Must not diss Obama in a Colorado school
We read:
"An 11-year-old in Aurora says his first amendment rights are being trampled after he was suspended for wearing a homemade shirt that reads "Obama is a terrorist's best friend." The fifth grader at Aurora Frontier K-8 School wore it on a day when students were asked to wear red, white and blue to show their patriotism.
The boy's father Dann Dalton describes himself as a "proud conservative" who has taken part in some controversial anti-abortion protests. Dalton says the school made a major mistake by suspending his son for wearing the shirt. "It's the public school system," Dalton says. "Let's be honest, it's full of liberal loons."
According the the boy's father, the school district told the student, Daxx Dalton, that he had the choice of changing his shirt, turning his shirt inside out or being suspended. Daxx chose suspension.
"They're taking away my right of freedom of speech," he says. "If I have the right to wear this shirt I'm going to use it. And if the only way to use it is get suspended, then I'm going to get suspended." .... The boy's father says he intends to pursue a lawsuit against the district.
Source
9 comments:
I wouldn't let my kid wear that shirt to school even though I despise Obama but if kids can wear pro-gay shirts then this sort of political speach should be protected also.
I am 100% for free speech and expression, but I am also for parental supervision and guidance of their kids. Unfortunately, we now have parents who are the product of the liberal Boomer generation who simply have no sense of ethical or moral control or restraint.
Come on, why does an 11 year old need to wear stuff like this? What ever happened to kids playing? What ever happened to kids being allowed to be kids? Why are we imposing adult thinking on kids?
As kids, we so much want to be adults, then as adults, we regret not spending more time being kids. The parent should be held accountable here, not the child.
When I was a kid, at election time the voting boothes were in our school and we always asked our teachers who they were voting for. Every one of my teachers over the years rightfully replied "voting is a private matter" and would not even talk polotics let alone tell us who they voted for.
When my kids were in school they would come home all the time telling me how their teacher said Bush is a retard and anyone voting for him must be too etc etc.
I would never send my kid to school in this shirt or anything like it, regardless of my opinion of Obama. Kids need to be kids, I know the libs allow and promote all sorts of things with the kids like homosexuality but it is still wrong. If anything we should be fighting to get this stuff out of the schools not more in.
It sounds to me like this dad intentionally sent his son to school like this to cause trouble, sometimes these people make me ashamed we are on the same side.
This article presents an expanded view of the incident:
http://tinyurl.com/4yk5zp
The school's position is that the kid was not suspended for the message on the shirt, but the disruption the shirt caused:
However, Aurora Superintendent of Schools John Barry said the sister also donned an anti-Obama T-shirt that she was allowed to wear because she caused no disruption during her classes. Her shirt had the word Obama with a bar through it and a pro-McCain slogan on the back.
"This student was not suspended because of a shirt," Barry said of the boy. "He was suspended because of an issue of disruption."
(The sister is 10 years old according to the article.)
From the article:
Barry said Aurora students wear hundreds of shirt designs, including some with political slogans, without any incident. However, that was not the case with Daxx Dalton's shirt.
"It was a problem when it started being disruptive," said Barry, who was at the school that day. "A number of kids came to a number of teachers expressing that they were upset. There was shouting and yelling."
The turmoil spilled over from the school yard to a math class, he said.
Okay, fair enough. The kid's shirt caused some sort of disruption because of those intolerant of his views. This leads to the questions of:
1) Does that mean that the any shirt with any message cannot be worn if someone is offended or causes a disruption?
2) As the shirt was a political message, is the disruption by other students a state sponsored form of censorship as it was the message that the kids objected to, rather than all political messages.
3) While many of us disagree with a parents sending a kid to school with a message like this on his shirt, shouldn't the school be teaching "understanding" and "tolerance" when it comes to something like this? The shirt doesn't attack anyone. It doesn't say "gays are going to hell" or anything like that. It is a political speech - the most cherished form of speech we have - and yet that speech was squelched by a bunch of people who disagreed with the message.
i agree with the dad..
The lads shirt is clearly political, and therefor fully protected under the First Amendment. If the "alleged" disruption was done by other students, then they are the one's that should be singled out and reprimanded. Of course, that would be a good excuse for the school to use to avoid a lawsuit, wouldn't it.
I heard of a case where a student was suspended when he refused to change his NRA T-shirt his parensts sued in court the judge struck down the schools sppech code MAKE THE STUPID PRICIPAL WEAR A PINK TUTU to school and humiliate the liberal doofus
Did anyone even think to educate (after all, this IS a school) the "offended" children to the fact that society consists of differing views, and that simply complaining about something is not valid grounds for removal of that which is offensive?
This was an amazing opportunity for the school to educate about differing viewpoints, debate, expression, tolerance, and a host of other issues. But no, they took the cowards way out and simply removed the catalyst of the debate.
From the article:
"But the younger Dalton also said an African-American classmate shouted that he was a racist on the playground. [saying] 'You just don't want a black president'"
Sorry, but this is just another example of a black playing the race card.
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