PDA

View Full Version : Kid sent home from school for having the word "gay" on t-shirt




Matt Collins
04-07-2010, 12:51 PM
A 15-year-old Greenbrier, TN High Student was sent home to change for wearing a “I Heart Lady Gay Gay” t-shirt to school.


His mom said if the school is banning that shirt, they needed to ban a whole lot more:

His mother said if other students are allowed to express themselves by wearing religious and rebel flag shirts, her son should be able to wear shirts that reflect his views on sexual orientation.


“It cannot be just my child cannot wear that shirt because it states an opinion,” said Gordon. “We need to take all the shirts out that state opinions.”

Stary Hickory
04-07-2010, 12:53 PM
The problem is that government runs the schools. Put education back in private hands and this becomes a non issue.

RideTheDirt
04-07-2010, 12:55 PM
The problem is that government runs the schools. Put education back in private hands and this becomes a non issue.
qft

UncleFreedom76
04-07-2010, 01:00 PM
qft

putting education in the private sector does a hell of a lot more good than just that. But yes, I agree.

JosephTheLibertarian
04-07-2010, 01:06 PM
It would be nice if every public schools was shut down. That would be a wonderful day

heavenlyboy34
04-07-2010, 01:08 PM
It would be nice if every public schools was shut down. That would be a wonderful day

AMEN! :):cool:

Matt Collins
04-07-2010, 01:12 PM
I support the separation of school and state!

Pete_00
04-07-2010, 01:16 PM
Most private schools would never allow this and the few that did would quickly go out of business.

Libertarianism is very compatible with my homophobic views. :)

dannno
04-07-2010, 01:23 PM
Most private schools would never allow this and the few that did would quickly go out of business.


Not necessarily, most people I know in CA including myself would rather send their kid to a high school that allows more freedom of expression over a school that has homophobic views. Or they would rather send their kid to a school that focused on their education rather than what clothes the kids were wearing.

Pete_00
04-07-2010, 01:46 PM
Not necessarily, most people I know in CA including myself would rather send their kid to a high school that allows more freedom of expression over a school that has homophobic views. Or they would rather send their kid to a school that focused on their education rather than what clothes the kids were wearing.

Once the comparison of grades, disciplinary record, preparation of students for worklife and general peacefulness between the schools that allow "freedom of expression" and the ones that dont start..."freedom of expression" would come out losing.

Kids DONT know better, they are in fact extremely overrated and thats why they need an iron hand :)

ChaosControl
04-07-2010, 01:48 PM
I prefer private schools along with school uniforms.

Can't stand the idiotic word "homophobic" considering how overused and misused it is.

silentshout
04-07-2010, 02:25 PM
Well, I'd definitely not want to send my kids to a school that was into homophobia, but I don't think they should ban shirts. Honestly, the whole thing is lame.

RM918
04-07-2010, 02:27 PM
He should be thankful he was just sent home.

CoreyBowen999
04-07-2010, 02:29 PM
The thing is.. we arent allowed to wear rebel shirts, anything with death, or anything else of the sort at my public school.

dannno
04-07-2010, 02:32 PM
Once the comparison of grades, disciplinary record, preparation of students for worklife and general peacefulness between the schools that allow "freedom of expression" and the ones that dont start..."freedom of expression" would come out losing.

Kids DONT know better, they are in fact extremely overrated and thats why they need an iron hand :)


Well I was lucky enough to see the results because when I went to college I had about 25-30 or so friends who all came from the same city. Half of them went to public school and the other half went to private Catholic Schools with uniforms.

Honestly, there was no real big difference. Kids are kids. The ones who went to private school had just as many crazy stories and did just as much crazy stuff as the kids who went to public school. The kids who went to private school weren't any smarter, they didn't work any harder, they did the same amount of mind altering substances (if not more) and since then the measurable success of both groups was about the same.

The only difference was the kids who went to private school were slightly more F'd in the head because of their stronger authoritarian upbringing, which I do not believe in. The kids who went to public school were slightly more well adjusted.

