] A student's right to say --or not to say-- the Pledge of
] Allegiance at the start of the school day is causing an
] uproar at two Jefferson County Public Schools.
]
] A parent of two students has filed a complaint with the
] school board after her children were reprimanded after
] they refused to stand and say the pledge last week.
]
] The school district is reviewing the situations after Fox
] 41 News raised questions about them.
]
] Both of the children say their refusal to stand up and
] say the pledge is in protest to a possible U.S.-led war
] with Iraq.
]
] They say they're simply exercising their right to freedom
] of expression.
]
] The family members asked not to be identified by name
] because they fear reprisals for their stances.
]
] "I heard about the war, and then I thought it might start
] World War III, and I didn't want all those innocent
] people to die. So I thought, 'I'll start a protest,'"
] one of the students, a seventh grader at Newburg Middle
] School, told Fox 41 News.

Pledge protest prompts policy review in JCPS

] JACQUES CHIRAC was basking in ecstatic praise from
] virtually all of France yesterday after his Monday night
] pledge to defy America and veto a war against Iraq.
]
] Only a few grumbles from the business world and a squeak
] of dissent from his own conservative camp marred a
] symphony of tributes for President Chirac and his
] redemption as a man of destiny after a long and chequered
] political career.
]
] Only Joan of Arc was missing from the rollcall of heroes,
] from Charles de Gaulle to Charlemagne, to which M Chirac
] was likened.

Anti-war hero Chirac finds his destiny

] THE first President Bush has told his son that hopes of
] peace in the Middle East would be ruined if a war with
] Iraq were not backed by international unity.
]
] Drawing on his own experiences before and after the 1991
] Gulf War, Mr Bush Sr said that the brief flowering of
] hope for Arab-Israeli relations a decade ago would never
] have happened if America had ignored the will of the
] United Nations.
]
] He also urged the President to resist his tendency to
] bear grudges, advising his son to bridge the rift between
] the United States, France and Germany.
]
] %u201CYou%u2019ve got to reach out to the other person.
] You%u2019ve got to convince them that long-term
] friendship should trump short-term adversity,%u201D he
] said.
]
] The former President%u2019s comments reflect unease among
] the Bush family and its entourage at the way that George
] W. Bush is ignoring international opinion and overriding
] the institutions that his father sought to uphold. Mr
] Bush Sr is a former US Ambassador to the UN and comes
] from a family steeped in multi-lateralist traditions.

Bush Sr warning over unilateral action

] Sales of games alone are set to hit $18.5bn, while 32
] million consoles will be sold, according to London-based
] market research firm ScreenDigest.
]
] The upbeat forecast reflects the growing popularity of
] gaming, which is becoming a major rival to other forms of
] entertainment such as the cinema.
]
] "These figures clearly demonstrate the commercial
] strength of an industry rich in creativity and
] entertainment value," said Roger Bennett, Director
] General of the trade body, the Entertainment and Leisure
] Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), which
] commissioned the study.

Gaming set for record year

] I couldn't get arrested. I went to a shopping mall
] this weekend wearing a T-shirt that said "Peace on
] Earth" on it, and, can you believe it, I didn't
] get hauled off to jail. Not like the guy in upstate New
] York who got arrested - handcuffed, even - for walking
] around a shopping mall last week with a T-shirt bearing
] the same inflammatory anti-war slogan.

Newsweek: No War Shirt? No problem

] TERRIFIED Iraqi soldiers have crossed the Kuwait border
] and tried to surrender to British forces - because they
] thought the war had already started.
]
] The motley band of a dozen troops waved the white flag as
] British paratroopers tested their weapons during a
] routine exercise.
]
] The stunned Paras from 16 Air Assault Brigade were forced
] to tell the Iraqis they were not firing at them, and
] ordered them back to their home country telling them it
] was too early to surrender.
]
] The drama unfolded last Monday as the Para batallion
] tested mortars and artillery weapons to make sure they
] were working properly.

SADDAM'S SOLDIERS SURRENDER

] When President Bush visited Atlanta in mid-February,
] suburban housewife Sally Rountree decided to take the
] opportunity to show her opposition to the probable
] invasion of Iraq. So she scribbled a homemade sign - "No
] War for Oil" - and found a place along the route of the
] presidential motorcade, hoping Bush would see her
] protest.
]
] As she tells it, she was never rude. She didn't shout.
] She didn't elbow other onlookers or jostle toward the
] front of the crowd. She merely stood holding her sign.
]
] Nevertheless, for the offense of exercising her rights as
] a citizen of one of the world's greatest democracies, she
] was spat on, threatened and yelled at. One man went so
] far as to denounce her for wearing a cross around her
] neck, "insinuating I was not a Christian," she said.
]
] As she wrote in an op-ed essay for the Atlanta Journal-
] Constitution: "I was frightened that my neighbors were
] going to hurt me because I dared to express my opinion.
] This could not be happening. Not in America, right?"
]
] But it is happening here.

Pseudo patriotism vs. American values

] GUILDERLAND, N.Y. -- A fired mall security guard has some
] unlikely supporters - peace protesters.
]
] Robert Williams was fired from his job at a suburban
] Albany mall following the arrest of an anti-war
] protester.
]
] Williams told lawyer Stephen Downs to take off a T-shirt
] that read ``Give Peace a Chance.'' Downs, 61, was charged
] with trespassing a week ago after refusing to leave the
] mall or remove the anti-war shirt.
]
] On Sunday, about 100 protesters returned to Crossgates
] mall, urging that Williams be rehired. Downs says there
] was no justification to fire Williams, who was
] professional and polite.
]
] Protest leaders said they met with mall management for
] almost two hours but reached no resolution on their
] demands.
]
] There were no arrests reported in Sunday's peaceful
] protest, monitored by Guilderland police and security
] guards.
]
] A call to Crossgates offices Sunday wasn't immediately
] returned to the Daily Gazette of Schenectady.

Peace Protesters Protest Fireing Of Mall Guard

] Six students at Fremont's Mission San Jose High School
] have been suspended for hacking into the school's
] computer and changing some of their first-semester
] grades.
]
] The investigation into the incident is ongoing, but the
] school believes all the students involved have been
] caught, Principal Stuart Kew said Thursday night.
]
] Kew said the software program the students used to break
] into the school's records is ``readily available on the
] Internet'' and that the school is working with the
] Fremont Unified School District's management information
] systems officials to install new safeguards.

Mercury News | 03/06/2003 | High school suspends student hackers who changed grades

] Thousands of pupils walked out of classes yesterday in a
] spate of anti-war protests which also saw sacks of
] farmyard manure dumped on the steps of Labour party
] headquarters.
]
] Most teachers turned a blind eye or marked pupils down
] for unauthorised absence, but two sixth-formers were
] suspended in Leeds and three teenagers were arrested in
] Cambridge.
]
] The protests were claimed as a networking triumph by
] organisers, who used telephone trees, texting and email
] to spark hundreds of demonstrations across the country.
]
] Annie Symons, whose daughter Alexandra, 13, was one of a
] crowd of pupils picketing Downing Street, said: "The
] parents' network was buzzing last night but none of us
] knew quite what was going to happen. We're so proud of
] them."
]
] The students included Jacob Hunt Stewart, 14, son of
] junior health minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, who was
] one of 350 pupils from Queensbridge school, Birmingham,
] who left classes to join a peace march. Jacob, who was on
] last month's huge rally in London, said: "My dad, as
] health minister, follows the government line, but he
] believes I'm mature enough to make my own decision as to
] whether I want to take part in a protest."

Thousands of pupils in nationwide protest