How about advertising your intolerance?
While we, the homosexual community, may be the self-proclaimed queens of fashion, a gay fashion statement by an unwitting teenager turned out to be a faux paus as disastrous as the latest (hideous) handbag offerings from Juicy.
10th-grader sent home for pro-gay T-shirt - Yahoo News
A Spencer, N.Y., student was sent home from school last week for wearing a T-shirt that denounces homophobia.
Heathyre Farnham, 16, said she was not trying to be inflammatory by wearing the shirt that says, “Gay? Fine By Me.”
“I had worn it two or three times before, and all of a sudden it’s inappropriate,” Heathyre said in a statement Wednesday.
Principal Ann Sincock declined to comment on particulars of the incident at Spencer-Van Etten High School, where Heathyre is in 10th grade, the Ithaca Journal reported.
[...]“She said I was advertising my sexual preference and that was offensive, which makes no sense because I’m straight. Maybe she herself was offended by it,” Heathyre said.
You know, I’m rather inclined to agree with Heathyre. That seems a bit of a knee-jerk reaction; since when does saying “I’m okay with homosexuality” equate with “I’m gay”? Not to mention that saying she was “advertising” makes it sound like she’s characterizing Heathyre as a young miss of questionable intentions, loitering on a street corner and advertising for something else…
Anyway. I can sympathize with her, though. Dress codes in schools have always been restrictive, even if they’re growing tighter now; when I was in high school (back in the 20th century, oh my), several of my friends were sent home just for wearing band t-shirts with ambiguous logos. I was asked to remove a rainbow bracelet that I wore one day, because other students “might think I’m gay”. (No, really?)
Schools have turned into little whitewash factories. I know that a lot of the regulations, such as the regulation about not wearing anything disruptive or inflammatory, are to keep from causing problems with bullies, interruptions of lessons, etc…but they jump a little too fast and a little too far on some things, and at this rate they might as well put everyone in uniforms if they’re going to regulate so strictly. (Hell, some schools do, and it works.) In this case, the school’s actions were entirely self-defeating; no one really seemed to care about the girl’s shirt one way or another until she was sent home because of it - at which point even students who are against homosexuality said that they thought she shouldn’t have been sent home over it. The school’s actions themselves caused a disruption, while the girl did not.
Sounds to me like the principal had a personal problem there. Even if Heathyre was a lesbian…don’t you think it’s a bit insulting to tell the girl that being honest about it is “offensive”?
heathyre farnham, spencer new york, principal ann sincock, spencer-van etten high school, homosexuality in schools
September 28th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
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September 30th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Children, being the cruel little things that many are, will find a way to disrupt class and bully others even with uniforms. Restricting the kids’ clothing choices will not have any effect but to soothe the minds of the staff (and occasionally make sure that the more promiscuous of the pupils aren’t displaying their underwear/lack thereof to the world at large).
Trust me. I went to a uniformed school.