Kids have a more open mind than adults, and for that I give them a lot of credit.

Adults are really good an extinguishing progression because they think they know best.. and by "progression" I don't mean bigger government.

Vessol
04-07-2010, 02:37 PM
I question his fashion tastes, but not his freedoms.

Fox McCloud
04-07-2010, 02:43 PM
Not necessarily, most people I know in CA including myself would rather send their kid to a high school that allows more freedom of expression over a school that has homophobic views. Or they would rather send their kid to a school that focused on their education rather than what clothes the kids were wearing.

this may be the case in some instances, but as pointed out by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, it is likely you'll see a bit more conservative (socially) society if we were to have a completely libertarian (or extremely limited Constitutional) society; people would be free to discriminate or embrace other individuals as they saw fit (so long as they didn't cause physical harm to them)--you'd very likely see certain enclaves form where everyone was of a relatively similar mind.

Families, for one, would likely become much much stronger in a libertarian society, as those who become sick or injured are more likely to support those individuals (if they're family), and families would be far more likely to take care of their elderly wtih their own personal savings, which, again, can help bond a family together more.

The result of this would naturally lead to a more conservative society--would we still have liberalness in some regard? Of course, you're going to have that no matter the society, but I tend to agree that overall, we'd see social conservatism increase (in the personal sense, not political and legal) increase under a libertarian society and not necessarily decrease.

link: http://mises.org/daily/1766


Can't stand the idiotic word "homophobic" considering how overused and misused it is.

agreed--it's becoming a term like "anti-semite"; it's used broadly and often times incorrectly; anymore, if you even make the suggestion of backing off and letting Israel manage themselves and cutting funding for them, etc...you're likely to get labeled anti-semtical. While it's not at this level yet for homosexual individuals, it's definitely there.

jsu718
04-07-2010, 03:05 PM
The real issue with this will come if the family challenges it... because it makes a statement it is a 1st amendment issue... and since the school recieves federal funding it falls under the same restrictions protected by said amendment. Had it been just a random offensive word it would not have fallen into this category. It's basically the same concept that allows women to go topless in NY if they are making a political statement by doing so, but not otherwise.

JosephTheLibertarian
04-07-2010, 03:09 PM
The thing is.. we arent allowed to wear rebel shirts, anything with death, or anything else of the sort at my public school.

ya. in school (long time ago) I went in with a shirt. It was mocking "Tommy Hilfiger," had the confederate stars & bars, and said, "tommy hilni**er"

they told me to wear it inside out lol

My mindset was a lot different back then :o

AggieforPaul
04-07-2010, 03:17 PM
who cares? What matters at a school is the number of AP classes, the educational background of the teachers, the college placement services, etc. Not the t-shirt policy.

Fox McCloud
04-07-2010, 03:24 PM
who cares? What matters at a school is the number of AP classes, the educational background of the teachers, the college placement services, etc. Not the t-shirt policy.

you can't make that objective decision though; perhaps, to some students and parents, culture or the social experience is more valuable to them than is the skills to be gained from being in school--everyone is different and everyone values things differently.

That said, I think it would be unwise to pursue a social experience over an intent to earn skills, as the latter is more likely to equip you for a role in the economy than the other.

haaaylee
04-07-2010, 03:25 PM
It would be nice if every public schools was shut down. That would be a wonderful day

with the way the states are running out of money, that just may happen!

Warrior_of_Freedom
04-07-2010, 04:18 PM
It would be nice if every public schools was shut down. That would be a wonderful day

public schools are evil

j6p
04-09-2010, 06:34 AM
homophobic people are the biggest hypocrits. This kid was wearing a shirt that he knew he would get attention. It's his right of course. But then he gets upset when he gets beat up or thrown out of school. But he doesnt really care about intruding on the rights of other people, with that kind of shirt.

j6p
04-09-2010, 06:35 AM
Intruding on the rights of other people who have that lifestyle.

AlexMerced
04-09-2010, 06:38 AM
Intruding on the rights of other people who have that lifestyle.

