Brickbat: You Don’t Say

Seirra Olivero, 13,
says she was suspended for telling other students about
their legal
rights. Olivero says she told other students at her
Sparrowbush, New York, school that did not have to take a state
English test. She says a teacher told her to “shut my mouth.” She
later got called to the principal’s office and interrogated. When
the principal refused to let her call her mother, she left the
office. School officials deny Olivero was suspended for telling
students they didn’t have to take the test. They say she was
suspended for refusing to obey administrators.