HS Student in Trouble for Wearing Gay Pride T-Shirt

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/24/education/24shirt.html

Brad Mathewson, a 16-year-old junior, was sent to the principal's office at Webb City High School on Oct. 20 for wearing a T-shirt that he said came from the Gay-Straight Alliance at a school he previously attended, in Fayetteville, Ark. The shirt bore a pink triangle and the words "Make a Difference!"

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And, http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/10257944.htm?1c

The school's dress code prohibits attire that is “indecent, disruptive, distracting or inappropriate for the classroom.” Lankford (school superintendent) said the school district plans to fight the lawsuit and can prove that the T-shirts have been disruptive.

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why are red-staters so afraid of gay people? not to mention, judging by the reaction to this story in freeperville, why are they so afraid of upholding the constitution and the bill of rights?

:shrug:

Their ignorance is showing.

It wasn't long ago when a student won a case to wear his "Straight Pride" shirt to school. And then there was the girl that won a $30,000 settlement from the school because she was suspended for wearing a t-shirt with "Barbie is a lesbian" on it. Then there was the student who won his lawsuit after the school suspended him from wearing a shirt with a picture of Bush and the words "International Terrorist" on the front. Then there was another student who won his case when the student wore a pro-life t-shirt to school and got in trouble. The school backed down after lawyers got involved.

So the best I can make of this situation is that the school district is just itching to pay lawyers to fight a case which they are inevitably going to lose. Not to mention pay for the ACLU's costs and any amount awarded to the student.

schools attack Freedom of Speech.

In the 70's a girl was asked to leave school because she wore jeans with a patch of the American flag - sewn upside down on her ass. Disruptive and distracting are nebulous terms that make it the administration look like its doing its job to keep "order in the schools".

I cannot say I am surprised. I spoke to her yesterday and she was delighted that they were getting some flack for their pervasive prejudice. Very few blacks live in Webb City. Joplin has a sizable black population as well as a thriving gay population. Those folks are generally not welcome in Webb City.These folks are inordinately "proud" of their school system. Let's see how this shakes out. Go get 'em ACLU.


Woof

and think outside the box and for the most part have thumbed their noses at the religious right and bigotry way back before it was fashionable.

in short they are hypocrites