In the opinion of the paper:

When the nude posters advertising Grant's play, "Lysistrata", were posted around the school, there was surprisingly little hubbub from the student body. This lack of commotion, however, shouldn't be attributed to the students' disinterest, but instead to the fact that the posters were ripped down an hour later. The next time they went up, with black electrical tape covering the bare chests and backsides artistically depicted in the line-art drawings, students peeled the electrical tape off. The once again nude posters were, once again, torn down.

"My job is to be concerned with 1700 kids and their parents," Grant principal Toni Hunter said. "We're lobbying students for next year to attend Grant, so you always have to look at the whole."

The censorship of the posters may have caused a greater turmoil than the posters themselves, especially when a column on the censorship ran in The Oregonian Jan. 23. While the posters are back up (with tape, nonetheless), a more pressing question to address is how it reflects society's fear of nudity and sex, and what censorship means in the grand scheme of student expression.

The play tells the story of women protesting the Peloponnesian War by refusing to have sex. Theater teacher Trisha Todd tamed the jokes and language in anticipation of controversy. Still, there will not be a teaser for "Lysistrata," because Hunter believes that students who may feel uncomfortable with the sexual jokes will not speak out and tell their teachers.

The posters, Hunter said, are something she would be fine in a museum, but don't have a place in a public school.

While this sort of censorship is not necessarily reason to flood the streets in protest, its repercussions are what really need to be looked at. Not only does it show the ability of school officials to remove from the school whatever they wish, but it has a chilling effect on creativity. Each time a publication is censored, students are that much less likely to stick their neck out again, in fear of their material being cut or their thoughts being stifled.

Every act of censorship further erodes the free speech so essential to transparent democracy. Already thirty-five percent of surveyed high school students think the First Amendment goes too far.

It's too bad our society is so prude, so afraid of nudity, so willing to censor rather than have dialogue, and so passive about free-speech.