6th-grader warned: Stop wearing pro-life T-shirts

[Walsingham]

There's free speech, and there's tattooing your message on your butt and waving it at passers by.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Well yeah... Doesn't the US constitution guarantee his right to free speech?

 

Not if he is openly disrupting the classroom with explicit images and/or vocal demonstration(s).

 

...K.B.'s mother reports, the school principal told her in a phone conversation that the shirts were forbidden because they had become a distraction and "some of the kids were starting to ask questions."

 

"We allow (a slogan on a T-shirt) as long as it doesn't interrupt or disrupt the educational process," the school's superintendent told the Student Press Law Center. "It's not necessarily the message, but if it's offensive or if it disrupts the (educational) process."

 

Also, World Net Daily is hardly a non-biased news agency - in fact, I would classify it as neo-con propaganda.

Edited June 6, 2008 by Deadly_Nightshade

[Deadly_Nightshade]

We had the rather ironically named 'Choice' pro-life group give us atalk at my school waaaay back when. They showed film of abortions being done from the 1960s, and lots of gooey cute looking dead foetuses. Unfortunately for them, my school had actual lessons on spotting propaganda (grooming us for runnning the Empire and whatnot). When they asked for questions they got rapidly swamped by a detailed explanation of why what they said was factually incorrect, and clearly intended to insult our intelligence. We also demanded that they apologise to anyone who had been affected by having an abortion. It was in many ways one of our finest hours*.

 

 

*We were otherwise pretty unsavoury.

 

I would have loved to see that.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Yuusha, we're not talking about someone out and about on the street, but in school. If you are a student in a classroom your free speech is limited to say the least. If you just start talking in class, or disrupting class in any way you WILL get in trouble. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away, when I was in High School any image on a shirt that was deemed inapropriate resulted in the student being either forced to turn his/her shirt inside out or being sent home for a change of clothes. I'm frankly surprised this student was allowed to wear it so long. It actually sounds like they were being quite leniant and sensitive and, as many have pointed out, that this student/student's parents are trying to make a point.

 

What about schools in Indonesia? Do they allow a student to wear/say anything they want when they want during class? I'm actually genuinely interested in the rules of schooling in other countries.

 

Also, I'm not sure how truly vulgar the shirt was. From my understanding the shirt showed three pictures. The first two showed a growing fetus at different stages while the third simply showed a black empty image (I.E. the fetus no longer exists), NOT a dead aborted fetus, so I don't know why posters keep mentioning foul images on his shirt.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Also, I'm not sure how truly vulgar the shirt was. From my understanding the shirt showed three pictures. The first two showed a growing fetus at different stages while the third simply showed a black empty image (I.E. the fetus no longer exists), NOT a dead aborted fetus, so I don't know why posters keep mentioning foul images on his shirt.

 

Hum... I know there are variations that show aborted fetuses (I've seen protesters wearing them), but I'm not sure what version the kid had on.

[Sand]

Hmm... I thought you guys would agree with the kid.

 

He is brave though.

 

I am all for freedom of speech, but he was wearing it to an institution of education where there needs to be a decorum of discipline and a proper non-disruptive environs for the children. If he was dragged by his parents to a protest rally then what he wore would be appropriate but in this case it is not.

[Nick_i_am]

Agree.

[Laozi]

6th grade, thats a great time to make enemies and paint yourself in on a weighty topic that you could only have the most feeble of grasp on. Abortion seems to be a topic that can atleast be prejudiced towards those who have actually had sex, I believe. But its great this kid's screwball parents have a voice in school.

[Walsingham]

Yuusha, we're not talking about someone out and about on the street, but in school. If you are a student in a classroom your free speech is limited to say the least. If you just start talking in class, or disrupting class in any way you WILL get in trouble. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away, when I was in High School any image on a shirt that was deemed inapropriate resulted in the student being either forced to turn his/her shirt inside out or being sent home for a change of clothes. I'm frankly surprised this student was allowed to wear it so long. It actually sounds like they were being quite leniant and sensitive and, as many have pointed out, that this student/student's parents are trying to make a point.

 

What about schools in Indonesia? Do they allow a student to wear/say anything they want when they want during class? I'm actually genuinely interested in the rules of schooling in other countries.

 

Also, I'm not sure how truly vulgar the shirt was. From my understanding the shirt showed three pictures. The first two showed a growing fetus at different stages while the third simply showed a black empty image (I.E. the fetus no longer exists), NOT a dead aborted fetus, so I don't know why posters keep mentioning foul images on his shirt.

 

I saw the images in a picture by checking the story. They sure as hell looked gooey and unpleasant.

 

Ultimately the school is doing the kid a favour. They won't do anything for their own cause by being so confrontational.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Yuusha, we're not talking about someone out and about on the street, but in school. If you are a student in a classroom your free speech is limited to say the least. If you just start talking in class, or disrupting class in any way you WILL get in trouble. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away, when I was in High School any image on a shirt that was deemed inapropriate resulted in the student being either forced to turn his/her shirt inside out or being sent home for a change of clothes. I'm frankly surprised this student was allowed to wear it so long. It actually sounds like they were being quite leniant and sensitive and, as many have pointed out, that this student/student's parents are trying to make a point.

 

What about schools in Indonesia? Do they allow a student to wear/say anything they want when they want during class? I'm actually genuinely interested in the rules of schooling in other countries.

 

Also, I'm not sure how truly vulgar the shirt was. From my understanding the shirt showed three pictures. The first two showed a growing fetus at different stages while the third simply showed a black empty image (I.E. the fetus no longer exists), NOT a dead aborted fetus, so I don't know why posters keep mentioning foul images on his shirt.

 

I saw the images in a picture by checking the story. They sure as hell looked gooey and unpleasant.

 

Ultimately the school is doing the kid a favour. They won't do anything for their own cause by being so confrontational.

 

'The shirts themselves, all produced by the American Life League, displayed photos of unborn babies and pro-life messages. One shirt read, "Abortion: Growing, Growing, Gone," a second read, "What part of abortion don't you understand?" and the third read, "Never Known

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Hum... I know there are variations that show aborted fetuses (I've seen protesters wearing them), but I'm not sure what version the kid had on.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Hum... I know there are variations that show aborted fetuses (I've seen protesters wearing them), but I'm not sure what version the kid had on.

 

'The shirts themselves, all produced by the American Life League, displayed photos of unborn babies and pro-life messages.'

 

If the kid was wearing one with an aborted fetus I'm sure it would have been a bigger part of the story.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

If the kid was wearing one with an aborted fetus I'm sure it would have been a bigger part of the story.

 

I'm not so sure, that "news site" is basically a propaganda mill.