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One kid? Probably not. Five friends all sitting together wearing Mexican T-shirts and bandanas? Raises questions.
Then again, kids wouldn't be at school on July 4 anyway.
They looked alright on the topless babes in Conan the Barbarian, but otherwise... yeah.
One kid? Probably not. Five friends all sitting together wearing Mexican T-shirts and bandanas? Raises questions.
Then again, kids wouldn't be at school on July 4 anyway.
If he didn't have reasons to be concerned, we shall fault him for that.
If he actually had reasons to be concerned, then we shall fault those who gave him reasons for that. If there are people that would be offended by the kids using t-shirts to the point of making the possibility of an uproar a credible scenario, those people have serious issues that need to be addressed ASAP.
Why not just bring them a different shirt to wear if they felt it improper to turn a flag shirt inside out? All they had to do was change. No, even the parents were part of wanting to make a point. It is pretend Patriotism at its finest that is really meant to be anti-someone.
+1.
Thank you. I just couldn't bring myself to get into this with anyone. Thank you for putting the proper perspective on it.
This faux incident is a microcoism of the larger faux problem....Namely, Faux News..
I acknowledge the prevailing custom that schools function quasi in loco parentis and customarily abrogate the liberties of the minor persons entrusted to them, from time to time, in light of some generally acknowledged version of the greater good or civic order.
I hope the ACLU sues their asses. It should hurt a lot to up like this.
Going bonkers over a Cinco de Mayo t-shirt counter-protest provides a piss-poor example for the kiddies in addition to all of the adults involved.
Of all things to go to war over administratively, t-shirts? Really?
Last edited by Winehole23; 05-06-2010 at 09:44 PM.
ing pathetic.
Improper t-shirt alert. Send the kids home. We're scared something might happen to them.
My wife is Mexican and she doesn't get it either... She celebrates the Mexican Independence Day, which is Sept 17th or 18th I think. Can't quite remember.
The right to offend someone is also protected by the First Amendment. I don't care how easy it was to "fix" the problem, because that's beside the point.
Dies y seis de Septembre. (September 16)
I agree.
This subject is a no brainer. Don't kick the kids out of school because they wore USA t's on Cinco day. DUH.
Let's discuss "going bonkers."
We have 5 kids who got sent home from school for refusing to comply with a request meant to minimize distraction and potential hostility. Whether you agree or disagree with the punishment, the tangible consequence was that five kids went home from school and were allowed back the next day (where they likely were welcomed back as heroes).
This story becomes national news and a heated topic of conversation on all media outlets. I even heard about it three times on a sports station here. The kids are treated like martyrs for being kicked out of school for the day, their parents are pimping them out to all of the local news outlets to describe how their rights were violated, administrators are accused of "banning the American flag," and protests are inevitable because people are getting worked up about it because they think this is an attack on the flag.
What's more bonkers?
If you're still not convinced read some of the comments on the linked article.
And while I may not have been very clear on my stance in previous posts, I agree that sending them home was a bad decision... because they now have a situation 1000x worse than the one they were trying to avoid. Really it's just a case of an administrator overreacting to what he interpreted as an act of open hostility.
I can't blame him for thinking that. It's pretty clear to me, and I would think it's clear to any reasonable person (but apparently not), that these kids coordinated their flag-wear (seriously, ing bandanas??) as a way to "counter" what they perceived as Mexican pride overkill on Cinco de Mayo. I don't blame him for being on a bit higher alert about white and Hispanic student relations given the stuff happening in Arizona right now.
What I can blame him for is failing to anticipate the ridiculous yet predictable outrage by Fox News' White American Victims.
Last edited by Spurminator; 05-06-2010 at 11:06 PM.
Without limitation, the District prohibits any clothing or grooming that in the principal’s or designee’s judgment may reasonably be expected to cause disruption ...
Alamo Heights ISD
Clothing ... that are offensive or inflammatory are prohibited... While it is inevitable that there will be differences of opinion as to the appropriateness of dress and grooming, the final determination will be in the judgment of the building principal. The student who does not comply with this code will be removed from the regular school setting until the student complies with this code.
NEISD
All schools pretty much have statements in their dress codes that say that the school has the right to determine what is disruptive and require the students to change. Minors in a school do not have the same rights of freedom of expression as would an adult out at a public event. These kids did not just happen to be wearing these shirts on this day. They intentionally meant to make a statement, and it was not a positive one.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/proj...dentspeech.htm
Legal reading on the subject, if anyone is interested.
Enforced positivity (or neutrality) can hardly be calculated to induce trust, respect for rules or toleration.
I still don't understand why the school couldn't have talked their way through it. It seems to me the lesson to students is that political controversy is too threatening to the peace of the ins ution and to all the people inside it, to be permitted at to arise at all. I think that's a mistake.
The administrators should have known that the kind of kids who would do this are likely to have the parents who would be beyond excited to tell the story to any media outlet that will listen.
Everyone wants their turn to be the oppressed.
It's unfortunate because it just further undermines the authority of school teachers and administrators. And in this case the administrators contributed to their own demise.
One is way more bonkers, nonetheless, both still seem bonkers to me.
Sure. Retrospection isn't always favorable to petty assertions of authority, and I agree that in this case the reaction to it ought to have been foreseeable.
I'm not so sure about that. Why should I bow to someone else's reality principle?
My kid's expression of personal beliefs should suffer because some cowardly administrator peed his pants over the disruption it might cause? Weak.
Very predictable. The outrage over the supposed insult to the American flag and "white people" is a complete joke. But so is sending the kids home. JMO.
Like I said earlier, wearing a French shirt is much worse than wearing the American flag shirt on Cinco de Mayo. You'd think the adminstrators would have given more credit to the "mexican-american" students not being offended by displays of their "adoptive" country.
Bandanas were still a bit much, and I think either way this was going to cut someone because WHAT IF those "mexican-americans" fight those 5 kids...SOMEONE would have been screaming that the Admins could/should have intervened before the two sides clashed knowing it was Cinco de Mayo.
In the bad old world, there would have been a fight after school, somebody would've got their ass beat, then everyone would go home and lie about it. LE wouldn't be called, and everyone would learn a memorable lesson about the hazards of free expression. I miss it in some ways.
Last edited by Winehole23; 05-07-2010 at 12:47 PM. Reason: after school
I'm not arguing that they don't have the right to remove a kid for clothing deemed "offensive".Clothing ... that are offensive or inflammatory are prohibited... While it is inevitable that there will be differences of opinion as to the appropriateness of dress and grooming, the final determination will be in the judgment of the building principal. The student who does not comply with this code will be removed from the regular school setting until the student complies with this code.
I'm arguing that the policy is far too broad, making it stupid and ineffective, with no seeming review of the decisions made to restrict some forms of personal expression.
If the admin waited until actual fighting/abuse had occurred, he would have been covered. Instead he jumped the gun, and now is getting blowback, rightfully.
I hate the fact that so many people are just willing to say, "Hey, kids don't have full First Amendment rights in school, so let's not care about what principals do or don't allow in school." Just because they don't have the right to wear words displaying curse words or violent images or the like, doesn't mean that any shirts that the principal deems "offensive" should be removed, IMO.
Yeah, Cinco de Mayo has basically evolved into a US invention to sell beer and have a party, and seems to draw relatively little celebration outside the Puebla area in Mexico. Seems like wearing red white and blue would be as appropriate as wearing green white and red.
If those kids had been wearing the flag of France on their shirts on May 5 they could have more rightly expected an ass whipping.
Clearly the mobs rule the schools out there. It's too bad.
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