Some parents allow kids to go to school in all sorts of really atrocious dress — dress that is disrespectful, and disruptive. Those same parents have little or no regard for authority, and some few *want* their dear ones to draw all sorts of attention. I do not understand that, but I have seen it.
You say in one sentence “respect must be earned” and in the next you give and example of where respect is not “earned” but demanded.
It is the same thing in a school room. The need for society to insist that respect be given, no mater if it is earned. It does not matter if the Teacher or Principal is bad, even the worst teacher one might think of, because it is the teacher’s ideal role to teach and the necessary role to maintain the safety of every child in a classroom. Not even a Judge has such a burden of responsibility — there are bailiffs and other officers of the court there to maintain order. Moreover EVERYONE who has been through a courtroom experience well understands that order and quiet MUST be maintained. Why? Because of the plenary authority of a Judge in his courtroom to quickly and forcefully take whatever steps necessary to maintain order.
What does “plenary power” mean? According to one dictionary: “complete in every respect : absolute, unqualified”.
That is the ideal as well for a teacher in his or her classroom and for the Principal in the whole of school. It is still the ideal even though the courts of our perverted modern era of US law have ruled otherwise. It is the biggest reason the schools are chaos and children are not learning.
A Judge could order such a t-shirt removed. He has to make no excuses or explanations in so doing. Teachers and Principals need that same due regard, that same natural and rightful authority returned to them.
Eventually, judges have to show cause, else they are overturned on appeal. Judges are subject to review. Only SCOTUS has the ability to make it up as they go, and if you’ve read Mark Levin’s book, “Men in Black”, they often have.
Within education, the only entity with plenary power is the Union. That’s it. Teacher’s hands are tied. They have nearly zero options in terms of actually disciplinary tools.
Parents COULD be a source of plenary power for principals and teachers, but they choose not too. As such, the only practical source of plenary power is the union.
If you are proposing putting bailiffs and law enforcement in classrooms, I’m all for it. Currently, however, the law doesn’t really help either teachers or principals, just the unions. A single parent can trump that, make a stink, and get a perfectly good principal OR SUPERINTENDENT canned.
This is more often the case, unions and parents teaming up to can good teachers and administrators.
Check this case out. This is in my local district. Teacher was putting a kid at risk while publishing an underground school newspaper. This teacher, Kay Powers, was a leftwing, Abbie Hoffman type, and countered a direct order from the super to cease and desist. She, of course, didn’t.
Super responds by putting a camera in the classroom to document beyond all doubt that the teacher was in direct violation. Union had a cow. Got the teacher, who was fired, reinstated. She was allowed to retire.
The super got, for her trouble, death threats. She was forced to retire. By far the best super ever in the district’s history. Never mind that if it were my kid, I might have caved that teacher’s head in, and that many responsible parents felt that way.
Here’s one of the articles. There’s more stuff out there on this, but file this one under ‘Do your job and get fired in education’.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008031102_superintendent03.html