Milford chronicle., 1953-12-18
NJ. H. S. NEWS
Administrative Voice
December 10. 1853

december 1O, 1898
There is a healthy respect in
the student body for the person
who is known to be truthful. There
is an equally healthy respect for
the person who refuses to run to
the teacher and tell all the trivial
little things that people do which
may not seem to be right.
The big problem. facing students
is-shOuld person always tell
the whole truth? Our court system
is based on a respect for the truth
if the person questioned is under
oath. We want to believe that it
works, but we have heard or read
of a great many people who are
being prosecuted for perjury. 1t
would seem that testifying under
oath is not a guarantee of truth
fulness.
Our youth are very sincere in
their belief that tell what they
know to be true will be labeled
tattling by those who don't want
the truth told. Some who might
tell what they know are deferred
by the threat of violence or get
ting even. So no one is willing to
tattle on a friend or even just
classmate. He would rather shield
a person who does wrong than
get a label or q beating.
The American form of social
control is based on the assumption
that each of the citizens is trying
to obey the laws. We feel honor
bound to report to the authorities
a person guilty of murder, theft,
or causing an accident.
Students have found it very diff
ffcult to report with equal honor
other students who take money in
school, who cheat on tests, or who
destroy school property. Many
who know what happened will
either say they don't know, which
is a lie, or that they do not want
to name names, which hides the
truth. No one will condemn the
person who admits he knows, but
would rather not tell.
However, we are faced with a
choice if we continue to Obstruct
justice by not being willing to tell
the truth. Those not caught go free
while those caught are punished.
This is not fair. No one really
wants complete system of under
cover infOrmers. So where are we?
1t would seem that we must be
willing to see that the persons
who fail to do right must be re-
fhnun
correction.
1t has been the practice here
to give every student reported a
chance to tell his own story.
Whether the original report came
from another student or a teach
er, the student reported has an Op-
pOrtunity to tell himself what it
was that he did wrong. If this
system works, then no one need be
tattle-tale. He merely is giving
the guilty person a chance to de-
clare himself. By declaring himself
he has protected the innocent stu
dents who may be implicated on
circumstantial evidence. He is also
helping to strengthen his resis-
tance to doing wrong in the fu-
ture. Getting away with wrong
cOrrOdes character. He is helping
to improve the reputation his fell
low students will share since a
mistake made by one student usual
ly makes people say, what is
wrong with our youth tOday?" All
are caught in the net of cOndem-
nation.
So let us all work together to
protect the good name. we have
built for our school, the fine build
ing our community has built for
education, and the honest sincere
respect for character we guard SO
jealOusly. Only a respect for the
truth can preserve our system.
When is a teller of the truth a
tattle-tale? Surely only when he
deals with the insignificant and
trivial-nOt when he stands for
the right in important events.