General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Junior high teacher tells kid to remove Marines t-shirt or get suspended (has guns on it) [View all]Nine
(1,741 posts)You yourself have said on this thread that the dress code is vague, ambiguous (probably by design), and a gray area. And yet you want to blame the teacher involved for having a different interpretation of what constitutes violent imagery than the superintendent. You want the teacher to be called into the principal's office and "counseled." You want the school to keep its eye on the teacher to make sure he doesn't try to retaliate. You say the teacher "failed the Washington Post test" as though he brought shame upon himself. All this for asking a kid to turn his shirt inside out during a busy school day. You say, oh the media is running with this because it's a slow news day - as though you yourself aren't making hay about this and using it to promote your own agenda.
And I highly doubt the teacher started off threatening suspension. More likely the kid was mouthing off and being insubordinate (something he should learn not to be if he's so enamored of the military) and the teacher had to resort to an ultimatum. Students are supposed to obey their teachers in school. There may be exceptional scenarios where disobedience is warranted but I don't think this was one of them.
This has nothing to do with anti-gun hysteria, anti-military sentiment, zero tolerance policies in schools, teacher abuses of students, freedom of expression through attire, or any other agenda people are trying to push. This was one teacher at one school in the entire nation making a reasonable judgement call during a busy school day. And since you like to use the phrase "delicate flowers" to describe people you disagree with, I would argue that the delicate flowers in this case were the ones who ran to the media to bawl about having to turn a shirt inside out without even trying to discuss it with anyone at the school.