I’ve been a teacher since 1985. I also worked a bit as a deputy sheriff along the way. This would be, at best, an empty threat. If the police show up at all, which I very, very seriously doubt they would do, they will quite likely treat shirtboy as an annoyance. Cops get pissy pretty easily, but their pissiness meter completely pegs with people who they think are trying to use them for the playing of personal games.
Realistically, what did you picture the cops doing after shirtboy calls them?
Wait, why would it be a joke or spam?
I doubt the cops would be much help in these types of cases. To them you’re just an 18-year-old punk trying to stick it to the man. Even if they’re inclined to do anything (and that’s pretty big if) they’d probably end up siding with the school anyway.
ETA: Or what Scumpup said above.
Because it got most people to click on the vendor’s site - although if it was intended to get people to wander the site and buy things they should have linked to the actual merchandise page. Viral marketing can be clever, but this doesn’t feel like it to me.
Moving to IMHO from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Just trying to clarify. Assuming that Chillafrilla does have a legal right to get his property back (and given the cites to laws regarding the special status of school districts to confiscate property, this is still a questionable assumption), most police officers would actually choose to not enforce a law because it causes them some personal annoyance?
I’m in California and it is my property don’t they need a warrant or something to confiscate something personal ?
Given a choice between supporting an 18-year-old high school student (with attitude) and supporting a high-school principal (who calmly explains that they are trying to maintain discipline in the school) – yes, most cops will take the principal’s side, regardless of legal technicalities. Is that really surprising?
If you bring material onto public school property that is a violation of the school rules, yes it can be confiscated.
If you bring your personal gun onto school property, they can confiscate it.
If you bring pornographic material onto school property, they can confiscate it.
If you bring tobacco products onto school property, they can confiscate it.
All of those items are legal for an 18 year old person to posess on their own property. The distinction is they violated the school rules by bringing those items onto school property.
Based on shirtboy’s nearly unreadable OP, I don’t see that he has made any attempt to recover his shirt. He has, apparently, no knowledge of the district policies and state laws that apply. Of what, exactly, is he going to accuse her?
I wonder if he has tried anything really crazy yet, like going to the principal’s office after dismissal so that he can request his shirt and take it home? We confiscate stuff in schools pretty routinely. Items that are not illegal, but merely contraband, are returned to the parents of juvenile students.
They might be required to give you back the shirt if you want it, but no, they don’t need a warrant or anything like that. You’re a student in a school. This was partially explained upthread, but schools are allowed to act in the place of a parent (in loco parentis) regarding students. So, like your parents, they’re allowed to tell you where you have to be, what you can wear, and so on. You don’t have any kind of right to wear that shirt and they are allowed to regulate your clothes.
I’m very sympathetic to student rights in most cases, but are you kidding? You really thought the school was going to be OK with a shirt that shows a picture of a woman masturbating? It’s not hurting anyone, but I can’t believe you thought you were going to get away with that.
Wow, I’ve thought for a while that you don’t learn much in high school these days. But, Chilla, if you learn to choose your battles, learn to empathize with people who don’t share your values, learn to take a critical look at your own values, learn when to chill, when to apologize, when to laugh at yourself … and when to stop being a punkass …
… then you’ll probably learn more from this incident than you will in any class.
(this public service announcement brought to you by a recovering punkass)
Holy crap, kudos to all you people who could actually read the first post. I got halfway through before my eyes started bleeding.
If and when you return to the office to get your karmaloop shirt, remember that they provided you with another and that it needs to be returned to them as well.
Round these parts, the solution is to make the offender wear the shirt inside out. No confiscation of property.
You’re 18 and old enough to know it would offend, and how it’s offensive. It’s disingenuous to pretend you wore this shirt for any other reason than to get attention. Congratulations on that. Alas, it is the nature of attention whoring that you cannot always say what the nature of the attention will be.
Makes me think of the 2 yr old, who’s weary father has just arrived home, so in need of that attention that, if ignored, will misbehave, insuring attention of the scolding, or punishing kind, which is still better than no attention at all.
Grow up!
Out of curiosity, how did the principal know that you were wearing it, assuming you go to a large public school? You were probably reported by another student or a teacher, correct? If someone else feels it necessary to report you to anyone, that should be a pretty damn big red flag for you to at least question your actions.
As a student you do have rights. However, so do all the other students in the school. They have the right to an environment conducive to learning, just as you do. Your shirt detracts from that environment. Therefore you should not have worn it and, if you showed the poor judgment to do so anyway, it should be turned inside out or taken away, just like you’d do for any other immature kid demonstrating irresponsible behavior to get attention. Screaming, “My rights have been violated!” like freakin’ Scarlet O’Hara (assuming you can affect a passable Southern accent and swoon) is beyond ridiculous.
And I seriously doubt the police will give a rat’s ass that an inappropriate $15 tee-shirt was “stolen” by your principal if you were so immature as to wear it to school in the first place. They’ve got more important things to worry about. If you must escalate the issue (meaning, if your principal refuses to give it back), go to the school board.
I think the controlling legal principle here was set by the landmark case of Adolescence v. Reality.
The case is appealed pretty much every month or so, but has been consistently upheld. It rests on the legal principle “Propinquus vestri os, bardus parvulus, quoniam nemo volo audire vestri lacuna”.
Regards,
Shodan
I think the O.Ps a whoosh.
An 18 year old with that level of literacy AND doesn’t realise that wearing a a shirt demonstrating masturbation is liable to incur consequences?
If this isn’t a joke (and I genuinly think that it is ) the O.P. certainly needs help but not with getting his T-shirt back.
I think wearing that shirt was a deliberate attempt to challenge the school. Porn is in the eyes of the beholder and I doubt they can legally defend their decision on that basis. But they don’t have to. They can say you were being deliberately disruptive and prevail.
No, I’ve had children make their way through adolescence, and the tone of righteous outrage in the OP sounds quite realistic to me. Hopefully, when he’s few years older, Mr Chillafrilla will be beyond this stage in his life.