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:
Covert messages? What is that Guantanamo?
It is not really fair that this kid is being punished for having been indoctrinated as a fundamentalist christian. He should be corrected in a way that punishes his parent more than he is. Perhaps a significant monitary fine? Does he ride a bus? If so, give him detention so his mother has to pick him up every day for a week or so.
But punish him with suspension??? Thats what he wants!
#2, do you even take yourself seriously?
“And by ‘love,’ I mean ‘hate.'”
Come on, I’m an aetheist, and not even *I’m* offended by this kid’s bag. Honestly, most aetheists don’t care about displays of faith. It’s the paranoid who are ruining (and thus, running) this country.
Welcome to the United States of the Easily Offended.
2. Good one Greg!
4,
I personally think this part of a conservative effort to force a backlash. I don’t see “liberals” arguing for any of this idiocy.
Who gives a sh!t if he loves jesus? It won’t help him in the end. Leave him be.
I’m waiting for the comments bashing this “conservative wingnut principal”
I’m waiting for the comments bashing this “conservative wingnut principal”
I mean… seriously…
You can find the school’s completely lame website here.
I don’t see the point in knocking the school’s web site. It looks like most school web sites I’ve been on. They don’t have the marketing budget of PepsiCo, you know.
#2, Greg,
I agree in principle. He is however, entitled to have whatever he wants on his backpack as long as it is not controversial or likely to cause a commotion. I, as an atheist, have no problem with him displaying his faith on his back. Regardless of how misguided that may be or his parents motives.
It should matter little if he wrote the message himself or bought the backpack with the words already printed on. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion should not include the caveat “only if I agree”.
In my opinion, the Principal should be the one made to transport him to and from school. Personally.
#4 & 6, kudos.
The principal and the school board contradict each other. At least the board sounds like they left wiggle room to weigh individual situations. Like so many professional administrators, the principal comes off like a spineless tool.
9. “I don’t see the point in knocking the school’s web site”
Whenever I do one of these stories I link to the school’s website. Most of them at the very least have pictures of the school grounds and the employees. While this school has this:
Whenever I do one of these stories I link to the school’s website. Most of them at the very least have pictures of the school grounds and the employees.
I guess you overlooked the “Our Staff” link. Miss Bradshaw is kina cute.
It is a little odd not to have a picture of the building, but knocking a school web site just makes you come off like a snobby web elitist.
#10 he is not entitled to have whatever he wants on his backpack. His principal made that clear. It seems reasonable to me to enforce the ban they have instituted. It doesn’t matter if the message is “I Love Jesus” or not because they are disallowing all writing except names. You should be happy that they aren’t just discriminating against non-christians and are applying this rule to everyone.
Some of these situations are going to look stupid, but it is fair to everyone.
#14 I agree. This is (another) extremely misleading and inflammatory article title (on this blog, the source page was didn’t mention the words themselves). The kid wasn’t suspended for having “I love Jesus” on his pack — he was suspended because the school has a policy of NO WRITING on packs (admittedly a ridiculous policy) and he did not comply with either that policy or the principal’s insistance that he leave the pack in the office. I don’t see a problem here. If the kid had had “I love Bill Clinton” or “I love George Bush” on his pack he would have been just as much in the wrong.
15. “he was suspended because the school has a policy of NO WRITING on packs”
Sorry, you’re wrong. I even put it in bold for you to make it easy. The official school policy is “they do allow writing on clothing and supplies that is appropriate for school.”
13. “I guess you overlooked the “Our Staff” link. Miss Bradshaw is kina cute.”
Thanks. She is cute. But she’s not really involved with this story. A picture of Galloway would have been great.
A school where “Actis Principal Bill Galloway said all writing is prohibited so covert messages don’t get through.”
That seems like that might have an adverse effect on education.
P.S. This cowboy is getting tired of having to wait 15 seconds when I haven’t posted all day.
I guess the principal was worried that “Jesus” is a code-word for marijuana. I think this just another example of the approach that when you can’t deal with sth, just ban it. Just like web-proxies on student campuses that allow only HTTP transfer. That always pissed me off…
Sorry #16, but it seems like the district policy allows writing on packs – the school’s policy is more strict, according to the principal .
A rule is a rule – to break the rule, even on principle, can result in two things – the rule can be rescinded or the rule breaker can face the consequences.
Is it likely that the student set out to break the rule on principle (which I don’t disagree with) and wrote the most agreeable thing he could think of on his pack just so the story would come out in his favor?
Still, if the principal is on the level, he was obligated to suspend the student. It would be unfair to allow religious speech on packs but not other kinds of speech.
My position, of course, assumes that the principal is not simply making shit up as he goes along.
20. “My position, of course, assumes that the principal is not simply making shit up as he goes along.”
I assume he is. He did something stupid, so he made up a strict rule to back it up. No doubt he’ll back down in a few days and call it a misunderstanding of district policy, or some other lame excuse.
#20, Sorry #16, but it seems like the district policy allows writing on packs – the school’s policy is more strict, according to the principal .
What if the message was aimed at another Mexican American he was (ahem) very fond of? I Love Jesus Garcia might not have the same impact. What if the message was I love Mary? Or Susan? Or whatever. The point is the Board Policy does allow some writing on his “supplies”.
A rule is a rule – to break the rule, even on principle, can result in two things – the rule can be rescinded or the rule breaker can face the consequences.
The Supreme Court has ruled that as long as the message in not disruptive then the message may not be hindered. There were no reported complaints from any students. Looks to me like the Principal broke a rule here.
The stupid thing will be if this drags out then the school will have to pay. There goes another teaching position or ten to pay for the settlement.
Is anyone surprised this came from California? The same state that bans firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds (so just carry more clips, dummy)?
Should 1861 repeat itself and California secedes from the US, I don’t think you’ll hear anyone crying.
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!”
Only if he’s in Malaysia and renounces Islam. Then, he’s screwed.
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. Once you start denying people the right to express their religion, you are only a few steps to have a religion forced on you.
Sure in the grand scheme of things, this is a small thing, but enough small cracks can bring down the strongest building.
#27 – I think you missed my first comment on this topic (see #4). You and I agree completely, but with one exception: I think that most atheists honestly don’t give a rat’s ass if a kid’s wearing a backpack that expresses his faith. Honestly, I commend him for having faith in something that gives his life some sort of meaning, even though I don’t follow with his beliefs.
#22, Free speech rights allow students to express themselves on campus orally and in writing – in leaflets or on buttons, armbands or T-shirts. Dress codes, which in this case apply to writing on the student’s self, clothing or backpacks. According to the ACLU, dress codes will likely be upheld by courts unless they are found to be discriminatory or unreasonable. So, it doesn’t seem as if the principal has broken any rules – with one possible exception which I’ll detail later.
Also of note according to this follow-up article (http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/98158.html), is that the principal followed his policies own due process that has increasing penalties ranging from a verbal warning to suspension ultimately.
Okay, back to the principal. The California Election Codes states that “School districts operating one or more high schools and private secondary schools shall not make or enforce any rule subjecting any high school pupil to disciplinary sanctions solely on the basis of conduct that is speech or other communication that, when engaged in outside of the campus, is protected from governmental restriction by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Section 2 of Article 1 of the California Constitution.”
This may or may not apply to middle school dress codes. I’m inclined to say that it does not. It seems like schools have a broad authority to enact and enforce dress codes.
So, I still think that this story is probably a non-story. A student violated a legal dress code and is punished for it.
Oops.. I’m #27. My message was to #28.