Jeepers Creepers, Watch Those Meepers!
Blame the soothing effects of tryptophan from my Thanksgiving turkey that lulled me into a semi-comatose, ignorant state. Otherwise, how could I have possibly missed the Meeps story?
Or how could I possibly explain that I probably wouldn't even have discovered the story if I hadn't been researching, planning and updating my First Amendment unit for my high school journalism class.
According to the Student Press Law Center and the Salem News, the principal of Danvers High School in Massachusetts sent one of those recorded computer messages (that we all love) to parents warning them that any student who said or displayed the word “meep” at school could face suspension.
Hmm. Let me get this right. Forget about your basic profanity and let's instead move into the realm of made up words. "Meeps" supposedly is a word that can mean just about anything and everything. It's origins apparently come from the sound that the Muppet Beaker makes.
And if all that wasn't bad enough, there was some online talk of a mass meeping somewhere in the school. Now, school administrators aren't the only ones who take a dim view of school disruptions. While I know judges generally do not uphold First Amendment freedoms for kiddos if they cause such disruptions, I'm not exactly sure how the high court would feel about a meep-ruption.
No such meep-ruption occurred and the principal never did provide an explanation for why the word itself should be banned. The whole thing seems to be, well, rather silly.
Now, I am not a lawyer or a Supreme Court judge or a Fox News expert on constitutional law, but I do think I'm a pretty good judge of things that are just plain silly stupid.
I think this meeping thing fits rather nicely into that category.
