9/11 T-shirts no exception — I can understand some of this dress code nonsense, but what I do NOT get are the lengthy suspension punishments. How about just telling the kid to change the shirt and ending the problem. Cripes. ANd it’s not as if the messages on the t-shirt are bad, are they?
Ben Lewandowski says he was only trying to be patriotic when he wore a homemade T-shirt featuring an American flag bumper sticker and the words “Remember 9/11” to Lincoln Park High School on Monday.
After all, it was Sept. 11 — five years after the terrorist attacks.
The 17-year-old Lincoln Park resident put the shirt on Monday morning and headed to school — where he was quickly sent to the office and suspended for three days for violating the school’s dress code.
He was one of at least seven students sent home for wearing shirts featuring patriotic images and messages. It comes less than a week after three siblings were suspended for wearing shirts emblazoned with the First Amendment, despite warnings, and a week after more than 200 students were sent home on the first day of school for violating the district’s dress code — which bans apparel with writing or pictures.
For Lewandowski, who was sent home on the first day of school for wearing a shirt with writing on it, Monday’s incident was his second offense.
“I was frustrated,” said the junior, whose desire to become a firefighter was fueled after the Sept. 11 attacks. “It just made me so mad that I can’t be patriotic.”
Hardass Randall Kite Has a Track Record for this
He’s also into ID badges since the schools are apparently so impersonal
And this anti-witch stuff is rich too!
Kids learn by example. Our foremost leader in America has harped on 9/11 since 9/11. He even televised a political speech on the 5th anniversary: politics on a funeral day! There is no higher disrespect. We should storm the White House and drag that bastard out in his underpants and t-shirt.
Then you’d get the patriotic 9/11-caused-by-flying-saucer T-shirts. And the next thing you have are a lot of agitated kids distracted from their work. Kinda like me and Dvorak Uncensored.
RBG
1. They’d test a non-lethal weapon system on you.
RBG
#1, (Comment deleted).
#2, I agree 100%. The slipery slope is what is causing things like this.
I was taught/told that ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.’
“It just made me so mad that I can’t be patriotic.”
I dare say he was patriotic whether he was wearing the T-shirt or not. He may have been mad that he couldn’t demonstrate it by wearing the T-shirt
He’s a scoundrel.
According to the dress code, students are allowed to wear school-sanctioned clothing, such as T-shirts bearing the school’s mascot or clothing that supports school organizations.
So, clothing showing school pride is ok, but clothing showing national pride is not. Figures.
Oh just say what you want to say… It’s those ultra liberal America hating communist teachers out to deliver the US to the Taliban. That’s what some of you want to say…. 🙂
In reality, this is an afront to the First Amendment (the glue of modern society and the true to all liberty). This is irresponsible at every level. The kid who wore the 9/11 T-shirt, if I read it right, was also one of the 200 students sent home for wearing the 1st Amendment T-shirt.
This isn’t a private jesus brainwashing camp – this is a public school, funded by public many, and managed with public oversight, and in desperate need of a public lawsuit.
They can have it one of two ways – a strict dress code that bans all written outerwear, or they need to accept whatever kids wear.
Frankly, I can support the dress code. I hate it, but studies have shown a decrease in violence and an increase in productivity where dress codes are enforced. But it must be equal. If you can’t support the victims of 9/11, then you can’t support the basketball team. And if you can support the basketball team, get ready for shirts that support gay rights, the ACLU, Bush, Clinton, Justin Timberlake, N.O.R.M.A.L., Howard Stern…
…because my kid wears whatever just cause he damn well pleases on his sleeve and I’ve got his back.
#7 (the glue of modern society and the true to all liberty).
the true KEY to all liberty
Jeeze John… This tech is so 2003… Get an edit function!
The Supreme Court has ruled that schools may regulate clothing provided that the regulations are applied equally and that any deviation would be a distraction to the learning environment. They also firmly stated that first amendment rights do not stop at the school house gate (Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969 )
This might be just a technicality, but if the school does allow writing in certain circumstances, then it would be discriminating to disallow it in other cases, especially where the message is part of the constitution. If this was me, I would be asking the school superintendent if the school board would be willing to pay to send my child to a school district that does allow writing on shirts OR will they instead change their policy. It is the policies like these that end up putting money in lawyers pockets instead of classrooms and serve no appreciable purpose.
