AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Chat Area What constitutes profanity?

In view of what your client said, hell no its not profane "crap" is used colloquially for referring to all types of "stuff", its interchangable for "junk", "stuff", etc. as many reasonable persons use it. While the kid won't be mistaken for a charm school graduate speaking like that at school, its a long jump to claiming "crap" infers "sh*t", that's just "rubbish". There's probably some underlying zero tolerance type of "crap" going on at the school which caused the bogus profanity accusation. Good luck with your case, you have every reason to prevail.

To answer the question of the topic "What constitutes profanity" is really a matter of false sense of worth and investment in an idea or something that does not physically exist. What makes a word either profane or not is a general belief that the word in question is profane or not profane. This is a fundamental flaw in many things including currency. I could truely believe that any profane word is a compliment and benefit emotionally in a postive way, but since society has a communistic belief, meaning that ever since you first heard or knew of an individual word you were taught that either it was negative or positive in meaning. A simple idea is all that constitutes profanity, currency, worth of gold, silver, suddenly everyone could change there mind and a profane word, currency, gold, silver, ect. could mean nothing, or mean more, or even less. I believe every one has a right and freedom to speech since only people that are basically brainwashed into thinking a sound hurts them are the people that file these cases and cause unjustified problems. It's just a sound, an idea... Manipulate it anyway you want and you will never be offended.

Law,

At 15 I'm sure no one in earshot was reeducated or shocked by the statement. Most homework is crap. I did it because my parents made me do it. Glad they did. Not all of it is crap, but I know busy work assigned because 'you are supposed to get 1 hour of homework per class' is crap. Ask for the reason for the assignment, what was the student expected to learn from the assignment that was not already covered in class? Why was it already not covered? Was something in the assignment appearing on the standardized test the students take and the school gets its funding based upon?

Just thinking, comes natural, not taught in school.

I don't really care if the homework was crap or not. I just care if saying the word crap constitutes profanity.

Law,

The truth is a complete defense (or should be) if the homework was a crap assignment, that is your defense. I want the kid to get off.

Steve

Actually, "truth" in that sense is completely irrelevant in this case.
For example there could have been a discussion of sexual intercourse, and use of the word "f*ck" would have been in violation of school profanity rules.

Here's some case law, but it still doesn't define profanity.

"There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any Constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or 'fighting' words . . . . It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality." ( Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942) 315 U.S. 568, 571-572 [86 L. Ed. 1031, 1035, 62 S. Ct. 766], fns. omitted; accord, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978) 438 U.S. 726, 746 [57 L. Ed. 2d 1073, 1091-1092, 98 S. Ct. 3026]; Lee v. Superior Court (1992) 9 Cal. App. 4th 510, 517 [11 Cal. Rptr. 2d 763].)

This reasoning is particularly apropos when the expression is aimed at minors rather than adults. (See FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, supra, 438 U.S. at p. 749 [57 L. Ed. 2d at pp. 1093-1094]; Ginsberg v. New York (1968) 390 U.S. 629, 638-640 [20 L. Ed. 2d 195, 203-204, 88 S. Ct. 1274].)

Censorship of "four-letter words" does not unduly hinder the students' ability to express their ideas or opinions on any subject. It enjoins only the indecent manner in which an idea is expressed. [*1326]

"A requirement that indecent language be avoided will have its primary effect on the form, rather than the content, of serious communication. There are few, if any, thoughts that cannot be expressed by the use of less offensive language." ( FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, supra, 438 U.S. at p. 743, fn. 18 [57 L. Ed. 2d at p. 1089].)

what does this thread have anything to do with SP? I often lerk and read about the argueing etc. Law seems to be under the impression this board is about her travels, activities and job. I personally dont care and Im sure others don't either.

So don't read it.

Luvinlife, this is a chat section - it's for chatting. There are some remarkable features on this board which enable one to skip over threads which don't interest them. I encourage you to utilize those features.

I also encourage you to say who you really are rather than registering under a new name and trying to hide. Buy I seriously doubt you have the guts to do that.