WHY NO ARREST OF OFFENDING PRINCIPAL?

A student was "officially" excused from school along with his
classmates. The student moved off the school grounds and onto a
public access sidewalk. As I see this, the school was not formally in
session (for that student at that time) and the student was not on
school property when he was approached by the principal.

As a result, the student was not formally a student at the time.
Thus, the school had no jurisdiction over the child at that time.
This seems to be a no-brainer.

While we may not like what the student did, many of us have shed our
blood everywhere from Guadalcanal to Omaha Beach protecting his right
to be stupid.

The remaining question is what right did the principal have to move
off of school property to attack a U.S. citizen acting on his own
behalf, exercising his right to be stupid? Why has the principal not
yet been arrested for prohibiting the individual's free speech? Why
are law enforcement agencies looking the other way on this?

Who will be next, the retired man living in a nursing home expressing
his opinion on the new Medicare program (as he thinks back to the
companions he lost during the war)?

While we may not agree with the student's stupid, childish
expression, we must defend his right to express it, no matter how
dumb he may be.

Nick Hall, Oregon