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

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66100 ^

[wintertime]

A 12-year-old 6th-grader in Hutchinson, Minn., committed to an unusually brave mission for the month of April: he intended to wear T-shirts with a pro-life message to his middle school every day for a month.

His courage, however, was met with resistance. According to the boy's attorney, his principal and teachers told him "not to wear the T-shirts, publicly singled him out for ridicule in front of his classmates, removed him from class, sent him to the principal's office, forced him to turn his pro-life T-shirt inside out, and threatened him with suspension if he did not stop wearing the offending pro-life T-shirts."

Over the course of his one-month quest, the boy, identified only as K.B., was reprimanded by the school a dozen times. (snip)

K.B. began his T-shirt mission in honor of April 29th being designated "National Pro-Life T-shirt Day" by the American Life League, a group that calls itself the "largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States."

(snip)

K.B. reported that he was first confronted on April 2nd by a teacher saying that the shirt "could be offensive." On April 4th he was sent to the principal's office because, his teacher said, the shirt was "inappropriate for class." In mid-April, 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." On April 25th K.B. was threatened with in-school suspension.

When April 29th arrived, the day designated as "National Pro-Life T-shirt Day," the school principal called K.B.'s homeroom and ordered the boy to his office. "Why do you keep wearing those shirts when you know that they annoy me?" the principal allegedly asked.

[Mr. Silverback]

What is so threatenting to you about a kid getting to wear an Obama T-shirt or a pro-choice T-shirt? Is that so threatenting we should allow these dipstick tyrants to harass a good kid?

[Mr. Silverback]

The school’s policy (which is worded very sensibly) says that no message will be prohibited unless it is “lewd, vulgar, obscene or profane.” Despite the sexual content associated with most of those words, it’s beyond doubt that aborted babies or dead soldiers would fall well inside the parameters and be prohibited.

[Mr. Silverback]

Any classroom that’s disrupted by a T-shirt with a pro-life slogan is a classroom the teacher never had control of in the first place. It sure sounds like the teachers and principal did more to disrupt classes than this kid ever could have dreamed of doing.

[Mr. Silverback]

No better way to trivialize an issue than to make it into slogans printed on children’s clothes and bumper-stickers. Those are the only ways the weak-minded can express themselves. By donning the thoughts and wit of others.

I'm sorry, have you lost your bloody mind? Putting something succinctly (like 47,000,000 babies killed 1973-2008) in public is trivializing it? Really? You think someone reads those words and thinks it's a trivial issue? And if so, please share what grand, eloquent address a sixth grader will give to his fellows that will turn the abortion issue around.

[Mr. Silverback]

They are in school and have limited Free Speech just as most of us adults cannot go to work wearing a tee shirt with pictures of aborted babies or of dead American Troops in Iraq.

Neither can the kids at this school. Were you unaware of that, or just ignoring it?

[Mr. Silverback]

I wonder if she wore a similar shirt to work every day in the month of April in support of her son, or did she send a 12 year old in as a pawn to proclaim her views while she wore 'appropriate' clothing to work?

First, what do you think the chances are that she works at a place where T-shirts are considered a valid part of the dress code?

Second, do you really think there's any chance that her workplace has the same policy against dress code censorship that his school does?

Third, why are you assuming this woman is lying about her son coming up with this on his own? Were your children lifeless automatons when they were in the 6th grade?

Fourth, why are you using her past abortion as justification for impugning her motives? Isn't it at least as likely that her role in killing another person motivated her to warn others?

[trumandogz]

Not threatening but not appropriate in the classroom.

[wintertime]

Not threatening but not appropriate in the classroom.(trumandogz)

So, Comrade?....Who gets to decide what is appropriate or not? Hm?....Would you suggest "The People's Indoctrination Camp Thought Control Committee"?

*The government is ordering this youth to shut up.

*The government is forbidding this youth freedom of the press.

*The government is trampling this youth's right to free expression of religious belief.

*The government is establishing its religious worldview and forcing it on every child and youth incarcerated in the building.

* The government is forcing this child into association with teachers who publicly ridicule him and his religious belief before his fellow citizens.

* The government is imprisoning this youth, who has committed no crime, and then trashing everyone of his First Amendment Rights!

*The government is using the threat of armed police to force this child and his mother into cooperation with the thought control of the government by way of its government indoctrination camps ( misnamed "schools").

ARMED POLICE THREAT!!!

This is what stands behind every government school.

Unless this youth's parents pay a ransom, in the form of extra homeschooling or private schooling expenses, this youth **MUST** present himself daily to government school guards and indoctrinators. If he does not, he and his parents face court, police, and foster care action, and risk **real** imprisonment in a **real** prison. If they were to be sufficiently resistant, government police would kill them.

Government schools are an abomination! Government schools, the First Amendment, and freedom of conscience can NOT, NOT, NOT, coexist! ( Yes, I am shouting. The American people are asleep and the house of freedom is on fire, and our Marxist infiltrated government schools are the arsonists. )

There are some, trumandogz, on this message board who do not know that the First Amendment only applies to government action. Private citizens and private businesses have every right to freely and mutually agree upon speech, press, expression of religion, association, and religious worldview issues. This is explains why private schools are in complete harmony with the First Amendment and are usually more orderly, safe, and effective than the government indoctrination camps.

Solution: Privatize universal K-12 education. Let parents, teachers, and principals amicably and mutually decide these issues privately.

For stating the truth some will accuse me of being inflammatory.

[wintertime]

Please read post #48.

[shibumi]

"Blooming idiot! Without more kids, that joker is out of a job! Relating it to a commercial enterprise for just a sec, what kind of shortsightedness makes it impossible to see that the ultimate end to your belief system leads to the closure of your industry due to lack of raw material to turn into finished product?"


