Posted on 09/23/2008 8:21:17 AM PDT by jakerobins
An 11-year-old boy in Colorado was suspended from school after he refused to take off a shirt that read, “Obama is a terrorist’s best friend.” His father says that the school is violating his son’s First Amendment rights.
Daxx Dalton, a fifth grader at Aurora Frontier K-8 School in Aurora, Colo., wore the homemade shirt on a day when students were asked to show their patriotism by wearing red, white and blue, according to MyFOXColorado.com.
When he was given the choice of turning the shirt inside out or being suspended, Dalton chose suspension.
“They’re taking away my right of freedom of speech,” he said. “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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at elections.foxnews.com ...
The best quote was from the kid’s father. “It’s the public school system. Let’s be honest, they’re a bunch of liberal loons.”
We need to get the principal’s phone number, address, email address, etc. so that we can let him know what the first amendment is all about. We also need the same info on the local school board, board of supervisors or whatever it is. Phone numbers are best because they register immediately.
Can't say I have a problem with how the school handled this, unless kids with anti-McCain and anti-Palin shirts were still allowed to roam the halls.
They believe that Obama will make them go to school 12 months a year.
While I didn't tell them that, I haven't done much to disabuse them of that notion.
Owl_Eagle
There are people who are surrounded by bigots
and know it is wrong, but are afraid to be vocal against it.
These people are going to pull the lever for Obama
and they are not being polled.
angee_is_mad, DUmmy
I hate liberals!
If the kid had a shirt that said “Buck Fush” I wonder what people on this thread would be saying.
Many schools have rules about wearing shirts with slogans as they tend to instigate altercations between students and disrupt the school and learning environment. As long as the rules are equally enforced I don’t have a problem with it.
This school was having a “patriotic day”, doesn’t sound very liberal to me.
“It’s the public school system. Let’s be honest, they’re a bunch of liberal loons.”
Well, dad, remove you child from the loony institution. You would never give your son poison, would you? That’s what you’re doing if you leave the child in a school you admit are run by nuts.
Public institutions of government education have been used for indoctrination of socialist/communist ideology for decades. If a parent is able, they should remove their children now.
Communist Goals as stated by Cleon Skousen in “The Naked Communist”:
#17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
I hate to say it but these kinds of shirts should be left at home, school is for learning, if you don’t like it, then home school.
I love seeing we the people push back.
Would not surprise me. What about PRO-Obama shirts? Are they verboten, too?.....
Quote from the school:
***Dalton’s suspension was for willful disobedience and defiance, not for wearing the shirt.***
So, they say that it’s alright for the kid to wear the shirt, but they told him to take it off.
If it was OK for him to wear it, then why did they tell him to take it off?
Typical liberal double talk.
Edgy... the other kids will love it even if they don't understand it. Any kid that can push the school admins' buttons the way this one has, especially with all this outside publicity, will become the new Fonz...
Just like they’ll say the gov’t won’t shoot you for not paying your taxes.
They’ll just shoot you when you refuse to surrender your property.
Afterall we can not expect schools to teach kids to be tolerant of other views, particularly on patriotic day. And of course schools can not be expected to stop or head off altercations or punish the instigator.
Unless there was a policy limiting political attire before hand, the school will probably have to pony up some cash. They can see it was agitating other, but will need to prove the enough students were agitated that it warranted stepping on the first amendment.
I am sure they will never ban political attire in general since they probably distribute shirts for the left wing.
#17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
They've succeeded with that, where are they headed NOW? "Leaders" such as Bill Clinton were indoctrinated, now is it up to William Ayers to get Obama elected to further weaken this country?
Kids just need to get smart and have the same message on the inside of the shirt as is on the outside.
“If there is a policy that states no political content at all, the suspension is justified.”
I agree with your sentiments, in general; but, that simply isn’t the reality in most public schools (and/or universities, and even some private schools, for that matter).
The administrators simply don’t see issue with the anti-Bush rhetoric/content. To them, it’s not a political statements, but rather it’s the “true state of nature” (i.e., to hate conservatives).
Most conservatives, in a classroom, have to withstand withering assaults on ideology, while liberal students launch invective after invective without any challenge. The response from teacher and administrator alike is typically (something like), “Yeah! Get ‘em”.
