Teacher, what did you say that assignment was about?

At Currituck County High School, a lesson in "freedom" taught a student about irony and probably scared him to death in the process.

The assignment was "to take photographs to illustrate [your] rights in the Bill of Rights." A student, who for reasons soon apparent remains unnamed, found a photo of George Bush, tacked it up with a thumb tack through the head, and put his own "thumbs down" beside it.

He took his own picture of this and then took the film to Wal-Mart for processing. Bad move. A direct line runs from Wal-Mart to the Secret Service. Wham, bam, no more picture.

In Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court said, "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Mary Beth Tinker herself is still on the stump with this message.

How pretty to think so.