“My dumb Dad got me this short wave radio set so I could just speak to my friends back east, but I couldn't reach anybody. I thought I was talking to nobody. I imagined that nobody was listening. Maybe I imagined one person out there... Anyway one day I woke up and I realised I was never going to be normal and so I said "fuck it," I said "so be it" and Happy Harry Hard-on was born.” -Happy Harry
Food for thought. The Movie that sparked my humble lil' 'zine... "PUMP UP THE VOLUME!" Even the cover was inspired from the flick when Harry flips on his radio and there is that finger. Cute, eh? If you have seen the flick, read the first article in the first issue... should recognize some similarities...
Now my 'zine is coming up on it's one year anniversary! For some reason, that has also reinstated the media interest though not much else has been happening with my lil' ol' law suit against the Bend LaPine School District in Central Oregon. Example? Here's a WONDERFUL article that Doug Bates, associate editor of the Bend Bulletin, wrote for the March 15th Bend Bulletin. I really dig it... let me know what you think!
If you saw the young man’s murals, you’d figure him to be a nice kid.
At the Candy Shoppe at Mountain View Mall, he gave us smiling children with clowns, cotton candy and carnival rides.
At Hutch’s Bicycles in west Bend, he painted the spokes and knobby tires of giant mountain bikes against the backdrop of Mount Bachelor.
At Mountain Biew High School, his sweeping mural depicts the string of snow-capped peaks gracing the horizon west of town.
Chris Pangle is a talented illustrator - “the nest student artist I’ve ever seen,” says his principal, Ed Tillinghast, at Mountain View.
But Pangle is not your stereotypical All-American boy. He’s a handsome, strapping 6-foot-2 vegetarian who goes to school wearing a dangling earring and dark polish on his nails. Light brown hari falls to his shoulders and a thin beard struggles to assert itself on his 17-year-old chin.
“Chris has always been a very independent sort,” says his mother, Wendy Pangle. “He’s not limited by what people think of him, and he doesn’t fit into any of the typical cliques at school.”
He’s a gentle, articulate high-achiever who does volunteer work for the American Cancer Society and participates in the off-campus Gay-Straight Alliance. At school, he calls himself “one of the jerks in the back row,” and for the past year he has paid dearly for being that way.
Eleven months ago Chris Pangle slammed unexpectedly into trouble at Mountain View High. He helped create and distribute a mewsletter called “Outside” in which he bented his feelings of alienation from the mainstream at Mountain View.
Look really close and you’ll find some serious, even poignant messages in “Outside.” They’re burried, however, in a slurry of vulgarity, profanity and sophomoric posturing that advocated dirty tricks against certain teachers. School officials perceived it as disruptive and threatening, and they hammered the yound man.
Pangle, who refused to rat on his co-authors, was expelled for nine months. His parents, loan officers at a Bend morgage company, filed suit. The Pangles aren’t after money. They’re seeking $1, a clean record for Chris (who had never been in trouble) and a ruling that his constitutional rights had been violated.
A Deschutes County judge rejected the Pangles’ claim, and now they’re appealing.
I’ve got mixed feelings about the case. If my wife were a teacher at Mountain View, I might be pretty uncomfortable with some of the outrageous acts of “vengeance” suggested in Chris’ newsletter. But I’m also thoroughly chilled by the thought of four police cars pulling up at the Pangles’ home, where officers seized the teen-ager’s computer and searched for more copies of “Outside.”
Is this Bend or Beijing?
I’m no lawyer, so I can’t even guess how the Pangles’ lawsuit will fare on appeal, but I’m pleased to see things are turning out all right for young Chris - a very nice kid, if you can look past all the trappings of youthful rebellion.
He’s back in school, with a perfect 4.0 GPA the past two terms, and bearing down on graduation. He has been accepted at Oregon State University, where he has an excellent chance at an art scholarship. And he is creating and marketing a series of comic books called “Revelations".
In the meantime, Pangle seems to have learned something from his tangle with authority.
“I don’t think what I did was legally wrong,” he says, “but I now realize how to handle things in a more constructive manner.”
If you strip away the freespeech issues, other lessons remain to be learned by all sides in this interesting case.
Mountain View officials, I’d suggest you try a little harder to reach out to those alienated kids who have trouble fitting in.
Chris Pangle, I’d suggest you try a little harder to feel comfortable being the talented and baluable individual you are, instead of one of “the jerks in the back row.” Oh, and one more thing, Chris. Graduation is almost here. I’d suggest leaving that comic book at home.
