Please consider signing the petition to defend the anti-war students at Morton High School who engaged in a peaceful protest against military recruiting at their school.

This is how the petition reads:

We are writing in defense of the students who now face excessive disciplinary actions at the hands of various Morton West school administrators. Our sympathies lie with the courageous and moral struggle that the students have taken up, and with their parents who still support them. The struggle for a peaceful and just society absent of war should not be met with punishment, but should be supported by the community as a whole, especially from within the educational setting. Furthermore, It is our firm belief that an injury to freedom for students anywhere is an injury to freedom for students everywhere. This is why we urge all Morton West administrators to drop all disciplinary action against the said students, and to remove any indications of said events from their permanent records. We urge you to respect these students right to free expression now and in the future.

Here is the notice I received about it:

Last Thursday, dozens of students at Morton West High School in Berwyn, near Chicago, staged a protest in the school cafeteria against the Iraq war, and specifically against the military recruiters who have set up shop inside the school. The students were threatened and cajoled into moving the protest out of the cafeteria, with the promise that punishment would be minor. But they were suspended for up to ten days, and 37 are now facing expulsion by the superintendent, Ben Nowakowski.

Immediately, parents went to the school to protest the suspensions. 60 people spoke in support of the sit-in last night at a raucous school board meeting. Because people are resisting the punishments, the story has been in the NY Times, Chicago Tribune, and on the local news. Parents report that in meetings with school officials, they have been pressured to get their children to “turn in the ring-leader”.

The father of a suspended student, wrote this about the protest, “The Army recruiters continue to aggressively hunt down every Hispanic male student as they enter the front door of the high school (since the school is 80% Hispanic) to promise them the world and then send them to Iraq or Afghanistan to get killed for Bush’s Oil, but a peaceful protest, in which the students cleaned up after themselves, is bad and worth losing their high school education over.”

This is exactly the time for people around the country – YOU – to weigh in for the Morton HS Students who protested.

Endorse & forward In Defense of the Morton West Antiwar Students Petition to the Morton West School District.

Most importantly, get on the phone Friday and call the superintendent’s office. Tell him there
Should be NO punishment for the students protesting military recruiters who prey on the youth.

Dr. Ben Nowakowski, Superintendent District 201
2423 South Austin, Cicero, IL 60804
bnowakowski@jsmorton.org
(708) 222-5702

Mr. Lucas, Principal Morton West High School
2400 S. Home Avenue Berwyn, IL 60402
jlucas@west.jsmorton.org
708-222-5901

Let me know what response you get and we will keep you posted on what happens.

Sincerely,
Debra Sweet,
The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime

Rob Kall at Op-ed News has put together much more detailed information on this incident, including the threat of expulsion received by some of the students.