I don't think wearing a t-shirt treads on anyones rights, is it in bad taste, yes.

But being in bad taste and being intolerant of others isn't a violation of others rights... it's just stupid, although it can lead to violations, it's not a violation in itself until some sort property violation occurs.

Natalie
04-09-2010, 06:38 AM
I don't see a problem with sending him home. I went to a public school with a dress code. Girl's skirts had a to be a certain length and boy's couldn't have their boxers showing (they would sag their pants to be "cool"). If everyone was allowed to wear whatever they want, some kids might be distracted from learning.

j6p
04-09-2010, 06:47 AM
I don't think wearing a t-shirt treads on anyones rights, is it in bad taste, yes.

But being in bad taste and being intolerant of others isn't a violation of others rights... it's just stupid, although it can lead to violations, it's not a violation in itself until some sort property violation occurs.

As long as they are not intruding on other people or there lifestyle. Just like smokers, just because you can smoke, does not mean you should make everyone breath in harmful toxins or try to push your ideas on to other people. That is a violation of that persons rights too. It goes both ways, not a one way street.

AlexMerced
04-09-2010, 06:57 AM
As long as they are not intruding on other people or there lifestyle. Just like smokers, just because you can smoke, does not mean you should make everyone breath in harmful toxins or try to push your ideas on to other people. That is a violation of that persons rights too. It goes both ways, not a one way street.

Smoking is different cause second hand smoke does damange property such as your lungs.

As far as people pushing ideas, isn't that we do, we push our ideals of liberty and non-interventionism, but it's ok cause we agree with them. I'm ok with people pushing their ideas no matter what they are, may the best ideas win. Some ideas are stupid such as being homophobic but they are free to express it non-violently as much as gays are free to to express the opposite.

The main thing is it's a public school, public schools should maintain standards of liberty, and if it drags down the quality of educations cause kids get distracted... well they shoul be in the business of public education in the first place.

A private school can exclude anyone they want, it's private property. Although I firmly believe if your gonna use everyones money for anything then you need let everyone use it. While I think none of the following programs would work, in principle...

Welfare should be available to the rich and the poor
Medicare should be available to the young and old

Opening up these programs like this would be unsustainable, but it just shows you why the government shouldn't be involved in the first place. Taking people resources and using them for programs that those people can't participate in is just wrong. Same goes for public schools, everyone should be able to go and wear and say what they want, is that chaos... probably, but that's why it should be privatized.

MelissaWV
04-09-2010, 06:59 AM
If there were more choices available, at least this would be a good opportunity to talk about contracts. In an ideal world, the child would be agreeing (or their parents on their behalf would be agreeing) to adhere to certain behavioral and aesthetic standards in exchange for an education. It's usually there in the manual they have to bring him and parents have to sign. You know that the school prohibits this or that, and so to go in with something that breaks the rules is to be subject to the school breaking its end of the bargain (sending the kid home/out of class).

Of course, there's no real choice in the matter, so I'm not sure that it's as good an opportunity with how things are now.

Distractions will always abound. Even in Catholic school, whatever freedom you had was abused and exploited. Whether it was the number of bracelets you could get away with wearing, the type of shoes you had, or how trendy your glasses were, there was always some way of standing out. Once you grow a little older, your peers can be easily distracted by anatomical details. Perhaps there's a school out there that would force binding so that certain details would not be so apparent (even in loose clothing), but until then, there will always be distractions. There will always be a kid who's taller, or shorter, or darker, or lighter, or has different colored eyes, or writes left-handed (this used to be a big deal in elementary school), or is smarter, or dumber, or speaks with an accent, or is missing a finger, or has crooked teeth. We're different. Differences are as distracting as we each allow them to be.

JosephTheLibertarian
04-09-2010, 07:01 AM
What's so bad with a tshirt that reads "I'm so gay!" it's akin to saying "I'm so happy!" nothing wrong with that :D

j6p
04-09-2010, 08:05 AM
Same with the liberty message too, some people just dont want to hear an opposing view or just not intrested in hearing about it. But the distraction part is true.