Answer: It's the same mentality that suggests that it is good economic policy to try increasing egg production by strangling chickens.

[SoftballMominVA]

You have some good points that I could argue with you about freedom of speech in the workplace, because I've certainly seen folks wearing T-shirts in a variety of settings on casual day, so let's assume that she works at a job that requires a specific uniform. That still leaves wearing them to the grocery store, the video store, just wherever she needed to go. When she was interviewed for this story, was she wearing a similar shirt in support of her son?

I'm not insinuating that she is lying about her son's motivations, I was asking if she supported him by doing the same actions he was at the same time, or if she just let him stand alone during this time with her cheering from the sidelines.

As far as her past abortion, you should read the article, the mom brought it up as part of the reason she feels so strongly about abortion now and how her family has joined in with her because of her reactions. In fact, you are correct. It is her guilt over killing a child that makes her feel the way she does and she has lead her family to believe the same.

My initial question still stands, did she support her son during this time by wearing a similar shirt whenever possible, or did she just launder them for him and send him off to what she knew was a rough day while she blended into the scenery during her normal run of the mill day?

[SoftballMominVA]

Any classroom that’s disrupted by a T-shirt with a pro-life slogan is a classroom the teacher never had control of in the first place.

You are 100% correct in that statement.

[L98Fiero]

“And if so, please share what grand, eloquent address a sixth grader will give to his fellows that will turn the abortion issue around.”

How about the kid just show up, listen and learn and leave the abortion issue to those who have at least experienced puberty. Maybe the parents should stop using their child as a socio-political mouth-piece.

“You think someone reads those words and thinks it’s a trivial issue?”

That’s not what I said but nice try. Stunts like what this kid’s parents pulled do more harm than good for the pro-life side. Intelligent people do not form lasting socio-political opinions based on t-shirt slogans.

This was about the kid and parents. In 4th grade wearing the same shirt every day, turned inside-out. How many people is that going to reach? None. Likely it will have the opposite effect on the other kids.

[L98Fiero]

“or did she send a 12 year old in as a pawn to proclaim her views while she wore ‘appropriate’ clothing to work?”

Ding! Ding! Winner!

[r9etb]

What crap. Leave me alone.

[Mr. Silverback]

It is really astonishing how many people I'm coming across lately on FR who write "X is true," and then when asked to justify it, say "nice try, I never said X was true."

You wrote this: No better way to trivialize an issue than to make it into slogans printed on children’s clothes and bumper-stickers.

Now, I suppose you could counter with some blather about how saying something has been trivialized doesn't mean that the person seeing the statement will believe it's trivial, but not only would that involve ultrafine hair-splitting, it would render the entire original point invalid, because the message is not trivialized if people who see it are going to take it seriously.

How about the kid just show up, listen and learn and leave the abortion issue to those who have at least experienced puberty.

1. So, one must wait until one is growing body hair in certain places before one may opppose the slaughter of millions of human beings?

2. In a world where people want to start handing out birth control pills to 11 year old girls at school, it appears you're more than a bit behind the curve.

Maybe the parents should stop using their child as a socio-political mouth-piece.

On what basis are you accusing the parents of this? Are all 6th graders mindless automatons that couldn't possibly come up with such and idea without their parents forcing it?

Stunts like what this kid’s parents pulled do more harm than good for the pro-life side. Intelligent people do not form lasting socio-political opinions based on t-shirt slogans.

Intelligent people do, however, form long-lasting socio-political opinions when someone points something out that makes them question their current worldview. I am now a pro-life activist, and my journey to that began with one person asking me "Have you ever read a book on fetal development?" (Gee, that's the kind of pithy statement you might find on a T-shirt!) Moreover, unless the mom is lying outright, we know that these T-shirts caused kids to start asking questions...which is how people begin changing their worldview.

In 4th grade wearing the same shirt every day, turned inside-out. How many people is that going to reach? None. Likely it will have the opposite effect on the other kids.

Every kid in that school knows the exact reason that his shirt is turned inside out, and that's a symbol in and of itself. And if you think that kids that age are going to naturally side with an authority figure, you must not know many kids that age.

A kid makes a stand for something he believes in, something that is no-brainer obviously right, the school comes down on him in violation of their own policy and does so because students might ask too many questions...I don't see any reason conservatives should be siding with the school, much less acting like this kid and his parents are bad people.

[Mr. Silverback]

Ding! Ding! Winner!

You seem to be making a lot of conclusions based on no evidence at all. See my questions to SoftballMom above. What are the chances she worked somewhere that she could wear a T-shirt? If so, what are the chances that her employer has a dress code that's as lenient as the school's?

[Mr. Silverback]

You guys are dead on target.

[Mr. Silverback]

The school district in question, the SCOTUS, and virtually every onservative organization that has ever addressed this issue disagrees with you. Moreover, there is no reason that any competent teacher's class would be disrupted by a shirt reading "Obama for President" or "My Body, My Choice."

Please, share with me how the learning process would be short-circuited by an item of clothing displaying someone's political opinion.

[Mr. Silverback]

I'm not insinuating that she is lying about her son's motivations

No offense, but this seems to be another case of the "I didn't say that" amnesia that has infected so many freepers. When the woman says this was her son's idea and you refer to him as a "pawn" that's saying that she is (or may) be lying about her son's motivation. One cannot be a pawn when one executes his own plan. Words mean things.

When she was interviewed for this story, was she wearing a similar shirt in support of her son?

Let's say just for the sake of discussion that she hasn't worn a pro-life T-shirt anywhere, ever. Does the school get to violate the law, the kid's rights and their own district's policy because the Mom's not as morally upright as she should be?