RE: The day the music died: SAD 75 imposes radio silence on buses

["Paul Hopfgarten" <paul@03038.com>]

Obviously, the only fair answer is "No Radio".

Paul Hopfgarten
East Derry NH 03041
paul@03038.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> [mailto:owner-boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org]On Behalf Of Dan
> Billings
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 3:30 PM
> To: Smyth, Sean
> Cc: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
> Subject: Re: The day the music died: SAD 75 imposes radio silence on
> buses
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Smyth, Sean" <ssmyth@suscom.net>
> To: "Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>
> Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 3:17 PM
> Subject: Re: The day the music died: SAD 75 imposes radio silence on buses
>
>
> > Is this legal?
>
> Sure.  The school district owns the buses and the drivers are district
> employees.  As a result, the district is within its rights to
> adopt policies
> regarding the use of radios on school buses.  I do not think anyone could
> force the district to adopt such a policy, though a bus driver choosing to
> play a Christian station raises establishment clause issues.  It could be
> argued that forcing a student to listen to a Christian station while on a
> public school bus is similar to prayer in schools, which has been found to
> constitute an establishment of religion.   I don't see how privacy issues
> are involved here.
>
> Establishing a policy that deals with the content on secular stations is
> complicated.  While some parents may be offended by the music on WRED,
> others may be offended by the content of the morning show banter
> on stations
> like WBLM and WJBQ.  I don't know how a school district makes an
> assessment
> of a station's programming.  It's not an easy issue.  You can turn off the
> station if you don't like the programming but you can't do
> anything about a
> station that is played on a school bus that your kid takes to school.
>
> -- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine
>
>