#8, OFTLO
FYI, I write my message out in a word processor (Open Office) then cut and paste it. My spelling makes full use of the spell check feature plus it is easier to read what I wrote.
The school failed. They now gave the youngster on national news. The school didn’t use any common sense. There is a huge difference between honoring people (on the correct day) who were murdered and wearing something to incite a riot. The two are not equivalent. So on December 7th he shouldn’t wear a T shirt saying something like honor those who died at Pearl Harbor? Big difference between that and on 12/7 wearing a T shirt that denigrates the Japanese people for bombing us on 12/7/1941. (both are true, but there is a world of difference; we should teach that there are such differences. But the prinicpal at the HS isn’t intelligent enough to understand the difference!)
Interesting that this came up on DU the day after I read James Kilpatrick’s First Amendment in school article.
Personally, I’d let the kid wear such a shirt, and let him bring his guide dog.
J/P=?
And you have to wonder why people home school their children?
And you have to wonder why people home school their children?
Comment by joshua — 9/14/2006 @ 5:23 pm
I would think you have to wonder why so many so called intelligent administrators like to enrich lawyers. Like it or not, these rule makers work for us. They answer to us. Come election day, we pass judgment.
#14
TESTIFY FUSION!
Leapin’ Jesus on a pogo stick… I say it to people all the time… We are not beholden to our government. They are beholden to us. The public owns the government, not the other way around and the time is right freaking now to stand up and assert our authority.
See, there’s plenty of US volunteers for non-lethal weapons tests. Can we wait until November?
RBG
Fusion’s is just about the only accurate entry on this thread. Most of rest are strikingly ignorant. If clothing is likely to disrupt an educational environment, it can be barred under the Constitution. That is because students in public schools have limited free speech rights. They are limited free speech rights because the mission of schools is to educate, not to provide a forum for children to express themselves.
These cases usually crop up because of the neo-Confederate movement. One of its leaders, neo-Nazi Kirk Lyons, runs a law firm that regularly induces parents to send children to school wearing Confederate flag emblems to taunt minority children. Hopefully, Dvorak and others can see why it makes sense to nip this kind of thing in the bud.
Let me understand something then:
Fusion is saying “schools may regulate clothing provided that the regulations are applied equally” without deviation. Meaning they decide the standard that avoids “class disruption”. Are you agreeing with that?
RBG
Goodness gracious! I graduated from Lincoln Park High School (some time ago, actually). At that time boys were required to wear khakis, collared shirts and leather shoes. Even though Lincoln Park was a working class, blue collar town, it was no hardship. While ID badges seem extreme (and stupid – a kid could probably dupe one easily enough), a certain minimal dress code really seems like a good idea.
#17
This isn’t about clothing that disrupts the mission of educating kids, and under normal circumstances, you’d be hard pressed to find real examples of clothing that can actually disrupt education.
This notion that kids, and I think we are talking about high school kids here, have some sort of limited rights is absurd. They should have the same rights under the bill of rights that I do, and in my mind they do. Especially, the rights relating to speech and press as those two right most directly affect them in school.
Mostly, these kids are being trained in an old world factory model to bow to authority and be subserviant citizens. They know they are being set up for failure. They have an absolute right to add their voice to public discourse as they are being given the responsibility for the future we create today.
The shirt? A remember 9/11 shirt? If that is what gets you sent home from school then someone in an administration is seriously overstepping their bounds and needs to be knocked down a peg.
And nothing is more shameful than 200 students sent home from school for wearing shirts that had printed on them the First Amendment of the United States of America. Any administrator who cannot see the obvious problem with that policy isn’t qualified to educate kids.
Gang- I’m a school administrator. These are the rules. The shirt rule is a sound one, although the school logo/mascot provision is crap. The ID card rule is also no big deal. We require it at businesses.
Highs schools have 100 or so adults working in the building. Everyone knows them. Spotting an intruder is easy. With 2000 students, no one knows them all. Why do we ask adults to wear id’s and not kids? It’s about security, and golly, we ought to grow up and accept life in 21c.
