Should high schools require community service?

i didnt know that i had to serve 75 hours of community service for high school graduaation. But when i found out i still finished the requirement with a partime job and new born twins

well i have read several cases where situations like such have been taken to court and the court system seems to want to deny its existence on a sub note to note how lazy the American system has gotten of the last 100 years and back on subject to answer your question yes there have been cases of people taking it to court and some even go as far as the supreme court and this so called "community service" goes against amendment 13 of the united states constitution on another sub note the constitution seems to be getting referenced less and less because people believe there smarter then a bunch of foundational laws set by people in the government back when the country first started who were obviously smarter then the people who run our government now days back on subject once again the 13th amendment clearly states that it abolished and still prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment of a crime by law, theoretically the only way the school system can legally do this by the rights and laws of the constitution is to give a reward for the service, and so as they cannot cheapen it i would personally advise the reward be suitable based upon public vote and student preference, in short there are a couple of ways this turns out, there is an uprising against the school system which might result in the school to reconsider and revise their making community service mandatory, the politics in America today finally cripple the government and economy and there's civil war and the school system is as good as forgotten or there's nothing the general public could do to change it and its something we need to deal with it, but it would have been smarter of them to do that at the beginning part of the 21st century though just to keep it with the changing times i don't know how it'll go I'm 16 years old a freshman in high school and i guess i can only hope things change

Steve, I'm in the Black River School District. It's a very long story, but our super and board are way out of control. They were rude to my daughter and myself. I can take it, but my daughter is a different story. They have been playing games for some time. They just make up things as they go along. I talked to their attorney and was told that they wouldn't hold their diploma, but wouldn't let them participate in commencement. They are just bullying the students and the parents. You can go on the district website and see for yourself, under graduation requirements. It is non-curricular. PERIOD. I can't get anywhere with them. I would love to find an attorney to take this and run. Maybe even a news channel would be interested.

wish I knew where you were in Ohio. I'm in Warren County, and hadn't heard of this 'community volunteer requirements' until moving up here. Where I came from, it was truly 'volunteering'. I want to know if it has been challenged in an Ohio court? I've never seen a state (and I've lived in 6) so dead set on running people's lives the way 'they' see fit as Ohio!

I agree 100% and I also wonder if there are any legal precedents. Have there been any court cases decided where a child was denied graduation because they had not met the required number of volunteer hours and the parents sued for compel the school district to grant diploma irregardless?

In my opinion of schools requiring that students do a certain amount of hours in community service is not unreal but highly unconstitutional in my opinion because schools are forcing kids to either do an activity that's natural purpose is to be a voluntary or fail. Personally their damaging a students integrity to be the best they can be because say a student doesn't have the time to spend doing something for his/her community because they have tests exams and allot of other things to do for their advancement in school. personally it isn't downright insane for kids to participate in services for their community but to make in mandatory is a down right indoctrination to get kids to believe its good to give back to their community on every chance they get because that also inflicts a person integrity to even live in today's society. So to conclude i think that community service should not be mandatory but voluntary.

Volunteering is one more tool to create community and to extend the boundaries of it - ironically, it shouldn't be the school asking the students to volunteer, it should be the students actively seeking an opportunity to do so - and , in my opinion, it should start much earlier than High school -

When do we stop taking on parenting roles. It is certainly within the schools purview to encourage social responsibility. It is not, however schools responsibility to teach morality. That is a parent's job.

A private school is a little different, you choose to go there. A public school is where my tax dollars go. The 13th amendment of the US Constitution clearly states that community service is issued for a penalty of law. Not to get all "constitutional" on you, but it is a little confusing to some people...the terminology. Mandatory volunteerism? Our district has used community service as a punishment in the past. Here in Ohio you can have this in your district, ORC 3313.605. You can earn credit for it. That helps sweetin' up a bit. But our district doesn't want to follow the law, when asked why, I was told "we can do whatever we want". Yes, they actually said that. Very dangerous mindset. A board member actually stated that if we don't like it, we have two choices...vote them out, or with open enrollment, take your kids and go elsewhere. They have stated it's their job to make better peolpe of our children. If that is to be a mirror image of them, I am not at all interested. I can think of all sorts of good things to do, I could threaten or force others to do it, but I'd bet you may have a change of heart, if you don't have the choice, you simply may not agree with my ideas of a good thing.