Gym Bans Strict Left Ideology Show, Students Say It Restricts Free Speech



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In November last year, a group of students from a non-governmental Jesuit Catholic gymnasium in Kaunas created a left-wing channel, Giljožinios, on YouTube.

The Facebook page of the social network claims that the channel is being created as a counterweight to emerging right-wing neoliberal parties and to support left-wing politics in Lithuania.

“The new emerging right-wing parties such as the National Union and the Lithuanian Christian Union, the neoliberal Freedom Party that hides under the guise of social progressivity and gains great support, and the growing number of right-wing parties in Lithuania are worrying everyday.

So we decided to put together the Guilloche team. On YouTube, we will share video essays on politics, history, philosophy, LGBTQ + and women’s rights, local issues, imperialism, and more. We invite you to support left politics in Lithuania! “

“Power position used”

With the release of the first issue of America’s Imperialism (USA), which alleges that the United States is only exploiting other states, as the show’s authors point out, the school administration called for the material to be deleted and threatened to expel it. from school.

Students see censorship here because, they say, the gym did not provide official reasons why the program was inappropriate.

“It was just a position of being able to verbally bully students using strong words like ‘student expulsion’, ‘shame’, ‘anti-status’ and so on. Therefore, the position they expressed may be our interpretation, but the words “either delete the videos or the students will be expelled from school” were spoken, “say the creators of the program.

The content of the military program

The content of the “Guilloche” military program on US imperialism must be confused after the school threatened to expel students from the school.

Later, students write on Facebook, an attempt was made to find a compromise, but it was not possible to reach it, so its creators announced on the program’s page that they would stop doing so at least for the time being.

“Yesterday we sincerely tried with the school to reach a favorable solution for us and to continue with the unrestricted activities of” Guillotines “. However, the only conclusion reached in the interview with the school representative does not tolerate our freedom of expression.

To re-release our first episode, we should first upload posts criticizing the Chinese and Russian governments as alternatives to the dominant position of the United States. This “compromise” is not acceptable to our team. “Not because we refuse to criticize non-Western states, we may have had videos on these issues in the future,” Facebook’s record of a program promoting far-left politics was posted on Friday.

To make our first episode public again, we would first have to upload posts criticizing the Chinese and Russian governments as alternatives to the dominant position of the United States.

Such a “compromise”, according to the author of the post, would mean that any newly created content should first pass through the eyes of the school administration and be approved.

And that, in the opinion of the creators of the show, would deprive them of the opportunity to “maintain an independent creative vision and a truly left-wing ideological substance of the content that is released.”

Eriko Ovcharenko / 15min nuotr./Priestato atidaryme

Eriko Ovcharenko / 15min nuotr./Priestato atidaryme

Used forbidden Soviet symbols

However, Jesuit gym leaders and the teaching community say they see the dangers in the students’ activities and deny restricting their self-expression.

“Reports in the social media space that Kaunas Jesuit Gymnasium censoring students’ thinking and restricting their self-expression do not correspond to reality.

With the advent of the aforementioned video on US imperialism, we saw it in a broader context. In December 2019, the creators of the registry used state symbols prohibited by the state in school space, ”the response reads. 15 minutes.

With the advent of the aforementioned video on US imperialism, we saw it in a broader context. In December 2019, video creators used state-banned Soviet symbols in school space.

According to the representatives of the gymnasium, first of all, educational activities were carried out, discussions were organized about the repressions of the USSR and the damage of radicalism.

“By the use of Soviet symbolism on January 12, 2021. it was turned into a video using anti-American anarchist symbolism, reminiscent of Soviet propaganda, which reinforced suspicions that radical ideas are developing further and acquiring a worrying anti-state tone.

The use of both Soviet and anarchist symbolism leads us to believe that the release of this video on January 13. It was not an accident on the eve, therefore the gym community reacted very seriously to such actions by the students that contradicted our values, ”said the Kaunas Jesuit Gymnasium board of directors.

The decision is in the school board.

15 minutes He also approached the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MESM) to find out how their representatives see these actions of the school administration.

Rokas Lukoševičius / 15min photo / Lithuanian science and education renewed collective agreement signed at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports

Rokas Lukoševičius / 15min photo / Lithuanian science and education renewed collective agreement signed at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports

Representatives of the Ministry made a brief comment:

“The students sign a teaching agreement with the school, in which they agree to respect the rules and regulations of the school, which is the main document of the school community agreements.

If there are questions about the rules and contingencies already agreed and approved and students or other members of the school community have doubts about their rights, this should be discussed with the school council, such as the school council, and the most optimal solutions found.

They should address the issues in the school council, ”says the response sent to the MESM.



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