If you break the rule twice you get suspended. If you, as an administrator, fail to enforce the rule, the rule dies. You can never enforce it again without being capricious and discriminatory.
Sorry gang- I don’t love Lincoln Park’s policies, but they are on the level in how they enforce them.
#21 – I hope my kids never go to your school. You are obviuosly perfectly qualified for the job of school administrator. School is about education. America is about freedom. Banning “shirts with writing” is not about freedom or about education. Banning 9/11 remembrances is about stupidity.
The rules should apply to everyone in all cases. I’d get the same punishment if my 9/11 t-shirt read: “Death to the Infidels!” or “Muslims Rule!”. You can be patriotic without forcing your opinions on others. Its not any different then religion or politics.
Besides, students in high school or below should be wearing uniforms of some type. My wife works in a bank and she has a dress code. Shouldn’t we be preparing our children to follow the rules instead of breaking them?
Ah! Just another classic example of letting “chimpanzees” make the rules. No offense to any apes out there reading this. He may have violated the rule twice but the rule is ridiculous and does not allow exception unless it benefits the school. Kind of reminds you of fascism. I do not care if writing on tee shirts is against the rules at this school for the simple reason that it is allowed in certain circumstances. What amazes me is the first offense. There is something definitely wrong in a school system that would consider the first amendment not one of those circumstances. After all his first violation was for distracting other students with writing on a shirt about something they should be learning in government class anyway!
What’s next? Will free speech be banned in classrooms?
RBG said:
“Meaning they decide the standard that avoids “class disruption”. Are you agreeing with that?”
Yes, disruption, is the key. In this fact situation, the boy’s tee shirt invites either responses of agreement or opposition. Considering how strongly people feel about the occupation of Iraq, that would result in disruption of the educational mission.
Love, your personal opinion is in direct opposition to the law in this regard.
Last, but not least, one needs to consider that many of the youngsters yelping about the First Amendment can’t even recite it or read it without stumbling or failing to know the meaning of words in it. The mission of schools is rightly education.
#21, Bernie,
I don’t have a big problem with the ID and I don’t think any court would disagree with them either, provided they are not used improperly. They are a lazy person’s way of maintaining control over the masses.
You are wrong about the shirt though and as you showed, cannot defend the policy. If the school allows students to wear the team mascot or other school booster slogans, then they could not legally refuse to allow a student to wear a shirt dissing the school mascot or team. If the school sells these clothes, then they endorse having writing or messages on clothing. The school can not discriminate and only allow students to wear clothes they sell.
If you break the rule twice you get suspended. If you, as an administrator, fail to enforce the rule, the rule dies. You can never enforce it again without being capricious and discriminatory.
You can also end up being forced to pay attorney fees and eating crow because you discriminated against a student. Again, read Tinker where the Supreme Court clearly stated that a school may not discriminate against the clothing a student may wear.
# 18, RBG
If the school allows students to wear the US flag on a shirt, they couldn’t state that the Confederate Flag couldn’t be worn. Unless it was being worn to intimidate minority students, for example. While you might wear a shirt suggesting the Iraq War is wrong, a shirt suggesting the Principal is a goof would surely be disruptive and rightfully banned. Even if true.
After so many students and years of having to deal with this issue, a lot of this must now be sorted out. But I would think that there could be a lot of subjective interpretation of what’s “disruption” by the powers that be. Also, if the test is *disruption*, that a cunning group of student dissenters could easily provide such thing if they didn’t like the words on a shirt. Maybe not an issue in actuality.
RBG
#28, when the matter is gray, that is where it needs a more fine definition. For example, if the majority wear Christian T-shirts messages, but a small group wearing Satanic messages is picked on and abused what is the school to do. The second message is definitely causing a disruption, but only because of the prejudice of the majority. Ban all religious slogans? OK, but where does religion and politics split? Is the Right to Life a religious or political position?
So your question is one that wise men, cool heads, tolerance, and the courts will decide.
Why am I reminded of the punchline of a joke that goes something like “…But where are you going to find a virgin and three wise men?” ;^)
RBG