3/13/2012:
There’s no doubt that many stood against “the man,” whatever form he took, in the sixties. These stands led many to protest, and campus revolts made headlines across the United States.
On this date in 1969, Governor William Guy signed a bill into law that was supposed to help maintain law and order on the campuses of North Dakota state colleges and universities. The bill stated that “persons will be ejected from the campuses in disturbances and action will be taken to expel the students.”
This bill, however, was contested. Some said it repeated statutes already in existence. Others said the bill was intended to head off trouble before it started. Also, according to Representative Aamoth, who was a prime sponsor of the measure, the bill was supposed to “take care of nonstudents who come in from outside the school to create trouble.”
However, Senator Meschke, who was against the bill, said “personally, I prefer to respect our North Dakota young people and students, rather than insult them for something that they have not done.”
Yet the college protest movement was prevalent around the country, and college students were not the only ones to find reason for revolt. The National Association of Secondary School Principals conducted a survey with 1,000 principals in public and private schools. They found that 56 percent of junior high schools and 59 percent of senior high schools reported some kind of protest activity. Heading the list were restrictions placed on the personal appearance of the students; one third of the principals reported objections to school dress codes, and one fourth reported objections to regulations governing hair length and style.
Students also protested smoking rules, cafeterias, assembly programs, censorship and regulation of school papers, and the scheduling of sports and social events. Only ten percent of the principals cited difficulties between the races.
The protestation of younger students seemed to follow and echo that of the college revolts, and principals thought that the protests were really against “society in general” or “the system,” and reported that “not only kids, but their parents, their teachers and various community groups are getting in on it.”
“In what must be the understatement of the decade, one school head observed: ‘To be a principal in times like these is not for the fainthearted.’”
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
The Dickinson Press, Saturday, March 15, 1969
The Dickinson Press, Friday, March 14, 1969