Should students have the right to express their opinions(freedom of speech), or does it disrupt the education process?
I think we should be able to express our opinions, * as long as * they don’t start fights, disturb learning, etc. If someone’s gonna get into a fist fight because they’re wearing a shirt with “Impeach Bush” written across it then they shouldn’t be allowed to wear that shirt, but if all the shirt is is a shirt, and maybe a source of discussion then there should be no problem with it.
**Jamie
So long as it does not dance along or go over the vulgarity line, I see no reason why students should not be allowed such freedom of expression. If logos/wording of any sort is not in violation of student code, logos/wording of this sort should not be singled out for a special ban.
Though I realize minors do not receive the same complement of rights as adults, and that school administrators are given vast leeway in the name of “preventing a disruption”, I feel expression of firmly held opinions in a constructive way is a valuable lesson which should be taught to future (hopefully) active citizens in a representative republic.
It depends to me on what is meant by school, as well as any vulgarities on the shirt. If it is a high school, I can understand it not being permitted if it has language on it. At a college level, I find a ban based even on vulgarity to be disturbing. College is supposed to be a preparation for the real world, right? If expressing political opinion based on a shirt leads to violence at a college or elsewhere, I’d be much more interested in who threw the first punch.
I’m sure that language is a violation of some ordinance just about everywhere, but actually being cited for it is dependant of the boredom level of the local police force.
Do protest shirts fit in school? Absolutely yes.
Some school administrators have a habit of claiming that any unorthodox clothing, hairstyles, or viewpoints are “disruptive”, even in the absence of any real disruption. A shirt that says “Impeach Bush” should not be banned unless it actually leads to a disruption of class or a fight–and even in that case, punishing whoever started the disruption may be more appropriate than banning the shirt.
IMHO, one does not need to be vulgar to express a political opinion.
**
In the real world there are many places you cannot wear the clothing you might prefer. For example every place I’ve been employed has had some sort of dress code. Colleges should be a place for the free exchange of ideas but that doesn’t mean someone can wear a shirt saying “Choose Life” on the front and a picture of an aborted fetus on the back.
Of course now we’re in the pickle of deciding what is disruptive and what isn’t. In a past thread there was a high school kid who wore a “Straight Pride” shirt to school and administrators told him to either change it or turn it inside out. (I think this was in a Pit thread.) I wouldn’t think a shirt that said straight pride would be disruptive but who knows?
My high school had a dress code that forbade the images of graphic violence. I remember some of the kids did wear shirts showing a hand impaled by a nail or a guy being cruicified. Of course maybe graphic violence is ok when it is religious in nature.
Marc
The Supreme Court weighed in on this issue with Tinker vs. Des Moines. In this case, students were suspended from school for wearing black arm bands in protest of the Vietnam War. The school’s actions were deemed unconstitutional because just being in a school doesn’t strip a student of his or her rights.
My school’s never had problems with students speaking out against whatever it is catches their ire. The student paper even came out with a spread on how students use their clothing and other articles. One guy (who I’ve never seen in this 1200 person school) wears a hat saying something to the effect of “I hate Democrats”. Another has a backpack that changes the ‘on’ in War on Terrorism to ‘is’. The administration’s cool with these issues.
I believe that the “disruption of the education process” is crock and is often utilized as a means to force our children into cookie-cutter shapes. Not only is it applied to political and religious statements, but also to hair colors, piercings, etc. In many cases, it is only the minority point of view which is labeled as disruptive (e.g. wearing crucifixes or WWJD bracelets is accepted, wearing pentacles is not).
The problem I have with ** jamesinwonderland**'s distinction is that it immediately choses to punish the person wearing the shirt, button, whathaveyou. While I accept that their message may have been the inspiration for the argument or fight, it does not mean they were the first to resort to fists.
School is supposed to be about learning how to think, so I think plitical statements should be accepted and encouraged as long as they don’t cross a line into hate speech (subjective, I know) or outright vulgarity.
Another problem with jamesinwonderland’s position is that it effectively immunizes those who choose to vent their disapproval of the protestor’s position. They can diminish the culpability of their actions by blaming it on the protestor’s message, and the school wil go along with that.
That is wrong. It encourages a lack of moral responsibility by holders of majority opinions. Being in the majority does not give you the right to pugilize those who disagree with you, and then hold them responsible for the altercation because they merely expressed their opinions.
MGibson : Everywhere I’ve been employed has had a dress code of some sort as well. I also attended a programming school that had pretty much the full monkey suit as a dress requirement. If I’d showed up for class there the way that I dress for my current job programming, I wouldn’t have been allowed in the building for lack of proper footwear, a tie, a buttoned dress shirt and proper pants. At least they didn’t require a three piece suit. I wouldn’t consider that when addressing this issue, though, since the school had an existing high dress standard, and nobody lived on campus. When I went to high school, a friend of mine got in trouble for wearing a “Nazi Punks F*** Off” t-shirt. Again, I can understand the administrations issue with it, since society does at least in theory try to protect teenagers from such nasty things as bad language, though ironically I think most people swear more as teenagers than at any other point in their lives.
A college campus is an entirely different issue since presumably a large part of the student body lives on campus. I could possibly understand not wearing a shirt that says “Republicans suck” or “Democrats blow” in an actual class room, but to be told by an RA that you’re not allowed to wear it in your dorm, or by the campus police that you’re not allowed to wear it walking around campus between classes or in the evening is an entirely different issue. Though it isn’t a political sentiment that I share, I’d argue that a student should be allowed to wear a shirt that says “Choose Life” on the front and the picture of an aborted fetus on the back.
Yes, I think that it is totally unfair that we are not allowed to express our view aslong as they don’t cause arguments, violence e.c.t.
A month ago I wore a t-shirt to school which had a normal picture of president Bush on the front and a slogan saying ‘Not my president’ this shirt was taken from me and alll i got was a shitty note to my parents asking me not to wear it again. The next week I put 4 badged on my school bag which said ‘Not in my name’ with a picture of a nuclear bomb with a cross through it. These were confiscated from me and apparently ‘‘disposed of’’.
What the hell are schools turning into conformist factories?
I am now getting my entire year to sign a protest and everyone else whose intrested, i’ll be posting the adress of my school website soon where anyone who agrees or disagrees can have their say. I believed both my garment and badges were non-violent and were merley there to express my views to my fellow students. anyone agree?
Crystal Task, your location says North Yorkshire. Why would a " Bush not my president" shirt be problematic in England?
This is also a problem: it’s putting the onus of fight on the person who chooses to wear the shirt. If you wear a ‘not in my name’ button and someone starts a fight with you about it, I’d take the apparently radical position that the person with the problem that should be dealt with is the one stupid enough to start a fight over a button.
When schools take this attitude, and they do, you can manage to get pretty much anything banned by starting a disturbance over it. Then, you make the argument that it should be banned because it leads to disturbances, which you’ve already proven!
College, at ceremonial/official events: The people sponsoring the events should be able to bar your participation on the basis of what you’re wearing, but it should have to be even-handed with respect to issues and content.
College, elsewhere: Anything not illegal to wear should be OK. Censorship-wise, anything not constituting libel against a nonpublic figure or failing to cover body parts for which coverage is required for everyone should be fine.
High school, junior high, elementary school: A reasonable constraint banning violent sentiments or images of violence, profane language, obscene or prurient images makes sense here. Constraints on sentiments, however provocative or unpopular, on the other hand, should not be permitted.