Marine Grad Stands On Sidelines During Ceremony (Refused to not wear dress blues?)

ktul ^ | 5/12/06

[andyk]

Sure. I mean, next year some kid might want to come decked out as a pimp. And in the worldview endorsed by public schools, no distinction can be made between one and the other

Thank you; I concur.

[ishabibble]

I think that you are absolutely wrong. This boy would have redrawn the line...and then that line would have made it tougher, more wrong for the Loonies to cross.

I'm calling Shelly Gammill Monday morning and asking her how it feels to hurt this young man and his family in favor of a PC policy that will kick her to the curb in a hot minute when this thing goes bad, as it already has...This young man has more integrity than that entire school district and it's bloated roster of NEA suck ups. Shelly stinks and I'm going to tell her so.

[USMCVet]

We have the usual pack of "experts" chiming in about how this young Marine should have worn the cap and gown at the high school graduation. As far as I have seen so far, none of these who have chimed in have been a Marine

The difference is, once you graduate from boot camp and have become a Marine, your dress uniform is Dress Blues A... not caps, gowns, or white tails and top hats. If the lefties/draft-dodgers/etc. that run our schools today won't recognize that our service men and women have joined - and proved themselves - in a significantly more important organization than high school, then we really have dropped a large portion of the guts and integrity that used to be our hallmark.

Those of you with some knowledge of our history will remember that the service uniform was the mode of dress for graduations and other ceremonies, going back almost to the beginning of our nation. It's only since we lost our schools to the leftist agenda that wearing a service dress uniform to graduation became a punishable offense.

I'm proud of the Marine that chose his uniform and his new identity over conforming to a ridiculous rule.

[hermgem]

Shellie Gammil needs a check towards redirecting and widening her ingrained bias.
Going through exposures of her educational career basics and advances she got programmed and eternally transformed into a forever liberalism adoring pragmatist.
What stark difference between Gammil and this proud unwavering member of an elite pro country pro freedom defending unit.

[meyer]

Ahhh, school politics at its best. The school gets one last chance to impose a silly dress code that excludes, of all things, US Military clothing when worn by the military. I'll bet that the school doesn't mind those federal taxpayer's dollars though.

The Marine did right to wear his blues IMHO.

[MizSterious]

NP, you can I can agree on this--but you know full well that most of the population hasn't got an ounce of common sense among the lot of them. Sure as they let this fine young man graduate in his dress blues, some anti-war puke will want to prance across the stage in his pink lace anti-war costume, with "Bush lied, thousands died" in great big letters across the front and back of his costume. And if they don't let him, the school district will get sued. Bear in mind, this is a small town, and they don't have money to fight the ACLU lawsuit machine.

[Coldwater Creek]

This is a town of about five people total!!!!!

[MizSterious]

I don't think she's biased. See my #26. I think a lot of you folks are drawing some wrong conclusions--based, perhaps, on what has become typical behavior in the blue states.

[carlo3b]

Sorry my dear friend.. With all due respect, making an exception for the any US Military personnel, is not the same as a request for a Bugs Bunny outfit, or a transvestite..

She had no problem saying no to our Marine, someone facing DEATH for our continued freedom is an exception in this country, the system could/should adjust for that level of patriotic commitment..

These administrators can be just as animate with any future requests..These questions are not difficult, we should never despair over commonsense issues

[MizSterious]

Carlo, that's fine in a big school district that has a lot of legal firepower. Holdenville is a very small town, mostly rural. Lots of people are speaking out about this that don't know anything about the place.

[connectthedots]

As a former Army officer who signed up for ROTC during Viet Nam (it was over before I was commissioned, this kid is wrong.

[Petronski]

The choice was his to make. He chose to sit on the sideline in order to wear his uniform, I respect him for that.

Precisely!

[Buffettfan]

Liberals cannot hide their disdain for the military no matter how hard they try.

[opbuzz]

I graduated from college in my USMC dress whites after the administration told me I couldn't.

Fortunately for me, the student handbook stated that commencement attire would be set by the Student Commencement Committee, which we didn't have that year.

Many of the staff and faculty congratulated me afterwards.

[hinckley buzzard]

Holdenville Superintendent Shellie Gammill says she couldn't bend the policy or else exceptions would have to be made for other students.

Just what other "exceptions" does she imagine? Clown suits? This idiot woman has no respect for the uniform, and makes a false case by equating it with hypothetical idiosyncratic stunts. A symptom of the educrats who have no concept of real world values.

For my money, A dress uniform is appropriate at any public ceremony, bar none.

[stylin19a]

why is he wrong ? where is he wrong ?
he had a choice...he made it.
there is no wrong attached to that choice.

[Jrabbit]

LOL

I was thinking the same thing....obviously Shellie Gammill can't see the difference between a MARINE and some misfit that wants to "stand out and be different" as she stated in another article.

~sigh~ I remember when our military used to respected.

[carlo3b]

I hope my post wasn't seen as an indictment of this single school district, My statement is about our culture as a whole.. The nonsensical walls that are being established to halt the spread of tiny minorities, with abnormal, amoral, and bizarre lifestyles, with strident agendas that can/will intimidate the majority with their judicial threats.. I say take a stance against those exceptions, and not the entire culture..

[Delta Dawn]

He may not have had the opportunity to rent a cap and gown. One normally has to order them during the last semester.
If this was the case, an exception should have been made for this student. Joining a branch of the armed forces should not be a reason for exclusion.

[connectthedots]

He was wrong to make was big deal out of the situation. he was wrong for not wearing the cap and gown.