NEWS RELEASE
For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin (503) 235-8012
For Immediate Release: April 17th, 2003
Father Sues Oregon School District to Expel Channel One
Today, an Oregon parent filed a complaint in an Oregon circuit court, contending that the Salem-Keizer School District is violating the Oregon State Constitution by forcing his son and daughter to watch commercial advertising in school. Specifically, the complaint challenges the school districts contract with Channel One, a company that uses the schools to advertise to captive audiences of about 8 million children in about 12,000 schools nationwide.
Attorneys Mark McDougal and Linda Williams assert in the complaint that Channel One has commandeered about one full week of school time each school year.
The parent, Gary Boyes, who lives in Keizer, Oregon, filed the case in the Marion County Circuit Court. Both his daughter, Shanna Boyes, and son Gary Boyes, attend schools that use Channel One, Walker Middle School and North Salem High School, respectively.
“Channel One is a waste of precious school time,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit organization that helps parents contend with the assault of the commercial culture on their kids. “It exists for one purpose—to deliver a captive audience of impressionable schoolchildren to corporate advertisers. Surely schools can put that time to more productive uses—such as teaching and active learning.”
“Channel One has turned my childrens schools into amphitheaters of commercial advertising for junk food and crass entertainment,” said Gary Boyes. “It’s time for that to end.”
Copies of the complaint are available at http://www.commercialalert.org/
orcomplaint.pdf. For more information about Channel One, see Commercial Alerts Channel One web page at http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/education/channel-one.
Commercial Alert is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy.
Commercial Alert has more than 2000 members, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit our website at http://www.commercialalert.org.
-30-