I can't stand idiots like this mother. The school district has a written policy banning extreme or disruptive makeup--and in our society, it's extreme for boys to wear black lipstick and black eyeliner. "It's sexism!" says the mother.
Be a parent. If you want to teach your kid about "acceptance" (see the end of the video), teach him not to poke a finger in the eye of the community/society in which he lives. You can't focus only on yourself and how different you are and expect everyone to accept you. That acceptance gig is a two-way street.
If the district had no prior policy and just told the kid to take off the makeup, then he'd have some sort of discrimination claim. But that isn't the case here.
8 comments:
this falls under the whole 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' because awhile back there was a kid killed because he dressed like a girl (although there is alot more to the story apparently) and his parents are suing because they said the school shouldn't have let a boy dress like a girl.
How can we win?
I hope the mother realizes that it will probably be hard for her son to find a job some day. Most businesses want people to look the part and have some pretty tough standards in place.
I hate the "express" myself/himself/herself routine. School is for learning. If you want to express yourself write a book, paint a picture, start a blog, write songs, play music, etc, etc.
He's not expressing himself. He's just a maladjusted kid acting out.
I've always thought the "distracting" rules are just rules that allow the school to essentially cite someone for whatever an administrator doesn't like. I find "goth" students to usually be less distracting than most since they seem less likely to talk or interact with the class in a way that is inherently much more disruptive than how anyone could make themselves look. I don't understand why we can't expect students to deal with anything out of the ordinary, it seems like people expect so little of students these days, it's disgusting. These types of rules are the reason for the entire subculture and using these rules to bolster the "norm" of the community only strengthens this kind of person's resolve and attitude. If doing anything outside of the "norm" means you are "pok[ing] a finger in the eye of the community/society" I'd say the community/society needs to grow up and think about how unreasonably sensitive it is. This post makes you seem like a close relative to people who demand politically correct everything and can't just deal with the real world.
The kid is 13 years old. I know I'm old fashioned, but forget his sex. No 13 year-old has any business wearing makeup. As far as I'm concerned, girls have no business wearing makeup until they're college students.
Ron, my "poking a finger in the eye" comment was in reference to his not caring about the society around him, as evidenced by his outlandish style. Society will tolerate what he does, but that doesn't mean its members won't look askance at someone who deviates from its bounds as much as this kid does.
As I said, it's "interesting" that we demand that society accommodate this kid while he does nothing towards society. Respect is a two-way street.
I like RightWingProf's comment, though.
Society doesn't have to accommodate him, all it has to do is ignore him if they don't agree with him. I don't expect people to think what he is doing is a good thing or that society should support his attitude at all, but I believe that society should be capable of dealing with him without making demands of what he wears. I'm not demanding acceptance, I'm saying tolerance is a minimum request in society that I believe we should be capable of.
This is pretty much the same type of claim as the girl wearing the rosary. The girl wasn't Catholic, nor was her mother. There are necklaces that look like rosaries that are fashionable now, and I am sure that played more into it than faith. Yet the mother is trying to sue based on religious discrimination. So I wonder what would have happened if her daughter got jumped by other gang members? Would the mother then sue for failure to protect her child? You can't win against these idiots because all they know is that they want THEIR way and if they don't get it, they scream to the nearest court.
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