A local junior high school student is suspended from school after writing “I Love Jesus” on his backpack.
His mother wants to know why.
His principal said it’s not as simple as the boy and his mother say.
The buzz Friday at Actis Junior High School is about Justin Molatore, sent home after he refused to leave his backpack in the school’s office.
Molatore said it’s because of the principal, but the school won’t budge.
Three words written by Molatore’s brother on his backpack days before the brother was sent overseas in the military, they read “I Love Jesus.”
But it’s those words that are causing the eighth grader to miss two days of class.
Actis Principal Bill Galloway said all writing is prohibited so covert messages don’t get through.
“They could be making a reference to drugs or gangs in a slang that we’re not aware of so that’s why we just keep it to the names,” said Galloway.
The Bakersfield City School District said they do allow writing on clothing and supplies that is appropriate for school.
You can find the school’s completely lame website here. Unlike websites for most schools, there are no pictures of the school grounds or of the principal. And this picture is about as lame as possible:
What if the backpack said, “I Love Math”? Would the principal have been worried about students who prefer History being offended?
It’s truly amazing what crap schools put our children through these days..all in the name of “protecting” them. Prepare them for LIFE, not some fairytale where no one ever says anything that you disagree with.
The kid is obviously a homosexual necropheliac and needs to see a shrink.
#2
Agreed.
28. “I know allot of atheists on this board flat out hate any religion, and consider anyone practices said religions stupid, but even you guys should be scared by this.”
Yep, I’m one of those atheists and I agree this was totally wrong. That’s why I posted it in the first place. I find it outrageous.
So the kid knows that any and all writing of messages on backpacks is against the rules, yet goes ahead and does it anyway? Writing something obviously that is going to get press when he gets busted? Sounds like this kid is an attention whoring little brat who deserved what he got. I wonder when the lawsuit comes down from the kid’s money grubbing parents?
30 Free speech doesn’t guarantee any of those things…perhaps you should read up some. It does protect you from going to jail for saying what you want. The school has a rule in place, the kid knew the rule, the kid broke the rule. End of story.
Mac-
enough with the California jokes…what does banning assault rifles with ridiculously sized clips have to do with this story? Nobody needs that kind of weaponry, especially nutjobs like YOU. Let me guess, you live in Florida?
36, Free speech actually does protect students from being punished for expressing themselves at public schools. I don’t say so, the US Supreme Court says so – and they said so in 1969. Perhaps, you should read up some. http://laws.findlaw.com/us/393/503.html
Still, we’re in agreement that schools have the authority to enact and enforce dress codes and the principal acted fairly in this matter.
#25 Times sure have changed. Ten years ago when I was in high school we would have ripped off his backpack and said “I FOUND JESUS!”
LOL. Hell ya!
#30 – You lost me, Adam. The state says if speech is protected under the First Amendment outside the school, it must not be restricted inside the school. A noninflammatory religious statement certainly would qualify as protected speech. Leaving aside the “he might pass secret messages” paranoid nonsense, why would this rule not protect the kid who loves Jesus?
Incidentally, I follow the Flying Spaghetti Monster religion, if I must have one at all. If someone proves it’s wrong, then I’m with George Carlin. #28 – If you think atheists are against freedom of personal (as opposed to tax-supported institutional) religious expression, you need pay more attention to reality and less to the propaganda mills.
boys! boys!
The message could have been “I f*cked Jesus and Mary, too” and the problem is the same. If the rule is “no writing, aside from you dork name” on the backpack, then….the rule is clear. DON’T WRITE ON YOUR BACKPACK, IDIOT!
It doesn’t matter if you love jesus, hate jesus, don’t know who jesus is, don’t care, whatever.The problem is the wanton disregard of the rules. The fact that it was an obvious, common, and another fine example of the all too frequent preoccupation of the shoving-down-everyone’s-throat-type of message to proclaim the child’s obvious indoctrination to a fad religious movement that requires the statement of religious fervor at every inane opportunity, is the issue. It was to break the rule, and, THEN make a fuss, be outraged because the message was good, so why can’t they break the law, in the name of good, because, as everyone knows … there are no laws or rules to be upheld if it’s in the name of Christ. Right?
