Stuff reports on an Auckland school that has decided to make its views on cannabis legalisation known by means of a billboard.
A digital sign displayed on a school board outside St Paul’s College in Ponsonby reads: “To legalise is to normalise. Say no.”
The sign doesn’t state what legalisation it objects to, but has been interpreted as referring to the upcoming cannabis referendum.
[…]According to Education Ministry guidance, boards of trustees “can display material encouraging staff and parents to vote, but you can’t show political party information” on school sites.
“As a state agency, you need to be politically neutral and can’t encourage electors to vote or not vote for specific parties, policies or candidates,” online guidance reads.
But Katrina Casey of the Ministry of Education said the cannabis referendum was an important social issue and “people are free to express their views about it”.
Except there are rules that as a receiver of government funding the school must follow. For example, billboards have to be politically neutral and “can’t encourage electors to vote or not vote for specific parties, policies or candidates.”
This isn’t about free speech. There’s nothing stopping a teacher for example putting a sign up outside their house.
[…]An Electoral Commission spokesperson said it was looking into the sign and would speak to the school.
“The election and referendum laws allow any person to publish an election or referendum advertisement as long as they comply with the rules, for example, on promoter statements and expenditure limits.”
[…]Cannabis campaigner and NORML president Chris Fowlie said it was important to actively partake in the conversation around the issue, and he didn’t begrudge the school for encouraging discussion.
“To legalise is to normalise’ is a valid argument and one that deserves addressing. I don’t agree with it but it’s still a valid argument. But the problem here is that we’re talking about a school that receives funding from the government. Imagine if the sign said “Save the planet. Ban meat”. Again a valid argument, of course wrong, but still valid.
How much better would it be if the students instead of being told what to think were given an assignment such as “An argument against legalising cannabis is that it will normalise cannabis use. Discuss from both a negative and a positive position.”
Schools should be teaching students how to think not what to think. The former helps prepare them for real life. The latter is indoctrination.
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