It’s funny that one of Obama’s closest confidantes is a terorrist. This shirt actually speaks to a reality that has a political context, not just a political statement.
The kid did good.
This is good publicity for our side.
I agree entirely. I don’t want schools, especially public schools, to be politicized, either from the left or right. I would never send my kids to schools wearing political slogans.
“...where are they headed NOW?”
Ultimately, they want America to be the land of the Red. Homeschoolers have effected the Communist goals because most of these families are teaching true history rather than the revisionists version of it, etc. This is precisely why liberals are against a parents right to educate their children at home. They have no control, depending on the state, over what is taught.
Broad support for home education, including American’s who are not involved in homeschooling, is an important part of the goal to defeat this current tide of Communism in our country.
God help America!
He should get his Girl friend to wear it, then when they tell her to strip off the shirt it is sexual harassment....
I support school uniforms. They eliminate this type of attention-whoring nonsense.
Everyone in America wants their 15 minutes of fame these days.
I suspect that any number of teachers in that school have a similar bumper sticker on their Subaru or Volvo.
Theoretically, a parent has a right to withdraw his child and place him in a different school, or school them at home, but that means that parent must either expend money or time and effort to comply with the state's requirement that the child be educated. In effect, unless the parents are willing to pay a forfeit, the child must be in that environment seven hours a day five days a week. Why should the parents have to pay a forfeit for their child to exercise his First Amendment rights?
That is about one third of the child's life and about half of his waking life. That is a huge percentage of existence in which to deprive someone of free speech. And to what end? Is not a school a place where a child is is exposed to the benefits of our Constitution? Is the child to be taught that conformity and censorship are values to be exalted over our First Amendment rights of free speech? What is the educational value of stifling the independence of thought of this young child?
You say there is a school rule prohibiting such free expression and it is merely the enforcement of a rule. So we are to accept that free speech can be circumcised by the government merely because the government makes a rule? What purpose does the rule serve?
You might say that the exercise of free speech will be so discordant as to frustrate the purpose of the school which is to learn. I say it is the job of the administrators of the school to so control the environment that free speech can thrive and the students can still learn. What would the law say if the administrators held that no African-American kids can attend a school because their presence disrupts and makes learning impossible?
The courts would not listen to such an excuse for a minute. They would instruct those administrators to get in there and adjust the environment for the higher value of admitting African-American children. Why do we surrender our precious free speech rights without a struggle?
Well, dad, remove you child from the loony institution.
____________________________________________________
It worked for you, huh?
“It worked for you, huh?”
Did it work of our country?
Why do we even PRETEND to have freedom of speech anymore?
Completely with you on this one. Completely inappropriate shirt. Kid got what he deserved. Schools have the right to regulate attire, and clothing with explicit and edgy political messages are distracting, disrespectful, and completely inappropriate.
The kid was given the opportunity to correct the situation. He refused. He was suspended. Good. That his parents support him in his defiance, disrespect and violation of dress codes says quite a bit about their parenting skills.
H
You’ve mis-interpreted the freedom of speech.
First, “freedom of speech” does not give the right to violate reasonable and universal codes of conduct.
Second, the freedom of speech doesn’t fully extend to children in school anymore than it fully extends to soldiers in the military. Kids don’t have the right to tell their teacher to “f*ck off” without retribution. Soldiers don’t have the right to speak out of turn. And students don’t have the right to wear inflammatory and disrespectful attire during school.
H
Glad you’re a good sport - some folks don’t like that humor.
Your tagline is great!
I guess you can write well; just not sure about the readin’ part.
I clearly think that the kid should express himself however he sees fit. I started my post with only agreeing with Natural Law...IF that was the reality, which it’s not.
Since it’s not, I think that the kid should twist the liberal administrators nipples everyday.
And, stop with the oh-so-lofty questions.
Everyone gets it: you’re smart. Yeah for you.
The area of Children’s rights is still largely unsettled law. However, the SCOTUS has established that schools do have a limited ability to restrict certain 1st Amendment rights. These have been largely defined as being speech that is disruptive enough to prevent normal operation of the school or inciteful enough to present a public danger. In the end this will be an assessment of the judgment exercised by the administration with respect to these two areas.
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