Parents, school caught in flap over boys' skirts

the Register Guard ^ | 1 Nov 02 | By MARK BAKER

[Glutton]

HARRISBURG - The boys should have kept their pants on, school officials said.

The two middle school students were just trying to show some school spirit, their parents said.

"I think the whole thing is just ridiculous," said Christi Oakes, whose son, Aaron, went to school Wednesday morning wearing a girl's cheerleader outfit, complete with a short skirt, and was told to take it off and put some pants back on.

"Anytime you get two boys who are willing to dress up like that ... it's not an issue. They weren't flipping them up or anything," Oakes said.

Aaron Oakes, 12, and his friend, Anthony Newbold, 13, dressed up for "spirit" day at Harrisburg Middle School as part of Red Ribbon Week at the school, a weeklong anti-drug campaign.

Aaron's grandma even painted "HMS" on the side of his face. The boys had been planning the stunt for weeks, Christi Oakes said.

But school officials said the boys' "inappropriate" dress violated the school's dress code, not because they were wearing skirts but because their skirts were too short, Principal Marv Ott said.

Female students are occasionally asked to "put something else on" when they come to school wearing something too short or "revealing," Ott said. There's no exact length that's suggested in the dress code, he said.

Both boys joined Karen Mathers, Newbold's mother, and Candi Baas, Aaron Oakes' aunt, for a protest in front of the school Thursday, saying the boys' civil rights were violated.

Oakes and Newbold were called into the school office and told to change Wednesday morning. Newbold complied but Aaron Oakes got into an argument with the school secretary, his mother said, and was disciplined.

"They came dressed to school in costumes that were inappropriate for that day," Ott said. "Our boys don't normally wear cheerleader skirts. They were too short and they were disruptive."

Teachers called the school office to complain, saying the boys' outfits were causing a disruption in class, Ott said.

The school has a "referral" system based on points, Christi Oakes said. Once a student gets 50 points, he or she can be expelled from school, she said. Aaron received three or five points, she couldn't remember which, for his behavior Wednesday, she said.

Christi Oakes said her son is being unfairly targeted by school administrators because she and her son spoke out against a teacher who recently struck Aaron Oakes.

The teacher backhanded him in the stomach, Christi Oakes said, and she and her ex-husband are considering pressing charges.

"Ever since then, Aaron has received 23 points," she said. "We feel they are now trying to set him up and say Aaron's a troublemaker," she said. "He's not."

Ott said the issues are unrelated.

"I think it's ridiculous," Mathers said of the boys being told to take the skirts off. "They were just trying to show their school spirit. They weren't being defiant."

Both parents plan to attend the next school board meeting to voice their anger over what happened and encourage other parents and community members to oppose such rigidity, Mathers said.

"I don't believe it was anything other than somebody on a power trip," Christi Oakes said. "I think it was a civil rights violation."

[Glutton]

This definately is not a story that would play the same way most places as it does locally. I wonder what on Earth influenced these guys to wear something so out of the norm.

[Paul Atreides]

They were probably claiming it to be a stunt, so they could wear girl clothes. I would say get them some therapy, but the therapists of today encourage that sort of thing.

[Vidalia]

Were the boys just having fun?

Did they become transvestites overnight?

Are the NEA homosexual agendas in our public schools paying divdends?

Are the Scots gonna get into this...?

[dts32041]

Wonder what they would do it someone showed up in a kilt.

Just trying to display the pride in their scottish heritage.

Skools no longer have a sense of humor.

Most people in the US have lost their sense of humor.

[Glutton]

Seeing more and more counter-culture oriented guys wearing skirts, I was pondering that as an influence. Eugene does have a large group of thrans-gendered folks too.

In fact, the student incidental fee financed group on campus for gays and lesbians includes transgendered in their title. (The often changed name of it excapes me.)

As it stands, the gimmick they use for "school spirit" is indeed a convinient excuse for beginner X- dressers indeed.

[TopQuark]

I wonder what on Earth influenced these guys to wear something so out of the norm.

What influences adolescents is a miracle. Usually, it is the hormons. What stops them is parenting.

THe question therefore is, why their parents are so immature?

[ladylib]

"Ever since then, Aaron has received 23 points," she said. "We feel they are now trying to set him up and say Aaron's a troublemaker," she said. "He's not."

Ott said the issues are unrelated."

Well, you better believe they are going to set him up for sure.

50 points and you're expelled and he's already got 23? Lady, just pull him out and homeschool him if you can't afford a private school. A crappy public school education isn't worth the grief of a put-up expulsion job, which is what these school administrators are aiming for. Don't f-up your kid's future. Who needs the freaking public schools anyway today? Check out all the wonderful curricula offerings on the web. This kid is being set up. Beat the bums to the punch and get him out of there. He can wear a dress at home if he wants to.

