Here's something you don't hear every day. An eighth grade student was told she was"distracting" other students by being NICE to people who were different from her. Say what?
I remember eighth grade; with all those surging hormones, the school staff was bending over backward to encourage any time we were NICE to each other instead of biting someone's head off. But the folks at DeSoto Middle School decided Dawn Henderson's t-shirt declaring "Some Kids R (sic) Gay. That's OK." wasn't OK.
Instead, the school's principal told her she'd have to call her grandfather to bring in a new shirt to wear rather than continue on with the school day. In other words: it was more worth it to this school administrator to pull a kid out of class for the time it took her grandfather to find her a new shirt, drive it to school and for her to change, than it was for her to wear a shirt all day that said something nice about other kids.
The stories crop up all the time. Kid has opinion. Kid puts opinion on shirt and wears it to school. School throws a s--t fit because heaven forbid kids think for themselves. Kid has to take off shirt, turn it inside out, go home, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't really matter WHAT the shirt says -- the landmark case Tinker v. Des Moines determined our kids don't give up their 1st Amendment right to free speech when they walk through the door. All kids -- even the ones with ill-formed opinions -- deserve to have their say. Courts have upheld this again and again and again.
But what's so troubling about this case in Louisiana is the positive nature of Dawn Henderson's shirt. She wasn't starting a riot. She wasn't insulting anyone.
The shirt was made by FCKH8, a group that puts money toward queer youth counseling (they're now giving a 25 percent discount on merchandise with the codeword BANNED in Dawn's honor). The group's all about gay and "str8" standing together.
That's fairly middle of the road if anything -- as she said "some" kids are gay. Not all. Some. "And that's OK." In other words -- not everyone has to be, which is perfectly fine too.
We could almost start singing "Kumbaya" right now and just call it a day. And if I'm remembering middle school right, when kids are hitting puberty and experiencing those lovely symptoms like "unexplained mood swings, aggression, and depression," we could all use a little more "Kumbaya."
Do you think this principal was out of line?
Image via FCKH8.com
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Comments 83
Authorities will get away with whatever we allow them to. If my child was sent home for wearing a shirt with a message like that or otherwise positive, I would fight the school district. Just like I fought them when my son was the victim of ethnic discrimination, and they told me there was nothing that needed to be done, because Italians aren't a minority. I complained to the US Department of Education and I won. We all need to start questioning school district decisions, because they are counting on us not knowing our rights. How sad that in this time of anti-bullying rhetoric, a child can't stick up for a peer!
In my opinion the difference between allowing kids to wear the shirt in question and allowing them to wear a Christian based shirt is that we have this thing in this country called separation of church and state, which most people like to forget about when it benefits their cause. I've seen people walking around with shirts reading "Christian is the only way" a shirt of that nature should never be allowed in a public school being there are kids with many different religious backgrounds in our public schools. This shirt did not saw GAY IS THE ONLY WAY, all it said is being gay is ok.
I disagree with the school in this case. This girl was promoting equality in a very innocent way and was punished for it.
TroysMommy, you mean the "parents" were promoting equality. How many 8th graders do you think fully understand the whole gay thing? How many 8 graders know anything about adult life let alone something this deep. This definitely came from someone else's urging. What if it said "gay is not okay." How would you feel about that? Would that child have the right to wear that? This has to work both ways or people are going to call foul.
When I was in 8th grade I was in the gay/straight alliance and we spoke at middle schools all over New England. I don't think youth is an excuse for ignorance.
No it doesn't work both ways. Supporting equality and belittling people based on sexuality are two very different things. So in that case for the people who are saying kids should be able to wear Pro-Christian shirts to school does that mean I can allow my child to wear a shirt that says "God doesn't exist" with a big red circle with a line through it? There is a major difference between voicing equality and voicing intolerance and ignorance.
I don't agree TroysMommy. We all believe in different things. This is just why stuff like this with these messages don't belong in school.
I don't see anything wrong with that shirt...
queer isn't polite even if they think wearing the tshirt is being nice-it's not!
parents do not see what there children are wearing anymore? guess not!
I agree with vicesix. I work at a school and a shirt that controversial would cause a lot of disruption for the teachers and keep them from doing the job our taxes pay them to do. Because our taxes are what pays them, I wouldn't want my child being taken from his learning time to be a part of a debate b/c a student wore a shirt like this to school. My child has enough trouble keeping up with some of the stuff they have to learn now a days (geometry in 4th grade math). I need him to stay focused on that.