On this date in 2005, a Fargo ninth-grader was banned from school assemblies after asking Black Hawk Down pilot Michael Durant a sensitive question during a presentation, sparking debate between school officials who called it inappropriate and the student’s father who defended it as free speech.

Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:

By Erin Hemme Froslie

efroslie@forumcomm.com

A ninth-grader has been banned from school assemblies at Fargo’s Discovery Junior High after asking a sensitive question during a speaker presentation Thursday.

Phil Sannes also had to apologize to speaker Michael Durant after he asked the “Black Hawk Down” helicopter pilot whether he had been raped during his capture by hostile forces in Somalia.

“He asked a fair, hard-balled questio

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