Over at Joanne's blog I linked to my own post about appropriate attire at graduation. Some of the comments there (many obviously by teenagers) show such a profound lack of knowledge that one wonders if they've learned anything in high school.
They're certainly learning from lefties. So far I've been accused of hating black people, as well as of being a Nazi white supremacist who supports slavery. Why? Because in the post above I support a school's policy about what graduates can wear during their graduation ceremony. Lefties do love their name-calling.
Lawrence v. Texas was mentioned more than once. "Read Lawrence v. Texas. It says that people can do what they want even if you don’t approve." That's, uh, a unique interpretation of what Lawrence says, but it's certainly not an interpretation to which I'd subscribe.
Tinker was mentioned more than once. "Free speech means we get to express ourselves in any medium we want,
including clothing. It doesn’t just protect the spoken word. Read
Tinker!" Tinker was about the suppression and expression of ideas, not about what clothing you can wear to school.
The First Amendment makes an appearance, too. "The first amendment means we get to decide how we’ll present ourselves to the world, NOT YOU!!!!" That's so precious.
Want a two-fer? Here's the Bill of Rights and Tinker! "What makes you think the bill of rights doesn’t apply at graduation? Her
taxes are paying for the graduation ceremony? Her taxes paid for the
school to begin with? That makes it a public school and therefore she’s
free to be herself under the first amendment–read Tinker, it ended
school-enforced slavery."
It's honestly painful to see such ignorance.
Schools don't have to have graduation ceremonies. If the stupidity shown above gets too far out of hand, I'd dump graduation ceremonies altogether. People can have their own celebrations and wear whatever they want. Problem solved.
9 comments:
Folks are dumping grad ceremonies....the fee is a bit too high for many families. Unlike in my day, the gown is not rented from the school...its on the family to purchase and re-sell. If you go to the company the school is using, you may see the cap/gown price as 'contact your local rep'...i.e. pri$e is negotiated with the district. It's not cheap..although it was cheaper than the Calc textbook we had to buy for 11th grade, since the school doesn't provide materials for 'non-required' courses, even for compelled students.
Just read the comments. With the anonymous stuff on the internet, people can post whatever they want without repercussions. My guess is all of those people were 1 or 2 people.
I haven't heard about any of this but my initial thought is that the bill of rights should apply if it's a federally-supported institution. Is that wrong? If so, could you explain? Thank you.
The bill of rights doesn't prevent schools from prescribing or proscribing types of clothing children wear at schools.
I keep thinking about whether students on a sports team could decide to express themselves by wearing something other than the uniform. Or some kid in a period play choosing not to wear the costume. Or a kid in the choir opting for something flashy instead of the uniform.
Considering the cost of venues, security and trying to get faculty that want to participate (I really don't) I'm not sure why the actual ceremony isn't optional. I'm friends with the senior class sponsor and the headaches she has endured over collecting fees, information kids and then having to REinform parents multiple times have led her to question whether or not she would prefer a nice office job. While these events make for a nice PR spectacle, by and large the students and parents do not appreciate the cost or amount of work involved in putting it on. Just the cost of a senior ring hs become ridiculous and out of touch for most families. I regret that my son never got a ring in college-at over $400 on top of graduation fees, we simply could not afford it.
Back when high school graduation actually MEANT something, the ceremony was meaningful. Like when a Cadet graduates from West Point -- the graduation ceremony celebrates dedication and achievement, so it really means something.
Currently, for most, high school graduation is basically a participation award. The form of the ceremony is there, but the content has been watered down and lost.
You can see this in the fad for kindergarten "graduation," when little kids get dressed up in cap and gown in a mockery of what graduation means, all for a cute little photo shoot.
But wasn't it determined that clothing is free speech?
No. That's a misreading of Tinker.
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