“Gang outifts,” according to the principal
Is it too much for this clown to calmly ask why they are dressed alike? Is it too much to check with the parents first? Unless there’s more to this than in the story, something is wrong with this guy. Hopefully the school board will investigate.
School Suspended Us For Dressing Alike
A school recently suspended four eighth-grade girls because they wore identical outfits on the same day, some of the girls and their parents said.
Two of the girls, Dacia Small and Mindy Ellis, said McCulloch Middle School officials incorrectly branded them as gang members because of the outfits. The four received a five-day suspension after Principal Michael Shaffer saw their clothes, Small and Ellis said.
“One of the girls asked him what was the matter with it. Then he started yelling at all everybody and took us to the office and suspended us,” Small told Indianapolis TV station WRTV.
Shaffer said the girls were suspended because they violated school rules, but he declined to say which rules they broke.
“I can’t really address specifically a student discipline issue in regard to a particular student,” Shaffer said. “I will tell you that we have a code of conduct here at McCulloch Middle School that we expect all of our students to measure up to. We’re talking about a violation of that code of conduct.”
The girls, whose suspensions end Tuesday, are in an after-school dance group together, but not a gang, Small said.
“We dressed alike because we are just friends,” Small said.
Small’s mother, Regina Barnett, said she isn’t happy with Shaffer’s decision. She said she thought the suspension had to do with the girls being black. Shaffer is white.
“I told him I think it’s a racial thing,” Barnett said. “He said he didn’t appreciate me saying that because he has black friends and this and that,” Barnett said.
Barnett said she is worried that the gang allegation would be on her daughter’s school record.
“I don’t want it on her record that she got kicked out for a gang,” Barnett said. “She’s not in a gang. I’m not going to let that get stuck on her record.”
Barnett said she hoped to talk to the school district’s superintendent about the issue.
So lets see, quite a few posts suggest that uniforms are a good thing. So four girls dress the same and get kicked out of school. Their outfits weren’t outlandish or promote anything, but they were uniform.
So what is wrong with the picture here?
Well, we have ZeOutofHisMind (#21) suggesting it is their own fault because they don’t have “fashion sense”. He even quoted one of the jock bullies from Columbine to suggest that dressing differently then the bully makes you fair game. Nothing to add to the discussion, only it is their own fault because of a school rule that doesn’t exist that they didn’t know about.
We have silve (#20) talking about starting out on a level playing field. I know of no parent who wants a “level playing field”. If everyone is going the same speed, you can’t get ahead of the slowest one. Give my child a fair playing field where she can excel on her own abilities. He also feels that uniforms will save parents money.
We have joshua (#11) suggesting they should be suspended because an incident they were disciplined for already and it is unclear who was the bully. From all appearances, that excuse looks to be added on later. But hey, it works when you don’t have any facts. I wonder if home schooling does that to you.
No one is saying that school uniforms will eliminate all inequities at school. But the fact is that kids, teenagers are acutely aware of the differences in wealth between students. If you’re forced to take the bus to school and some kid is taking a car that sticks in the kid’s mind. As adults we learn to live with the inequities. To the kids in schools, it a whole different reality, especially for those that live in inner cities and are being bussed to schools with wealthier socio-economic infrastructures. Now I agree with Mr. ConFusion, I’d like to see some hard data, but I’m willing to bet that schools in this country who have school uniforms will tend to have lower incidences of violence and higher academic performances.
As far as saying that the girls brought this problem on themselves because of their poor fashion sense is taking what I said out of context. I think there is more to this then how they dressed. I think from the articles it’s pretty clear that the school administration had more then just the dress code in mind when they disciplined these girls. I do think that if someone broke a rule they need to be told what infraction they violated but I’m not remotely suggesting that it’s solely their clothes that warranted this action. As far as their unique individuality goes, if they’re all dressing the same aren’t they conforming to an anti-conformity?
In Mr. ConFusion’s attack on #20.(Sylv), I think he’s taken Sylv’s comments totally out of context.. I don’t believe Sylv is arguing that school uniforms make people dumber or smarter or perform better athletically. I think she’s talking about it from an economic point of view. Kid’s won’t be beating each other up or killing each other over their Nike Air Jordans and Jewelry if you have a standard school uniform. If one kid’s life is spared then I think any parent would agree with uniforms. That’s the whole point. As far as saving money, yes they do save money. A lot of schools will give lower income parents vouchers to buy uniforms when they can’t afford to make ends meet.
Also, there are too many instances where you read in the newspapers about some kid or adult who wanders onto campus and infiltrates the school. If they had uniforms at that school in Bailey Colorado the teachers or kids are the school would have been more likely to pick that guy out as an outsider as he walked down the hallways. Outsiders would be far more visible and people would be more acutely aware that someone was someplace where they did not belong. I’m not saying that this tragedy would have been avoided but there are too many times when people go onto the campuses unchallenged.