Yea homeschooling!

[Glutton]

On World News Now, the BBC stock quotes reporter spoke of a man protesting an office dress code by wearing his kilts. And as they allowed ethnic dress at work, he is getting away with it according to her.

She made a cute comment noting the tendency for kilt wearers to not have anything on under this garment. If they ever became the geberal rage, kilts and high wind would do nothing at all to improve the view on the streets.

(At least from a male point of view.)

[highpockets]

If these had been two self described Gay boys who were exploring their "orientation" through role playing, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance would have gotten them an attorney by now.

[SouthernFreebird]

Geez, I can't get my boys to wear anything even swimming trunks, that shows a knee much less any skin above the knee.
I think there was more going on than school spirit.... and this mother is delusional if her son has 23 points already in the school year and she does'nt see a problem with HIS behavior. He only got 4 or 5 points for this..... add this all up and that is one disturbance making kid.


And somebody please explain where he has a civil right to wear girls clothes to school? Sounds like him and his mother are problems looking for a place to happen.

[Jeff Chandler]

If they ever became the geberal rage

I hope you meant general and not gerbil.

[LibKill]

In my day they would have been laughed out of school by the GIRLS.

[Coleus]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/660494/posts

[Coleus]

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a392ee9234fa9.htm

[Coleus]

I pledge allegiance to the Flag, Michael Jackson and those two boys are _______S

[Robert_Paulson2]

It was "costume day" at the school. Lots of kids wore costumes. Somebody did not like theirs.

Some schools still let kids dress up for hallowe'en.

[TopQuark]

Your remark made me reread the article (I did not do so in full). Your point is well taken. Towards the end, there are some important revelations: when a kid accumulates in a hurry 23 penalty points from zero, and that happens after an altercation with the teacher, something is not right.

I have over-reacted; thank you for pointing out my error.

[Pablo64]

Good grief! It's spirit week, for cying out loud!

I remember one guy at our school who was 6'5" and came to class wearing a long, slinky, back-less evening gown during spirit week. It was hillarious. The teachers and administration were laughing as much as anyone. Did it "disrupt" classes? Sure, a little bit, but most all of the events during spirit week disrupt classes to some extent. They just dealt with it and went on (of course, back then I went to school with a 4-inch folding knife in plain sight in a case on my belt and nobody said boo about it -- times have changed).

I wonder if any of the cheerleaders were told that their skirts were too short? I doubt it. These school officials need to get a sense of humor. Even better, they need to find a different line of work.

Thank God we homeschool!

[Robert_Paulson2]

I doubt you over reacted...
I saw the news report last night.
That's when it was revealed it was a hallowe'en "dress up" for school "spirit" day, at the school.

The administrator ignored that in his statements to the press. I saw him. He came across as a law and order, "I am offended" type. My thought was, if he thinks dressing up for a school "costume" day at hallowe'en or school spirit day is "wrong", maybe he ought to rethink the wisdom of having such a day to begin with.

He reminded me a LOT of the woman who was lifting up girls skirts, this last year at high school dances, in Rancho Bernardo; to make sure the girls were NOT wearing thong panties. She humiliated most every girl at the dance in front of everyone all night long. "they might flash their panties" was NO excuse for "inappropriate touching" by a school official of all the teenage minor girls that attended the dance. She SHOULD have been fired without a hearing and charged with sexual misconduct, but was instead transferred to another school.

If you are going to have public schools, they DO have a right to a dress code. Maybe they should not allow girls to wear dresses at dances, or maybe they should not sponsor dances, or maybe, it's best to let folks to wear what they will as long as it's legal in the state, when it comes to EXTRA curricular activities.

I don't know.
But I DO know, when somebody gets in so much trouble for wearing a pretty good hallowe'en costume on school "spirit" day, and I saw their cheerleader uniforms were quite "decent", something is awry in the school's administration.

If I were a big beleiver in the public schools, my answer would be no "costume day" . . . end of problem. . .

as it is, I never could take the no prayer, no ten commandments, no bible reading, no "anti" immorality warnings or moral virtues reinforcement indoctrination they give our kids at most EVERY public school.

We opted out for home and private schools LONG ago.
This is just one more reason why.
Petty games by perverted teachers and administrators, caustic treatment of parental MORAL values, and enforcement of socialistic thought forms "for the good of the many students in the student body"... make public school fertile grounds for creating ever burgeonous crops of new little socialists, sexual perverts and God-haters.

I think we need a gradual elimination of the entire public school concept. Vouchers, Privatization, Virtual internet studies and homeschools are a BIG part of the answer to America's functional illiteracy.

YOU did not over react. The news article just turned out to be "less than honest" in my opinion... after seeing the interviews with all the "players" on TV last night.

[ladylib]

Thanks. We're doomed.