Today in American Studies, we talked about how Mr. Bolos's daughter was asked to remove a political pin she was wearing. As a child in a public middle school and with the pin being completely unoffensive, how is this fair? She is not defying school rules, nor showing disrespect. And this is not the only example. Earlier this week I witnessed a school administrator asking a student to change shirts because of its political message. The student refused and the administrator told the student that it was okay for that day but not to wear it again. How does an adult have the right to tell a student what they can and cannot wear when their clothing or accessory is not profane in any way? That's the thing; they don't. Do you think a student should be able to walk through the hall wearing a McCain hoodie or an Obama pin without being stopped or is this kind of apparrell inappropriate for school?
4 comments:
I think that the student has the right to wear what ever they want that does not go against dress code. If they told athleats that they could not wear there jerseys to school there would be a much larger problem than a small pin.
Hello Julia!
This is Mr. Bolos's daughter...
you're the only on that actually explains to me why this is such a big deal that she asked me to take my pin off...
hmm i wonder if i had been wearing a mccain pin if they would have asked me to remove it...?
I think that students should be able to wear any clothing or acessories supporting thier favorite candidate (obviously these must be appropriate for school). As long as these are not dissrupting the classroom enviornment or sending negative messages towards or about another candidate, I don't think that teachers have the right to tell students that they are not allowed to voice their opinions. I think that Mr. Bolos' daughter should be allowed to wear her political pin, especially considering that her school is a public school.
Julia,
Good idea to use the class example as a blog post. And, as Mr. B's daughter notes it's good to consider the teacher's behavior in addition to the student's behavior here. I think you can push this a little farther, though. Consider the difficulty in pinning down standards of profanity, levels of disruption,etc.
Post a Comment