On Feb. 28 the Kenosha News reported that a Reuther High School student was suspended for three days after a teacher found what was deemed a hate letter in the student’s notebook. No specific threat or violence against anyone was mentioned in the student’s letter. So this was a teenager’s private thoughts written to himself.

Is this like going through someone’s diary? Our private thoughts are based on our private experiences. Who can deny them? Who can take them away from us? Who can censor them? “Big Brother”?

We don’t ban or burn books or stifle thoughts. Hitler is dead. We are taught today to put our thoughts in writing so that we can lay them bare and exam them in the clear light of day. How else can students work out their issues? They could bottle them up and keep them inside and maybe turn into rage and assault, or they can be filtered through our systems and reasoned with the way they should be. Why was the student’s notebook read through in the first place? Who was the judge of this student’s private thoughts? Who condemned them? How many of us would pass the test if we were all subject to the “thought police?” We don’t have laws against thoughts. We don’t have laws against what someone can write in their own personal journal or notebook to themselves. This is political correctness gone mad. And finally, was the student even offered counseling to help deal with these thoughts, rather than just given the suspension?

A. Lawrence

Kenosha