becker,
who encouraged students to have sex and use drugs "appropriately"
because they would be having sex and using drugs anyway. Actually,
Sanho Tree, the panel's drug policy expert, said not a single word
encouraging the students to use drugs. Instead, he criticized the
harmful effects of current drug policies.

Appearing on Bill O'Reilly's Fox TV show, The O'Reilly Factor, Caplis
did not even know the name of the school's good-hearted and excellent
principal Bud Jenkins, but was sure that Jenkins and every
administrator should be fired. Heedless of First Amendment case law,
O'Reilly proclaimed that the panel's speech constituted a crime. The
only crime was perpetrated by the O'Reilly producer who, attempting
to ambush interview school board President Helayne Jones, criminally
trespassed into her garage.

As a Boulder High parent, I have discovered that the school is a much
more tolerant place than the average large high school. Respect for
freedom of speech is part of what makes Boulder High special.

O'Reilly tells the world that Bud Jenkins is "the villain." As
Boulder High students are learning, media scandal-makers sometimes
tell you much less than the full story.