B60 F. E. E. RETAKE Topic Pool

(Fall 2012)

1.      She Kissed a Girl

An actress recently claimed she was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight for kissing another woman. While the actress claims it was “one modest kiss,” the airline states that some passengers described it as “excessive public display of affection,” and that the actress and the woman responded with profane language when flight attendants spoke to them, resulting in their removal from the flight. Should airlines have the power to remove passengers for what they call inappropriate displays of affection?

 

2.      Facebook Threat

In the wake of the 2012 presidential election, a 22-year-old from California went online and used the n-word to refer to President Obama and expressed her hopes that someone would assassinate him. As a result, she was fired by her employer, who had received complaints about the woman’s Facebook comments. Should employers have the right to terminate employees for comments they make online?

 

3.      Cafeteria Shutdown

After a food fight broke out during lunch hour in a middle school cafeteria, the parents were sent a letter from the school notifying them that the cafeteria would not serve lunch to the students for the remainder of the week.  Therefore, if they wanted their children to eat, parents would have to send students to school with a bagged lunch or food from home. Did the school take the correct course of action to deal with the issue?

 

4.      Seizing Licenses

A Bakersfield woman who received three speeding tickets in four months was charged with killing a motorcyclist three days after receiving her third speeding ticket. Excessive speed and driving while texting were cited as contributing factors in the fatal accident. In response to questions about why this woman still had her license, a judge said that only the state DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) can suspend her license.  Moreover, her tickets gave her only three of the four “points” needed to revoke her driving privileges. Should California’s laws for suspending a driver’s license be changed to deal with drivers who receive numerous tickets over a short amount of time?