The Pluperfect Crime, part twoSalutatorian looses diploma over freedom of speech dispute with principal/school boardWhiting, Indiana
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The administration justified withholding the diploma by saying that the speech violated school policy. In a later interview, Whiting School Board President Mary Fetsis said that she was not sure if the school's speech policy is in the school policy manual. She is further quoted as saying "If it's not, it will certainly be put in." "I think that Caitlin is being punished for a violation of next year's policy" says her father, Tim Mills-Groninger. "In terms of English grammar, I guess that means she committed a pluperfect crime" The pluperfect tense, or more precisely, the future pluperfect, refers to sentences indicating that something will have happened. The idea of punishing people before they commit a crime is the them of the Steven Spielberg film "Minority Report" starring Tom Cruise. That evening of the graduation, Tim Mills-Groninger, the graduate's father, sent emails detailing the event to local news tip mailboxes. Tim Mills-Groninger, who is also the publisher of WhitingCommunity.com, says that his intent was to "inform my neighbors about just what was happening - I knew that the theft of Caitlin's diploma would generate a lot of discussion, and I wanted the community to know what was going on." By noon on Monday, June 10, the Post Tribune of Merrillville, Indiana, had assigned a reporter to the story. By Monday night the Times of Northwest Indiana, located in Munster, Indiana, had also picked up the story. However, Post-Tribune reporter Karen Snelling published the first story on Tuesday, June 11. The Post-Tribune also released the story to the Associated Press (AP) wire service. By Tuesday evening 2 Chicago television stations, WFLD/Fox 32 and WLS/ABC 7 had sent TV crews to interview Ms. Mills-Groninger. WFLD returned on Wednesday, June 12 for a live broadcast on station's Fox News in the Morning. It was reported at that time that the diploma had been mailed. Jim Masters published 2 versions of the story in different editions of the Times, also on Wednesday. On Thursday, June 13, Ms. Mills-Groninger was interviewed by an Australian radio station. "I don't remember what station it was" remembers Ms. Mills-Groninger "but I remember that they thought that the whole thing was very funny." During the next week the story was picked up by a majority of Indiana and many national news outlets. Whiting Superintendent of Schools Dr. Sandra Martinez sent Ms. Mills-Groninger the diploma that Friday. The Mills-Groningers received it the next day. Most news coverage and public opinion was supportive of Ms. Mills-Groninger. In a letter to the editor in the June 17 Post-Tribune, Bill Vargo of Highland said "Caitlin...please know that there are plenty of us who do see the humor in the names you conjured up, and that the same old droning speeches are boring and quite petty. If I were you, I would simply chalk this up to small-minded administrators with a real fear of intellect and independence, no surprise in our school systems." John Krull of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union was quoted in the Post-Tribune as saying "It sounds to me like the school system has pulled out a sledge hammer to apply a tack." The Center for First Amendment Rights' Ethel Sorokin is quoted in the same story as saying "Students don't shed their free speech rights at the school door." Criticisms of Ms. Mills-Groninger include "...I am disgusted with what she had to say. She clearly made a mockery of the faculty and the ceremony in general. The speech was distasteful and contained more meaning that she may care to admit." which also ran on the Post Tribune letters page. On Tuesday, June 23, 2002, the Whiting School board held it's regular monthly meeting. Susan and Tim Mills-Groninger appealed to the board to hold open meetings with students and the community to address the free speech and policy issues stemming from the incidents at the graduation ceremony. Prior to their comments the Board made a last minute addition to the agenda to modify the High School handbook for the 2002-2003 school year. In April of 2003 the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Virginia awarded the Whiting administration a Muzzle Award. According the the Center's web site, the "Jefferson Muzzles are awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment."
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