The Golden Arches Come to School

A high schools student challenges corporate influence in his school and pays the consequences.

By Tristan Kading

On May 22, 2001, my classmates and I, then sophomores at Stonington High School in Stonington, Conn., were forced to attend a mandatory assembly held in the cafeteria of our school. We were not told the subject of the assembly, but we were told that attendance would be taken, so we better show up.

Imagine my surprise - and horror - when I walked into the cafeteria and was confronted by an enormous McDonald's flag draped over a table and a group of McDonald's representatives, wearing caps adorned by the golden arches, gathered at the front of the room. Under the guise of "educating" us about job interview skills, the local McDonald's franchise had infiltrated our school in an obvious attempt to recruit summer help.

They began their program by showing a 20-minute movie about how great it is to work for McDonald's. I have been a vegetarian since fifth grade, and have always been an advocate of animal rights, so I was outraged at being forced to sit through this propaganda from a company whose practices I despise.

Following the movie, the McDonald's representatives staged "mock interviews," which were supposed to show us how to act when applying for a job. I saw this as an opportunity to present the other side of the issue and tell the truth about McDonald's, so I volunteered to do an interview. I was called up and a McDonald's representative asked me to tell her about myself. I replied, "I hate large corporations like McDonald's." The representative said, "That won't get you a job at McDonald's," and then handed the microphone back to me. To this I said, "Good, I don't want to work at McDonald's because they lied to Hindus and vegetarians about the beef flavoring in their French fries."

EMBARRASSING THE SCHOOL

At this point, I was told to sit down. A teacher then announced that I had "embarrassed the school," and sent me to the principal's office. I was threatened with a suspension for "disrupting" the assembly; I was ordered to write an apology and present it to the McDonald's representative; and then I was told I would have to apologize to the sophomore class for disrupting their educational experience.

I do not believe I created a disturbance at all - in fact, a student who participated in one of the mock interviews before me made a rude remark which earned a much louder response from the students than my factual comments did, but he was not punished or reprimanded in any way. Despite this, I agreed to write the apologies because I did not want to be suspended. The next thing the vice principal said I had to do, however, shocked and appalled me: After implying that I would not be allowed to graduate if I did not cooperate, he told me I had to go on the school P.A. system (which all students are required to listen to) and apologize to the school and the McDonald's representative for my statements about McDonald's and for disrupting the assembly. Because I feared I'd be punished if I didn't do what the vice principal told me to do, I complied and read an apology to the entire school. My voice shook as I made this coerced apology and I was humiliated at being forced to retract something I feel very strongly about.

My experience with my school administrators and McDonald's has strengthened my determination to fight for free speech, animal rights, and the rejection of commercialism in schools.

Tristan Kading is a member of the Youth Advisory Board of the Center for Commercial- free Public Education. He is a junior at Stonington High School in Connecticut.

Summer 2002