Tiggergate proves expensive for Napa Valley school district

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | December 14, 2007 | Nanette Asimov

[DryFly]

(12-14) 17:53 PST NAPA VALLEY -- A Napa Valley middle school's decision to bar a child from class last winter for wearing a pair of Tigger socks has proved costly.

The Napa Valley Unified School District is on the hook for at least $95,000 in lawyers' fees under a legal settlement announced Thursday between the district and five Napa families who challenged the school's dress code.

That's enough to pay the salaries of two teachers for a year, but it's only about a quarter of what the district would have had to pay if it went on to lose the Tiggergate lawsuit instead of settling.

[metmom]

If the ACLU supports it, there's something wrong. There's more to the story than we're being told. I always take a good hard second look when the ACLU appears to agree with something I think.

Notice this from the article:

'But the case was not just about a pair of Tigger socks, said lawyer Julia Harumi Mass of the ACLU of Northern California, who represented the families. "It's really about freedom of expression and tolerating individuality, which are core values of our society." '

[Amelia]

I don't see that wearing solid colored clothing to school is such a "bother", and I always wished the schools would require uniforms when my children were students - less expensive, and no worries, agonizing, or arguing about what to wear in the morning.

Our school does not require uniforms but has always prohibited clothing advertising alcohol, tobacco, or drugs, and sexually suggestive or profane slogans on tshirts.

I suppose we've been restricting the freedom of expression and individuality of our students as well?

[ChildOfThe60s]

This illustrates two major flaws in the thinking of those running public schools.

1) Over-codifying rules to regulate every minute aspect of student behavior. “Zero tolerance” eliminates all subjectivity from the enforcement of rules and discipline. Simply doesn’t work.

2) Bureaucrats in the schools, having no clue about the real world, don’t know how or when to pick their battles.

The “student handbook” at my daughter’s HS in the 90’s looked like a phone book. It was about an inch thick. When I thumbed through it, all I could wonder was who was going to read (and take seriously) all this crapolla?

Thousands of rules, top down management with no one allowed to make decisions based on the particulars of a situation. No surprise that hundreds of thousands of dollars go into things like lawsuits over children’s socks. It’s to be expected.

[billmor]

“I wonder what kind of trouble I would get in if I were at a public school? They say *gasp* “Cabelas” on them.”

Hmm...maybe guilt by association?..Cabellas > Outdoor Store> sells hunting and fishiong gear> sells guns and ammo> !! > charge with 1st degree Felony- Associating with a national gun selling store...Look up RICO too, and possible civil suit for scaring the teachers and kids....waahhh, we’re sssscared !!

using school administrator’s logic...

[billmor]

“The district should never have settled, gotten a law school student to run their defense, and stopped participating in the feeding on government entities by far overpaid lawyers.
#30 “

Wonder how long that law student would have lasted against the ACLU ?...

[JamesP81]

What settlement? Here's your dress code. Students knew of the dress code ahead of time, and purposefully wore clothing out of code to create this problem. That 'crap' should never have involved a lawyer. I'm the least supporter of the 'nanny state' out there, and constantly critical of nonsense efforts - but school dress codes work when enforced.

I take a different tack. The public school system poses an existential threat to our society in the long term. Therefore, actions that slow said school system down are worthwhile. Ideally, we would shutdown these government indoctrination centers. If publicly undercutting the school's authority moves us in that direction, then I've got no problem with it in principle.

[JamesP81]

Then again, by Internet rules, you’ve lost the argument by resorting to pictures related to Nazis.

On the other hand, saying something complimentary about a picture showing Nazis probably didn't do you any good either.

[Tired of Taxes]

Wow. $95,000? Maybe I should enroll my kids in school, dress them against the dress code, and cash in, too. ;-)

[Amelia]

I take a different tack. The public school system poses an existential threat to our society in the long term. Therefore, actions that slow said school system down are worthwhile. Ideally, we would shutdown these government indoctrination centers. If publicly undercutting the school's authority moves us in that direction, then I've got no problem with it in principle.

I take a different tack from you. IMO, one reason the public schools are in the shape they are in is because of parents undercutting the school's authority at every opportunity, in many cases trying to move it in just the direction you say you deplore.

Parents have bought into the "Dr. Spock" type child-psychology that says any effort to discipline their children probably harms their creativity, individualism, self-esteem, etc., and so they resist all efforts by the schools to enforce discipline, dress codes, and learning standards, preferring instead to file lawsuits if their little darlings aren't allowed to do as they please.

This case is a prime example.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Dress codes within reason are fine, in order to keep sleazy, completely inappropriate bits of indecent clothing out of the schools. I had them in my high school, and the principle enforced them whenever a student came to school dressed either like a slut or as a gang banger, otherwise everything was fine.

However, I'm against schools dictating every piece of decent clothing that a child may or may not wear, down to what types of fabric may be used, to what types of colors may be worn, to what types of socks and underwear are acceptable. This conform or else mentality, as enthusiastically expressed by some on this thread, smacks very much of fascism in my opinion. That a child was disciplined because he wore tigger socks, even though he knew he was provoking an incident, is inexcusable, and yet another symptom of a system run amok, in the opposite extreme. I wonder what the Founding Fathers would say about public schools imposing rules on what kinds of socks ro colors of clothing may be worn?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

principle = principal. Doh!

[TornadoAlley3]

bookmark

[JamesP81]

I take a different tack from you. IMO, one reason the public schools are in the shape they are in is because of parents undercutting the school's authority at every opportunity, in many cases trying to move it in just the direction you say you deplore.

No. Govt schools are in the shape they are in because they are government institutions run by liberals. Everything else pales in comparison to that fact. The schools would essentially be in the same shape they are in now without parents like these. And, as I said, if these crazy parents (I sometimes think of them as the 'useful idiots' for our side) do something to slow up the liberal indoctrination and crushing of individual thinking insides said school system, then I'm not going to get overly worked up about that.

[Doohickey]

I wonder how many posts it’s going to be before someone reads the article?

[spunkets]

"The idea behind civil disobediance is that you are willing to accept the consequence of said disobediance."

No. The idea is telling the petty tyrants to shove it and the consequences right up their butts.

[JamesP81]

Let me add this: if a rapist were to be shot and killed while being mugged, I would not celebrate the fact that the mugger makes his living by stealing other people's stuff. But on the other hand, I wouldn't lose even so much as a wink of sleep that the rapist met an untimlely demise partly because, after all, the rapist is far more dangerous to society than the crook.

Similarly, if a bunch of parents with an agenda are, through their actions, offering resistance to the govt indoctrination centers, I doubt I'm going to lose any sleep over it.

I will repeat: the govt schools represent a long term existential threat to our society. I will never stand in defense of any institution or organization that poses so dire a threat to this nation. For any reason.

[Doohickey]

Godwin’s Law has been invoked. Thread over!

[nicmarlo]

The ACLU was involved....they would hardly be willing to settle for anything, except for immorality and communism.

[nicmarlo]

They likely get on up to 40%, I bet at least 30%, as is customary.

[spunkets]

"here's an example of why the public schools can't do their jobs and why there is little or no discipline in many."

The school's job is to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, history, science, geography, ect... The schools job is to enable those kids to function effectively in a free society, not to indoctrinate them to perform as sheep in an authoritarian one.