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It can be troubling to think about how teenagers can stray into some very risky and scary behaviors. Like... wearing T-shirts!
Typically news stories about the issues affecting teens include topics such as drugs, suicide, handguns, gangs and unprotected sex. But simple T-shirts have been the topic of concern this week. School boards, administrators, parents, teens and even advocacy groups like the ACLU have been discussing all sorts of cotton wardrobe-related questions: Should the words students wear on their clothes be protected as free speech?
- If a school district has a dress code based on subjective criteria like "offensive," how can the code be enforced justly?
- Do dress codes really improve student behavior anyway?
- Didn't today's parents listen to enough Pink Floyd to know that crazy train dress codes are just another brick in the wall?
- With persistent social problems with much higher stakes competing for administrators' attention, why do kids have to fight, for the right, to... wear T-shirts?
Not the teen in question, but you get the point of the shirt now.
According to the Denver Post, the ACLU became involved in the case:
After a student was instructed to remove a Sex Pistols T-shirt by a Forks High School official, former student body president Devon Chastain donned the offending garment herself and refused to take it off. As a result, she was sent home. The incident sparked a punky domino effect of sorts, as nine other students then staged a protest in front of the school in support of their suspended classmate, distributing more T-shirts bearing the Sex Pistols’ fabled ransom-note logo. In turn, these students were also suspended.
In this case, the shirt was not a political statement, but personal expression through pop culture. The stakes might not be as high, but still something feels Rotten here and it isn't Johnny. Rather that being viewed as disruptive I would think that an homage to the seminal 1970s punk wouldn't raise an eyebrow anymore -- or would count as History homework at