And as far as raising mindless children in the schools, we’re busy raising mindless children-consumers at home. These days you can’t get away from the sheer amount of placement ads in TV shows and Movies, Magazine ads, TV commercials and radio ads you’re exposed to. Unless you’re using an adblocker on the internet or not watching American media in general our kids are saturated with ads for all sorts of stuff. I couldn’t believe when I saw this stupid ad on TV trying to sell kids “Aquapods” – i.e. Bottled water. It wasn’t about drinking water it was about having FUN, flying and basically being put on a rollercoaster of the imagination. The reality is it’s just bottled water. Nother more, nothing less. The only thing we are teaching kids these days out in the “real world” are to be mindless corporate consumers and we need to do better for ourselves and our kids.
And while i’m ranting, what irks me are people like Madonna who spent the better part of the 80’s and 90’s polluting our culture by pushing the envelope of what used to be considered common decency. Now that she’s got her own kids, she’s forbidden them from listening to Radio and Television. She’s gotten hers and she’s gotten out and to heck with the rest of ordinary people who can’t afford nannies or daycare to monitor what their kids are exposed to on a daily basis. She’s decided that pop culture is just not good enough for her or her children anymore. Thanks Madonna. The appalling thing is, I used to like Madonna. /rant
Hmm, why would we want to convince our children that they are NOT living in a superficial, materialistic world?
If you (or your parents) cannot afford the latest fashions, well, welcome to what will likely be your situation for some time. There are two approaches here:
(1) teach your children that this sort of thing is not actually important, and impress upon them that their sense of self-worth should be based upon things other than appearance; or
(2) make everyone wear the same plad jumper.
Which one simply papers over the problem and which one actually addresses it? Hint – in adulthood, we cant make everyone wear plad jumpers.
Maybe they were just suspended for being too fugly.
>>> Hmm, why would we want to convince our children that they are NOT living in a superficial, materialistic world?
That is a good point Doug. Why did America bother to get rid of Slavery? Why did we bother passing civil rights legislation? Maybe because it was the RIGHT thing to do?
Maybe because we want to teach kids values that tell them we as a civilization can aspire to be better then we are. If that isn’t self evident I don’t know what is. Read your history. Things are much much better then they used to be because people wanted to make a better world. It’s still not perfect but we can do better. Kids will learn it’s an unfair world. Everyone eventually does. “Maturity is what you get when you don’t get what you want”. Kids will learn that as they go through adolescence. We don’t have to kick them down as they’re just getting started in the education system.
Read your Declaration of Independance. Our founding father’s stated that “All Men are Created Equal” Now that is a patently false assertion. All Men (and women for that matter) are clearly not equal. Some are clearly more wealthy, more physically fit, more attractive and politically more powerful then others. It’s a matter of aspiring that everyone should be treated equally which is what is contained in that document.
Now if we’re going to use taxpayer’s dollars to educate kids then we should give them all a shot at experiencing what is best in our society when the inequities have been leveled out as is possibile. If we didn’t believe in this then we’d have not bothered breaking away from England and we’d keep the aristocracy and the priveledges that go along with it. But if you were to take the idea that people can excell based upon merit then it makes all sorts of sense to create a system where people can compete on a more or less equal footing and promote the best we’ve got to offer. If this is lost on you, then clearly your education has failed you.
#36. actually, the proper analogy is that, instead of getting rid of slavery, aristocracy, Jim Crow, etc, we teach our children in school that such things do not exist.
Then, they would have the same surprise that the kids in the “leveled” world of school uniforms will have once they get out into the world.
Schools are important as the first socialization experience a child will have out side of his family and neighborhood. Also, it is their first experience with a bureaucracy and large set of seemingly arbitrary rules.
Perhaps a uniform mandate will teach them about arbitrary rules:
“Your hem is too high, so you get sent home.”
“But why do we have a dress code?”
“To protect the learning environment.”
“But if I am sent home, I don’t get to learn.”
“Omlettes and eggs honey. Go home and not learn until you are ready to value learning.”
#36, Ze, a good argument. I’ll give you credit for a well thought out piece that is well put.
#37, doug, I agree
#38, Dave, my thoughts, expressed very eloquently.
I appreciate the finesse of all three posts and say good debate.
I don’t see anyone discussing the parent’s quick ability to throw the race card into everyone’s face. Yeah, the white guy may be a Bush knockoff, but why does the Black community feel they need to bring race into every debate? Its getting old.
I’m well aware of Locke. Some say that Jefferson plagiarized some of Locke’s work in the Declaration of Independance. “Life, Liberty and Property” became “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” However perhaps you’re right in that I may be drifiting off topic here.
