13 year-old student gets detention for t-shirt

[Aletheia*]

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-bre...ory?hpt=us_bn6

Thoughts?

[ReluctantPegasister]

I thought the shirt was fairly innocuous. But then, some people get detention for hugging. Or chewing gum. I wasn't really surprised that it landed him in detention.

[✖Ice✖]

I know people who got suspended for wearing the american flag! nothing new

[Briana]

I thought the shirt would have said "I love boobies", which either way nothing wrong with it honestly. Teachers/principals are power hungry and anything they can do, to punish a kid, they will do it.

[Kira-Kira]

obviously it was for breast cancer like i think its ridiculous and its not like it was inappropriate there i dont agree with 3days detention thats messed up if you didnt like it one would be fine still not make since but fine but 3 thats going a lttle out there about it

[Marguerite]

I don't buy the whole blah blah blah schools can do whatever they want and you agree to follow their rules stuff.

A lot of these cases are on the edge. If someone starts wearing a shirt with the national flag on it, or some religious/political commentary, I see why the school would be wary of it. Not saying that wearing a flag or political T is inherently bad, you have to wonder what conflict the shirts could potentially start. If you're wearing a controversial shirt chances are you're trying to stir something. There is a time and a place for that, and school isn't the best place. If the school allows their kids to wear any shirt they want, including political ones, that's fine too. I don't have a problem with that either. Just saying while I don't completely agree with cencoring outfits students wear I understand where they are coming from in situations like that.

BUT, if you go to a school with no uniform policy (or at least no school uniform), you should be able to wear what you want within reason. The reason being that basically it's not a health and safety hazard, it's not offensive to anyone and it's not too revealing.

Now, I understand why some people might find this particular shirt offensive. But I think it's pretty tame and just using an phrase like that to get the message out there better. People are more likely to remember it than 'Donate to the Breast Cancer Foundation', or something similar. People are also a hell of a lot more likely to buy them which may sound kind of unfortunate but at least the money is going where it should. And again, it's pretty tame. It's not like 'Big or Small We Save Them All' is 'I LIKE TITTIES'.

I think when schools do things like this it's just silly because you can't protect kids from the real world. It's going to be too much of a culture shock when they leave. The school should also mind their own business, it should be up to the parents whether they allow their children to wear these shirts.

I've had two kinds of experiences with this kind of uniform policy. The first was at a (public) school with a uniform, where everyone used to wear badges. The badges where usually just smiley faces, funny phrases etc. I used to wear political ones. I got in trouble for a gay marriage one I used to wear. I could almost understand why this would be banned, given my reasoning earlier in the post and that we had a uniform. However, I was the only one singled out for wearing badges, and they acted like the content of the badge wasn't the issue. Even if it were purely the fact that it was political, I used to basically wear three a day, with slogans like 'Close Guantanamo' or 'Stop the Pulp Mill' (it was a long time ago, lol) and I wasn't told to stop wearing those ones.

The second one is my current (public) school (which I graduated today ). There is no uniform and it's so much more relaxed. My history teacher walks around in communist T Shirts and my legal studies/english teacher wears shirts with political comments such as photos of the first fleet with 'BOAT PEOPLE' written underneath (which I totally want by the way). Thing is, this school is great. It's pretty respectable. I've been to a lot of schools due to moving and other things and this is the best one by far, including a few private schools. The former one I mentioned is an absolute joke, it's known for how awful it is.

What I'm saying is that what someone wears is really of no consequence, the school doesn't go to shit because someone decides to wear a really tame BCA t shirt. Do schools have the right to tell people what to wear? Of course, nobody is saying they don't. Should they? No, not unless it's blatently offensive.

[BDF]

OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE RAISING BREAST CANCER AWARENESS ACTUALLY SPREADS BREAST CANCER TO THOSE WHO LOOK AT THE T-SHIRT.

DUH.

/end troll

[Aletheia*]

Originally Posted by BDF

OBVIOUSLY BECAUSE RAISING BREAST CANCER AWARENESS ACTUALLY SPREADS BREAST CANCER TO THOSE WHO LOOK AT THE T-SHIRT.

DUH.

/end troll

This made me giggle.

You all have some very good points. Thanks for your input!

I was mostly offended since he wasn't wearing the shirt for the hell of it. He was wearing the t-shirt for a family friend who is battling breast cancer. The school shouldn't have given him a 3-day detention. I can understand that they're frustrated since in the article it said that he refused to turn the t-shirt inside out. A 1-day detention, in school, would have sufficed better since he was only trying to bring awareness to his school, his friends and fellow students. He wasn't trying to hurt anyone, wasn't trying to offend anyone and the shirt didn't say "I love boobies". Some people are just a little sensitive these days.

