Ok, so I show up to school in the following “questionable” (or so it was called by my administrators) attire for the following reasons.
Trenchcoat - It was colder than a witch’s tit and I have no other sweater, jacket, sweatshirt.
Combat boots - Puddles are everywhere and if I were to wear my Chuck Taylor’s I would have soggy feet at the end of the day.
My day is fine until lunch, I had gone through 4 periods with no problem until an administrator see’s me. He waves me over and asks to search my briefcase. I tell him that he may not because he has no probable cause to search it. He reponded to me by saying that the way I was dressed was probable cause enough. I ask him “What is wrong with the way I am dressed?”, he responded with a lie and told me that it is against school dress code standards. I then borrow my friend’s Student Planner which was given to the whole school at the beggining of the year, which outlines the school dress code and I ask him to show me where it says I cannot dress like that. He finds nothing. So, I’m out of the clear, right? Wrong. I am taken to his office where he tries to tell me that I am just some thug looking to intimidate the whole school. I ask him to look at my record and see if he can find anything that would point out that I might want to go on a killing ramapage, he refuses. I then explain why I am wearing what I am wearing (as if I should have to explain myself to anyone, but I thought it would help the situation) and all he can do is sit there and look at me blankly. He then sweeps over my briefcase with a metal detector and of course it goes off, it has metal in it you fuck! He takes that as enough probable cause and insists that I should open my briefcase. I refuse (It has a combination lock). Tired of all this he lets me go but not without the warning that if I am ever to show probable cause, that he would throw the book at me (Or something to that affect).
So to my administrator that is so goddamn sure someone will blow up the school that he is ready to make the person up, in the great words of Cecil Adams, Eat shit and die.
Bloody hell…Merc, that’s completely outrageous. [sarcasm]But since you’re nothing but an anti-American subversive who refuses to stand for the Pledge of Alegience like all good Americans (who, of course, love their freedom enough to never exercise it), I guess you had it coming.[/sarcasm]
Damn, I’m glad to be Canadian and no longer in High School…
It contains a soul.
Actually, I did not want him to search my briefcase because he had no reason to. Would you let the local police department in your house to look in everything if they had no warrant? A search of my briefcase was unnecesarry. No, I was not carrying anything illegal, but why should he be able to search something that is not his nor the schools’s just because? I fail to see the logic, but that’s just my view.
If they did that-is that legal? I’d write a letter to the newspaper, or something like that!
From what I understand, since Merc is a minor, he was in the right to refuse to be allowed to have the case searched JUST because of what he was wearing.
I’m so sick of this shit.
I dunno what’s up with the kids wearing Trech Coats, my brother’s one of them for sure, but it does seem they are looking for a bad rap in the footsteps of Columbine. Most kids don’t see it that way of course, but adults, especially teachers, are fossils and see it as bad.
Yes, I have. All the time. Discrimination for wearing a black tee-shirt too, for Christ’s sake.
And K-web? They’re (most likely) not imitating the Colombine tragedy. People at my High school were wearing black trenches looong before that. If the shooters from Colombine were wearing Abercrombie and Fitch, it wouldn’t have made a diffrence. Hell, what if they were buck nekkid? Black clothes/trench coats != killers. Plain and simple truth. In fact, at my HS, all the people I know who dressed like that (and there were a lot) were the straight edge kids, and the Abercrombie and Fitchers were getting into fights and selling pot in the parking lots… and good friends with the school police officer. My point is, it ain’t the clothes. Its the people wearing them. (clothes don’t kill people, people kill people… Bad relic! Bad!)
Okay, then. Got 20 years of anger out. Now, it varies from state to state, and district to district, but when I was in High School ( 1977-1980 ) it was made painfully clear that in fact, we do NOT share the rights that adults share. One is bound by local laws, and the rules and guidelines as set out by the Administration.
LOooooooong before Columbine, etc. Districts are permitted to make policy. This person had the sheer balls to haul out the Manual of Policy, and call the pencil-dicked feebface on it. He was, in fact, in a public school, and was bound by laws different than those dealt with by adults out in the real world.
This is what we were told then. I do NOT ascribe to that. Neither does the A.C.L.U..
This interesting Paper from 1996 outlines some viewpoints on Constitutional Rights of School Students as well.
relic, I didn’t say that it’s the clothes that make the man. I don’t believe that in the least, but I will reitirate a common argument against the goth-style wearing youth who take offense to be associated with Columbine. It is a weird style, unique, but it is a symbol for a bad chapter in American high schools, even if only in one incident. The kids look like they are identifying with the Columbine assailants, what is on their personal agenda is unknown, but people naturally draw conclusions on such cases. It is a sad state of affairs but it is true.
But the thing is, some people really do think that dressing a certain way means something more than it does. And I really, really hate that!! I can see that a person wearing a shirt that says “I analy raped your family, and ate their brains!” Can be interpeted as someone you’d like to watch, but wearing jeans and a black tee-shirt saying "can’t sleep, clowns will eat me… " means nothing! Trench coats are a style that people find likeable (ooooh, I wish I had a black leather trench! drool), as is wearing dark clothing. All it says about them is their taste in clothing! That is MY take on it, anyway, and I’d like to see a cite that proves otherwise.
Again, I’m not directing this at you, K-web! It’s just a subject that is close to my heart, and a prejudice I’d like to erradicate.
K-web! I just looked at your profile, 7 posts on your first day, and GOOD posts too! You are going to be a fine upstanding member of the boards. I’m proud of you! Now, please don’t prove me wrong! (kidding, welcome!)
I am soooooo fucking glad I went to school in the tolerant 70’s. I didn’t have to put up with all of this bullshit.
Trench coats exist because they are one of the most practical pieces of attire in cold, inclement weather. Unfortunatly for today’s youth, they ten to come in onlt two different colors. Kids have the choice of looking like a “Dan Rather Dweeb” or a “Columbine Co-conspirater.” Some choice to make to keep warm and dry.
I live in the south, and I have a black overcoat. I only use it a couple of times a year, but I by God am going to be warm. Let the fucking profilers freeze their nuts off!
I am waiting for someone to come in here and say, well, technically you may have been in the right, but you were still a jerk for not just falling in line, I mean, what did you have to hide anyway?
I know what you mean, its just a bit of a sore spot for me.