I have no problems with kids being kids. They’ll band together in their little social circles and dress the same ways listen to the same music and talk the same trash. The problem is we’re straying from the purpose of education and it’s to educate. What concerns me is that our kids are being taught in a safe and secure environment while still being allowed to think freely.
Most of our private schools tend to mandate a school uniforms. Why? It probably helps with discipline. Something that has become more of a problem in our schools these days. I think if we had schools instituting uniforms then we’d be spending less time with distracting issues like what these girls in this school are wearing and more time getting a quality education.
I give kids a lot of credit. In fact they’re probably a bit too smart in some cases. I know of one situation where a kid (being upset because he was given detention by a teacher) falsely accused the teacher of molesting him. The teacher was investigated and put through all sorts of hell before his name was officially cleared. It hardly seems fair to the teacher for doing his job. Kids know how to game the system and they need to be taught ethics.
Get rid of the matching basketball team uniforms, too.
>>> actually, the proper analogy is that, instead of getting rid of slavery, aristocracy, Jim Crow, etc, we teach our children in school that such things do not exist.
#37: I got news for you. Slavery is alive and well in the world: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/trafficking_persons_report_2006-04.html
In some instances has been found here in the States: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3898/is_200411/ai_n9462798
The difference (with regards to slavery) between 21st Century America and Pre-Civil War is that Slavery was outlawed with the Emancipation Proclamation and the 14th Amendment to the Constituion. But it’s not a problem we’ve licked by any means.
—
As far as the issue about arbitrary rules, it’s important to teach kids to play by the rules – not to learn how to circumvent the rules. You guys are talking like we’re dealing with miniature adults here. They aren’t. They’re kids. They’ll do what they can to get away with things. They break rules they’ll do whatever they can to get ahead or beat the system. Now if this is how we are going to prepare our kids in dealing with the “Real World” then we are in BIG trouble. The only thing they’ll get out of a cut throat environment like that is how to be better at lying cheating and stealing. Hail the future leaders of America.
I love watching “South Park” But I won’t let my kids watch it, not yet anyways. One reason the humor works so well there is that Stone and Parker give you a glimpse of what motivates children to do the rotten things they do to each other and the lengths they’ll go to to get what they want.
The big problem is the kids are saturated with the “in-your=face” attitudes in their cartoons, the movies and tv shows it’s teaching a generation of kids to be back talking and sassy. The TV networks used to be pretty good about putting on quality family oriented shows but now it’s all about ratings, branding and product placements. Corporate greed pure and simple. Parents end up being censors and that’s appropriate. But it’s what’s going on in our schools that as parents we have less control over. I’m not saying that the administrators are perfect. It makes my blood boil when kids are being suspended for giving each other tylenol for headaches and other nonsense. But after Columbine we’ve learned we can’t let a lot of these things slide and we’ve gone to the other extreme in taking everything too seriously. Then we had 9/11 and it just made things worse. I remember people in the 80’s and 90’s pining for the days before Kennedy got shot and it’s like “America lost it’s innocence that day” HA! they had no idea what was in store for our country in just a few short years. I remember in my youth when you could buy a plane ticket, check your bags and board the plane without being scanned, screened and ID verified. Those days are gone folks and they’re not coming back. You can’t blame Bush and you can’t blame Clinton for putting the country into paranoid mode. We can bitch about how things are being done and implemented but in the end we’d be pretty much doing the same things no matter who was running the country. Get over it, I had to. We all had to.
So why do I bother ranting here about uniforms? Because I can (till the moderators thing i’m going overboard) I think that as Americans we need to get back to the basics. Schools are one such touchstone that many of us if not all of us have experienced. It’s not perfect. But we can make it better.
#41. My skepticism with school uniforms come first-hand. I did time at a catholic school where uniforms were mandatory, and the place was run by a combination of spoiled-brat kids who could not be brought to heel because without their tuition the place would fold and kids who had been kicked out of public schools.
the fact that we had to wear corderoys instead of jeans and the girls had to wear the standard plaid catholic school outfit did not do much for discipline.
but I certainly do take your point.
You point(s) taken. Although part of that sounds like more of a problem with school funding.
As far as the kids who got kicked out of public schools, Sometimes the kids are hell bent on going bad to the point where desperate parents will do whatever they can to straighten the bad apples out. My brother ended up in military school but not everyone’s family is going to be able to afford such alternatives. He’s a medical technician now and has turned out okay.
Honestly tho, do we want our schools to be pissing around with such stupid issues like these? You read about kids who go to school and get in trouble over political slogans or showing signs of patriotism on their Tshirts, etc. Such controversy is dumb and a waste of time. I don’t think political sloganeering or pop iconery has any business being in the schools.
Having said that, you seem to have turned out fairly well. You demonstrate independant thinking and your reasoning skills are somewhat intact after being stamped out and dressed by the mindless cookie cutter automaton factory. Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto 😀