[Snufkin]

I've never understood the idea of school uniform anyway. I think students should be encouraged to express themselves in every which way, including through their fashion sense. Unless they're wearing that Cradle of Filth t-shirt with a masturbating nun on it with the caption "Jesus is a cunt" I don't think they should be told off for something a little risqué, which I wouldn't even consider this t-shirt in question as being.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

I could understand the student getting in trouble if the shirt said something like, "SAVE TITTIES, THE WORLD NEEDS THEM" with a pair of titties pictured on the side. However, the t-shirt was nothing more than advertising for a campaign or charity and that may be against the rules.

When I was in grade 9, I wore a Captain Morgan's t-shirt to school for 1 day (a popular type of rum). A few students told me to turn it inside out because it somehow offended them, to which I refused. When a teacher told me to, I again said no but when told if I don't turn it inside out, I'll get a detention, I turned it inside-out. Since the t-shirt was thin and white, with the Captain Morgan's logo and parrot as bold colours, you could still see what it said, with some obstruction of minor details. The principal realized this so he told me to put some other clothing on but I had none, so I offered to go shirtless that way nobody would see the shirt. Of course that was against the rules, so the day was filled with prefects bickering to me (and me telling them their white shirts have a brown collar, hehe).

For the kid, if he turned it inside-out, you could probably still make out some of what it says on the t-shirt. It still generates attention, so his situation wouldn't have been affected much at all. I don't understand why he refused because he was in a win-win situation.

Originally Posted by From the article

This incident that occurred with the student which resulted in some minor disciplinary action is not directly related to any t-shirts students or the school.

Me thinks the Superintendent is trolling.

[Tynan]

I do like how everyone here raises the "omg all school higher ups are corrupt and power hungry jerks". The article never gave the reasons why he got detention. Maybe his shirt was against the school's dress code. The article also said that he was told to turn his shirt inside out and to remove a bracelet he was wearing. And no were else in the article did it say he followed that rule. So by that one part of the article to me he didn't get fully in trouble for the shirt but he got detention for not following what the principal told him.

So maybe before you get your panties in a bunch think about how he broke the rules and also didn't listen to what the principal said.

[Aletheia*]

Originally Posted by Shikamaru

I do like how everyone here raises the "omg all school higher ups are corrupt and power hungry jerks". The article never gave the reasons why he got detention. Maybe his shirt was against the school's dress code. The article also said that he was told to turn his shirt inside out and to remove a bracelet he was wearing. And no were else in the article did it say he followed that rule. So by that one part of the article to me he didn't get fully in trouble for the shirt but he got detention for not following what the principal told him.

So maybe before you get your panties in a bunch think about how he broke the rules and also didn't listen to what the principal said.

We don't know if he broke any rules by wearing the t-shirt in the first place. I can understand a detention for not obeying when the principal asked him to turn the shirt inside out. However, they didn't mention the dress code of the school, therefore we can't say if he were breaking any rules or not.

[Sincerely Yours ♥]

Originally Posted by Shikamaru

I do like how everyone here raises the "omg all school higher ups are corrupt and power hungry jerks". The article never gave the reasons why he got detention. Maybe his shirt was against the school's dress code. The article also said that he was told to turn his shirt inside out and to remove a bracelet he was wearing. And no were else in the article did it say he followed that rule. So by that one part of the article to me he didn't get fully in trouble for the shirt but he got detention for not following what the principal told him.

So maybe before you get your panties in a bunch think about how he broke the rules and also didn't listen to what the principal said.

I agree with this. This actually isn't very big news. Around here, it's against dress-code to wear "I <3 boobies" bracelets or anything similar & kids get the same punishment, or even worse. He was given a chance to avoid detention, & he didn't take it.

[dr2005]

If it is solely down to the T-shirt, that is pretty poor form - I've seen much worse being worn by kids in school to be honest.

[Cosmo]

*clicks link**realises it's FOX News*

*Shudders*

Anyway.... on the message itself, I don't like it. I agree with one of the commenters - it reduces women to a pair of breasts. It's saying "Let's save breasts" when it should be saying "let's save women". Personally I'd prefer "Let's save people from cancer" seeing as I find it highly offensive and ridiculous that Breast Cancer receives so much political, financial and public support when Prostate Cancer is just as prevalent in men as Breast Cancer is in women.

[Unicorn ♥✿]

It's a cute slogan Yes, the principal had the right to ask him to turn it inside out if he was unaware wha it really meant, but the kid could have explained, this is where the principal was wrong.