"We Do Not Want America to Represent Torture": High School Presidential Scholars Deliver Bush a Message on Human Rights

For years the Bush administration has come under heavy criticism from human rights groups, legal scholars and members of Congress for its detention policies and support for torture in the so-called war on terror. But last week, President Bush got a rebuke from an unexpected source. Last Monday the president was meeting with this year’s presidential scholars, they're high school students.

One of them handed him a handwritten letter signed by 50 of the students. It read: “As members of the presidential scholars class of 2007, we have been told that we represent the best and brightest of our nation. Therefore, we believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions. We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants.”

The White House said President Bush had not expected the letter but read it and then told the students that that United States does not torture and that the country values human rights. The seniors had been invited to the East Room as members of the Presidential Scholars program - one of the nation’s highest honors for graduating high school students.

Two of the Presidential scholars who signed the letter to President Bush join us today in our firehouse studio.

Mari Oye . Presidential scholar from Wellesley High School in Massachusetts.

Leah Anthony Libresco . Presidential scholar from The Wheatley School in Mineola, New York.

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