# "You shouldn't be gay" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 2, 2008, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962 "2008-02-02T05:47:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/1 "2008-02-02T05:47:44Z")
Screw you Mr. David Davis. What right do you have to harm the children you are charged to care for. [http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/15079096.html](http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/15079096.html) Apparantly he makes fun of people with Down’s syndrome as well, calling them “retards”. Class act all the way, asswipe. I know the dope has rules about posting e-mail addresses, but I will note that Mr. **David Davis** , principal of \*\*Ponce De Leon High School \*\* in \*\*Florida \*\* has a public e-mail address that is easy to google with just a couple of key words. Even better, there is a link to his superiors at the district on the school’s site. I know I have excercised my 1st amendment rights and I hope there are others who might do the same. This douchebag needs to be kept away from children forever. I am not gay, but I have been on the recieving end of the psychological torture that these types of “educators” like to practice, and this fills me with rage. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/2 "2008-02-02T06:04:25Z")
After reading a few of the comments, I’m going to have to side with the principal on this one. [QUOTE=Joseph Garner - Ponce de Leon] Ok first i just got to say i agree with Mr. Davis and the people behind him. I also think all this is stupid all they want is attention. If they are gay then ok let them be but goin around school with stuff written on ther forehead that is just wanting attention. Mr. Davis is a smart man and principle and has did the right thing so far. Them goin around school with rainbow belts and stuff on there forehead was a distraction in school and so Mr. Davis took it in his on hands and did what was right for his school. Doin all that is just like me running around with t-shirts sayin im straight don’t hate that would be stupid and i would just be wanting attention. My opinion is that yall need to quit bein baby’s and grow and know that the world don’t revolve around yall so drop it. All yall want is attention and yall say Mr. Davis should leave no maybe yall should leave cause yall are the one **makein it hard to concentrate in school**. [/QUOTE] I think that it’s pretty obvious that he has not been able to concentrate in school for the past several years. Probably blinded by rainbow belts. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/3 "2008-02-02T06:06:00Z")
Yes!..not In Texas!!! ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/4 "2008-02-02T06:11:10Z")
By reading the comments attached to that story, one wonders why spell checking software is not available for purchase in the state of Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/5 "2008-02-02T06:19:56Z")
Eh, Florida schmorida. It’s the panhandle, or as we Orlandoish types like to call “lower Alabama.” Mmm… watermelon country. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/6 "2008-02-02T06:30:10Z")
> [@Happy Wanderer](#): > > Apparantly he makes fun of people with Down’s syndrome as well, calling them “retards”. Class act all the way, asswipe. Sorry, I didn’t see that in the story. Was that something you gleaned from the Comments section (TLDR, well I didn’t read _all_ of it; just some self-preservation at work)? Or does it appear in another source, and, if so, would you be good enough to post a link? I must say, the principal sounds like a piece of work, based on the story as it appears in the link. OTOH, I note that the link is to a TV newscast’s website. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/7 "2008-02-02T06:44:43Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] Sorry, I didn’t see that in the story. Was that something you gleaned from the Comments section (TLDR, well I didn’t read _all_ of it; just some self-preservation at work)? Or does it appear in another source, and, if so, would you be good enough to post a link? I must say, the principal sounds like a piece of work, based on the story as it appears in the link. OTOH, I note that the link is to a TV newscast’s website. [/QUOTE] It was in comments, possibly from another site belonging to a local paper. I hope this story goes national. Other students have commented that the guy gets off on starting trouble. Well, he’s started it allright. I say let him taste it. Enforcing policy is one thing but telling a student that they “Shouldn’t be gay” is just too much. He “Shouldn’t be in an Education Career”. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/8 "2008-02-02T07:06:41Z")
The problem is that I believe (and lawyers can correct me if I’m wrong) the court has found that minors do not have 1st Amendment rights in speech and dress while they are in school, so no matter how stupid I think the Principle’s statements are, I’m not sure they are basis for a free speech lawsuit. IANAL, I welcome correction on this. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/9 "2008-02-02T07:42:07Z")
The bit with the Downs syndrome namecalling comes from a comment by “concerned mother” at PDL: > [@](#): > > Mr Davis just needs to go away. That man is a disgrace to our School. He don’t only pick on and make ugly comments about the Gay but he also has made remarks to a friend of mine about her child being Down Syndrome!!!. His words were I can’t help you have a Retarted child that is a personal problem. Deal with it. First of all Down Syndrome Children can learn just like any other child.Down Syndrome Children are very special and very smart.When people say Down Syndrome they always think STUPID! WRONG ANSWER… Down Syndrome or any other special needs child like 9PMinus, Autisim, Etc. have the right to learn just like everybody else. they are not retarted or stupid. They are very smart people and if we would all take time to listen and watch we all could learn a whole lot from our special needs people.Mr. Davis needs to take some lessons from people with special needs he would become a better man. Any child special needs , Gay, or whatever the case is a person who has rights to learn ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/10 "2008-02-02T08:05:57Z")
