Boy suspended for calling student referee's call "gay"

Casper Star-Tribune ^ | April 4th, 2003

[aruanan]

Principal Jody Mimmack said the school uses a national curriculum called "Bullyproofing Your Schools,"

Why is it that some of the most stupid people in school systems wind up as principals?

[ladylib]

They're supposed to cut down on suspensions too because everyone is supposed to learn and live in harmony.

[the808bass]

On the contrary, kids use that word all the time as a mild perjorative without getting suspended from school.

They may use it all the time in other schools, but that is not the case in this school, according to the principal.

It also indicates that this kid has been a discipline problem in the past.

Has he been suspended before? Did he beat 4 kids up in a savage rampage? Or did he talk excessively in class and have to sit in the hall for 15 minutes? The "discipline problem" in the past sounds like bureacratic subterfuge to me.

[World'sGoneInsane]

"Mimmack said Ben, who has had previous disciplinary problems at the school, also would have been suspended if he had referred to the playground call as "dumb" or if he had teased the other student about a hairstyle or ethnicity."

Seems like Ben would have been suspended if he said it was a good call. I've seen it happen. If I were a betting person, Ben is probably one of the biggest kids there and can't get out of the sight of the first person he ticked off. Bullyproofing? Some one should work with Ben and give the teacher/administrator some R&R. That would be a more logical solution. However, that would be expecting the adults to act as such.

[Salvation]

BTTT!

[Fester Chugabrew]

". . . sounds like bureacratic subterfuge to me."

There's a lot we don't know. IMO this is not one of those situations where simply using the word "gay" was cause for discipline. Now, if this had taken place in San Francisco the kid and his parents would probably still be on the outs.

[Fester Chugabrew]

". . . everyone is supposed to learn and live in harmony."

That's more or less what good manners are about.

[ladylib]

Doesn't look like it's working too successfully at this school if the principal says she suspends a lot of students. I've read that under No Child Left Behind, schools are supposed to reduce their suspension rates. Maybe someone should tell her before the feds close her school.

[Dasaji]

The real bullies are the kind of people who suspend kids for the most mundane behavior...
________________________________
Brilliant.

My 5th grade daughter *almost* lost 10 minutes of recess (a lifetime to a kid holed up in a classroom all day) on Friday because during "quiet clean up" at lunch, she sneezed, a schoolmate said "God bless you" and my daughter replied 'Thank you.'(conditioned response, right?) OMG, she was *talking*. Ironically, it was the 'literally' gay Art Teacher who busted her for this *talking* and gets off bullying the kids by punishing them for the most innocuous infractions. This has gone on for too long with this guy and when I heard about it, I was livid and ready to call the school and ram the phone down his throat.

Instead, my 10 year old replied, 'Mommy, I took care of it.' When I asked how, she said she looked him in the eye, and asked him how he could possibly punish her for something (kindness, thank yous, etc.) that the school promotes so strongly, and that it would make him a hypocrite to do so!

He couldn't argue with that, and let her go off onto the playground. (Mommy is very proud!)

[aruanan]

For the same reason that people like Saddam Hussein gain power in desert $hitholes.

For the same reason that most turds and corpses tend to float?

[Clint N. Suhks]

Okay, kids... let's play a game... let's pretend that the student had actually yelled:

"HEY REF! You really, JEWED us on that call!!!"

Thoughts anyone?

Umm…behavior is not equivalent to faith? Perversion is not protected by the first amendment?

Did I win?

[Coleus]

Where I live, students call the teachers "white mother f...ers" and nothing usually happens. Sometimes they may get a suspension, usually not.