Carrie Rethlefsen, 18, has caused a stir and faces suspension after she and a friend wore pins that read "I [heart] my vagina" to school after seeing a performance of "The Vagina Monologues."
Posted on 04/28/2005 7:36:38 PM PDT by beaversmom
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Two students at Roosevelt High School say their rights were violated when they were asked to remove their T-shirts.
Sisters Brittany and Tamera Chandler said Tuesday was Pro-Life Day, so they wore T-shirts with a picture of an unborn baby and the phrases, "She hears, kicks and feels pain" and "Abortion kills kids."
"I figured it would open some people's eyes ... that abortion is wrong," said Tamara Chandler, a senior.
Anita Micich, principal of Roosevelt, said students became upset about the shirts and a concerned teacher referred the girls to the office. Officials then asked the girls to cover the shirts or remove them, NewsChannel 8 reported.
The girls removed their shirts but Brittany Chandler said she fought the decision.
"I don't see what the problem is. I'm standing up for what I believe," Brittany Chandler said.
Micich said the shirts were an issue of disrupting the educational environment and not an issue of expression of freedom.
Chuck Hurley, of Iowa Family Policy Center, said the disruption had to be substantial and material.
"It can't just be offensive," he said.
Supporters of the girls compared the case to Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court said students do not leave their free speech rights at the school door.
"Students don't shed constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate," Hurley said.
The girls, who say they were threatened with suspension, said they want an apology. School officials denied the allegation.
According to the article, the school officials say they made the girls change shirts, but deny that the girls were threatened with suspension for wearing them. Read carefully.
I don't know why they wouldn't let the girls wear the shirts, unless that's one of those schools that forbids shirts with slogans or statements. Some do.
I think you'd better get in here and defend their right to direct students about what is or is not correct behavior and thought.
IMO, schools should teach children to think for themselves, but do you not think schools work better when they have rules for behavior and enforce those rules?
I do: they, like most public schools, are a leftist-run indoctrination camp.
Dang, talk about hypersensitive. Hell, if folks at my high school were allowed to wear shirts that said "I won't think in your church if you don't pray in my school" there's no reason in the world to ban these kids from wearing pro-life shirts.
Since the practice has become required for independant civilian citizens. The military, LEO's, firefighters, and work uniforms are outside my concern, civilian school children. And whatever the Catholic schools do is also a neutral thing to me. I personally think that the uniform thing smells like a Democrat scheme, just like putting all students on Ritilin.
You kidding? If anything, it was a "Democrat scheme" that got -rid- of uniforms. Their replacement is "Let your freak flag fly". Uniforms work in the spirit of "United We Stand", while liberals prefer "Divided We Fall" (Diversity!).
Qwinn
No, I am not kidding- the public school system, from elementary thru high school, and then into the public and private college system, is the ultimate bastion of liberalism. If you don't perceive that, where have you been hiding? The teaching profession is more liberal than MSM.
I agree. Of course they are. They have been for decades. And one of the first things they did when they got control of them, decades ago, is they got rid of school uniforms.
Qwonn
I'm sorry, I thought that the push for school uniforms was/is a relatively recent thing. I never heard of them in the 50's, 60's, 70's, or early 80's. That was decades ago, and liberals started becoming entrenched in the school system at least by the 70's. Unless maybe this was a regional thing?
"That was decades ago, and liberals started becoming entrenched in the school system at least by the 70's."
They were taking over way before that. I'd say they were in pretty solidly (sizable majority) by the '50's. It's true that most of the schools that did uniforms back then were also all-boys or all-girls schools, and they basically did away with those at about the same time. That's something I'd like to see brought back as well. Virtually every study ever showed that kids did -much- better in that environment. Of course, that was before the societal push towards glorifying homosexuality. I'm afraid that separating the sexes like that -now-, when the kids are told that if you're horny go for whichever sex you want, could backfire tremendously. So consider that another tragedy of the SSM movement - the inability to have the tremendous benefits of treating kids in a group setting without sex with peers as a constant distraction.
Qwinn
Oops, "treating" = "teaching"
Qwinn
If the school in this article is going to make the case that this anti-abortion shirt is disruptive, then they will have to make the case for some of the other shirts that kids wear to school.
This has to be my favorite part of your reply. I'm surprised that you didn't accuse me of being a Nazi, as that insult is so wantonly thrown about.
Carrie Rethlefsen, 18, has caused a stir and faces suspension after she and a friend wore pins that read "I [heart] my vagina" to school after seeing a performance of "The Vagina Monologues."
I read an article about that a few days ago. Silly little twit in the picture.
Her parents must be so proud...
if she had i heart (male sex organ) the feminists would have burned her at the stake.
Just imagine what they would do to a male student wearing the button you describe.
You sound like you went to the same type of schools, same rules, as myself. I just don't like the regimentation that school uniforms are a part of. I am for individual independance, the US constitution, freedom, and all three of those concepts preclude uniforms AS I SEE IT.
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