I reviewed several of the Supreme Court’s decisions on free speech for a paper last semester, and found that student free speech is only unprotected when it interferes with a public school’s academic mission. Which this absolutely does not. In fact, IIRC, the free speech of a group of students with a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” (which was either intentionally inflammatory or devoutly Rastafarian, and how many devout Rastafarians have you met in American high schools?) was protected at a school-sponsored event just because it didn’t occur during class time or some such thing. So minors certainly do not have their free speech rights stripped away simply on account of being under 18, and the case has to be pretty compelling for the Supreme Court to cancel those rights even during school activities. By “pretty compelling”, I mean that if the student didn’t blatantly commit the action in question _specifically to troll_–and, in many cases, even if they did–it’s an automatic win for the student or at least a very tough case for the school. And as a volunteer at my former high school’s Gay/Straight Alliance, let me say that I’m really disappointed that this has happened in the first place and that it’s as much of an uphill battle as it seems to be. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/11 "2008-02-02T10:50:12Z")
Oh fuck those comments are depressing. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/12 "2008-02-02T11:43:00Z")
[QUOTE=olivesmarch4th] Oh fuck those comments are depressing. :mad: [/QUOTE] Yep. Chances are the district bigwigs, the typical voter, and most of the faculty down there are probably all right on board with this kind of thing. Lotsa rednecks in Florida. Just becuase it has Disney World doesn’t mean the rest of the state isn’t part of the south. And there are lots of old people that think Pat Robertson can heal their kidney through the teevee and that God is going to send a meteor to punish the Disney Company for hiring fags. :rolleyes: /Florida is the only state with it’s own FARK tag for a reason ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/13 "2008-02-02T11:53:38Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] The problem is that I believe (and lawyers can correct me if I’m wrong) the court has found that minors do not have 1st Amendment rights in speech and dress while they are in school, so no matter how stupid I think the Principle’s statements are, I’m not sure they are basis for a free speech lawsuit. IANAL, I welcome correction on this. [/QUOTE] > **[Home - Boston College](https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web.html)** > > Boston College, the first institution of higher education to operate in the city of Boston, is today among the nation’s foremost universities, a leader in the liberal arts, scientific inquiry, and student formation. > [@](#): > > First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/14 "2008-02-02T14:20:21Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Wanderer] What right do you have to harm the children you are charged to care for. [/QUOTE] It may not be about rights, **HW**. Just power, and sadism. Many people who get into teaching do it for laudable reasons, and with the best of intentions. Not all, however. What is particularly sad and infuriating, is that I can believe this asswipe actually believes his intentions are laudable. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/15 "2008-02-02T15:05:59Z")
[QUOTE=Happy Wanderer] Yep. Chances are the district bigwigs, the typical voter, and most of the faculty down there are probably all right on board with this kind of thing. Lotsa rednecks in Florida. Just becuase it has Disney World doesn’t mean the rest of the state isn’t part of the south. And there are lots of old people that think Pat Robertson can heal their kidney through the teevee and that God is going to send a meteor to punish the Disney Company for hiring fags. :rolleyes: **Florida is the only state with it’s own FARK tag for a reason** [/QUOTE] My bolding. If you don’t know about Florida’s Farkiness you can Google on Fark to understand Happy Wanderer’s comment, or you can just click on the link below. [http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/29/Floridian/The\_big\_squeeze.shtml](http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/29/Floridian/The_big_squeeze.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/16 "2008-02-02T15:07:26Z")
[QUOTE=bdgr] > **[Home - Boston College](https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web.html)** > > Boston College, the first institution of higher education to operate in the city of Boston, is today among the nation’s foremost universities, a leader in the liberal arts, scientific inquiry, and student formation. > [@](#): > > First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. [/quote] I was inaccurate in my first post when I said “the court has found that minors do not have 1st Amendment rights in speech and dress while they are in school”, a better way to express what I meant would be “Schools have the right to limit a student’s 1st Amendment rights to free speech while they are at school”; and the link you’ve provided seems to support that: > [@](#): > > After an evidentiary hearing the District Court dismissed the complaint. It upheld [505] the constitutionality of the school authorities’ action on the ground that it was reasonable in order to prevent disturbance of school discipline. 258 F.Supp. 971 (1966). The court referred to but expressly declined to follow the Fifth Circuit’s holding in a similar case that the wearing of symbols like the armbands cannot be prohibited unless it “materially and substantially interfere[s] with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.” Burnside v. Byars, 363 F.2d 744, 749 (1966). Right? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/17 "2008-02-02T15:21:46Z")
[QUOTE=Annie] By reading the comments attached to that story, one wonders why spell checking software is not available for purchase in the state of Florida. [/QUOTE] It is. The programmers all went to UF. _\_ ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/18 "2008-02-02T18:13:28Z")
[QUOTE=Wheeljack] Eh, Florida schmorida. It’s the panhandle, or as we Orlandoish types like to call “lower Alabama.” Mmm… watermelon country. [/QUOTE] Yeah . . . Holmes County? Might as well _be_ Alabama. > [@Happy Wanderer](#): > > Lotsa rednecks in Florida. Just becuase it has Disney World doesn’t mean the rest of the state isn’t part of the south. And there are lots of old people that think Pat Robertson can heal their kidney through the teevee and that God is going to send a meteor to punish the Disney Company for hiring fags. I take serious exception to your characterization of my home. It’s not the “rest of the state”. There are threeish distinct areas in Florida, and only 1 of them is in the south. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/19 "2008-02-02T18:59:18Z")
> [@](#): > > The A-C-L-U…The A-C-L-U…1-dollar What the hell? Did the ‘-’ key on an editor’s keyboard get stuck or something? ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962/20 "2008-02-02T21:35:12Z")
Oh sweet Jesus… I thought the comments from an ALLEGED high school student were bad, but that parent takes the cake. Did none of these people ever darken the doorstep of a classroom? If my eight year old wrote like that, he’d have a tutor in a New York minute. And I live in CA, where we are 46th out of the 50 states in spending per child. Yeah, my kids go private… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shouldnt-be-gay/435962.md?page=2)