Well, that’s how I see it.
Suspend the kid. He’s being a jerk. He broke the rules. Anyway, if he were a really a good Christian child, wouldn’t he be at home in deep study with BJU homeschool materials?
Geezer – what I’m saying is that these two ideas are not contradictory:
1. Students have established free speech rights that protect their speech, oral and written, while in a public school.
2. Schools have the right to enact and enforce dress codes (even though they may seem to infringe free speech rights)
I brought up the California law, just to bring it up. It seems to limit what kind of speech can be limited in schools – I don’t think it applies to situation, however. Why? Because, schools enjoy quite a bit of latitude in enforcing dress codes – consider clear back packs and school uniforms.
So, the rule would protect the student who wore an “I love Jesus” button or just told people that he loved Jesus, or even if he had a T-shirt that was commercially printed that said, “I love Jesus.”
The school’s dress code however, prohibits any kind of writing on the students’ person, clothing or backpacks. By writing on his backpack, the student broke the dress code.
#36 – Wow! One California joke, and I get blasted. Thanks for proving my point about the easily offended. 🙂
Anyway, I’m all for schools enforcing a reasonable dress code, and I can understand where the principal is coming from (working in a public school district myself as well as being a softball umpire). If he had let this one case slide, he’d undermine his own authority when a student violates the dress code in a more colorful manner. Where does the principal draw the line? I’m faced with similar situations on the ballfields where I have to enforce a rule that, on principle, I may not agree with. If I fail to do so, I undermine my own authority when another player performs the same action in a more flagrant manner. Sometimes, it’s either all or none.
I realize I’m kinda stretching it with the softball analogy, but it’s the one that I find most relevant to my own life.
How lame it it becoming to be in High School today when you can’t even but “I love Jesus” on your back pack! He wasn’t walking around with a gun saying ‘love Jesus’ or else. I know not all believes the same way I do, but no one wants to be outed for there beliefs.
#6 – I personally think this part of a conservative effort to force a backlash. I don’t see “liberals” arguing for any of this idiocy.
Comment by Smartalix — 2/6/2007 @ 5:10 am
But there are plenty of conservatives (the Fox Watching kind, not all conservatives) who can sure invent liberals in favor of this idiocy.
Yes. I argue for the death of religion. But it doesn’t do any good to force it. The “enlightened” must end religion through logic and reason… not thought control. (Thought control is a neo-con tool, not ours)
Maybe the school’s administration thought he had a crush on a hispanic kid named “jesus” and suspended out of homophobia instead 🙂
#40, meetsy
It doesn’t matter what he wrote on his back pack. It doesn’t matter how indoctrinated he might be. The LAW of the land says he may write whatever he wishes to provided that it is not disruptive to the normal school activities. So the breaker of the rules is the Principal himself, not the student. When this is over, some Principal is going to have to apologize and the district will have to cut a teacher or two to pay for the court costs.
See Tinker v Des Moines.
Mr. Fusion, you are forgetting something….a high school student is a minor, and doesn’t have full rights. This is how schools get away with what they get away with. The backpack kid is still – in the eyes of the law- a MINOR. They cannot assume full punishment (except in extreme cases) and they also do not get full rights under our constitution. Our Constitution outlines who and what is a citizen, and kids are not included.
The courts, however, see a human life as a human life, but this should not confuse the issue.
And the individual states have their own statues that further define things. So, I think you have good intentions, but, except in rare exceptions and rare court cases (there are oddball judges and decisions all over the place…you need more than one citation to impress me), a minor child is not an adult. Which means, they do not have first amendment rights, yet.
45. Angel, your comments are always so funny!