Should You Have The Right To Wear Any Tshirt You Want?

[Lil Red]

+J.M.J.+
[url="http://reason.com/news/show/124916.html"]This article argues yes.[/url]

It specifically mentions Rock for Life and the National Pro-Life T-shirt day!

[quote]Shouldn’t we take comfort in the fact that so many high school students are ready to fight for their right to champion the unborn, maternal hotties, and whatever else they can think of to test the limits of Tinker v. Des Moines? T-shirts may intrude upon our lives in the public sphere, but they’re also our most vivid reminder that free speech is woven into the fabric of our culture.[/quote]

it's not really a "pro-life" article, though.

[picchick]

I think that the founding fathers meant for freedom of speech to be one that is not insultive to the public. I think that pro-life shirts and shirts that show that you stand up for a cause is fine. I knew a kid who wore a pro-abstinence shirt to school on St. Valentine's Day. The teachers made him cover up the words with duct tape.

I do not like the fcuk shirts. Those are insultive. Even if it does not say the true curse people's minds can automatically switch the lettering. Anything that degrades another human being is insultive. Any t-shirt that can cause sin is insultive.

Meg

[ardillacid]

BONG HITS 4 JESUS!

[Mr.Cat]

The school administration must demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any restriction of a student’s free expression. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_v._Des_Moines_Independent_Communiy_School_District"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_v._Des...School_District[/url]

[Lil Red]

+J.M.J.+
[quote name='Mr.CatholicCat' post='1486129' date='Mar 27 2008, 05:13 PM']The school administration must demonstrate constitutionally valid reasons for any restriction of a student’s free expression. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_v._Des_Moines_Independent_CommuniSchool_District"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_v._Des...School_District[/url][/quote]
did you read the article? because he specifically talks about that court decision. (plus it was in the part of the article that i quoted)

[Legend Chaser]

Causes are great on shirts. Vulgarity is not. There is a point. Enforcing PG13ness on shirts in schools is absolutely within their bounds, but reducing freedom of speech in this manner is getting a little ridiculous.

[kujo]

No.

In high school, I was given a handbook which laid out what I was not allowed to wear to school: anything promoting or depicting alcohol, drugs, gangs, sex or vulgarity.

I have instances where I was asked to turn a shirt inside-out. The first was in 5th grade when I wore a South Park shirt:

[img]http://www.atrmerch.com/usrimage/southparklilledkenny.jpg[/img]

They asked me to turn it inside out. Now there's no alcohol, gangs, drugs, sex or vulgarity (unless they were upset about the "Oh My God" part). And I was savvy (and stubborn) enough to recognize this, so I said no. I was suspended for 3 days. Now, looking back, I understand where they were coming from...there's violence on the shirt.

But in high school, I had changed my tone. I wore this shirt for pro-life t-shirt day:

[img]http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/8122/americanlifeleague19909kg0.jpg[/img]

Again, I was asked to turn my shirt around and again I told them no. Only this time, they had no reason and they knew it (and so did I). Still, they threatened to send me home and bar me from prom, and I just looked them dead in the face and said "Go for it." Naturally, nothing happened and I was sent back to class.

[MissScripture]

I know of a student who was suspended because he wore a t-shirt that read "Remember August 6 and August 9, 1945."

[T-Bone _]

[quote name='MissScripture' post='1486789' date='Mar 28 2008, 11:20 AM']I know of a student who was suspended because he wore a t-shirt that read "Remember August 6 and August 9, 1945."[/quote]

You have to be kidding me.

[MissScripture]

That he wore it or that he got suspended? (Well, either way, I'm not kidding)

[T-Bone _]

I mean, what's so controversial about Ron Jones (British TV director) and Posy Simmonds (English cartoonist)?

[T-Bone _]

[quote name='MissScripture' post='1486794' date='Mar 28 2008, 11:24 AM']That he wore it or that he got suspended? (Well, either way, I'm not kidding)[/quote]

That he got suspended.

[picchick]

....why?

[Kitty]

I don't think schools bar shirts from the fact that they're controversial. I think they ban them to prevent a confrontation between students that could become violent.

[T-Bone _]

[quote name='Kitty' post='1487107' date='Mar 28 2008, 05:26 PM']I don't think schools bar shirts from the fact that they're controversial. I think they ban them to prevent a confrontation between students that could become violent.[/quote]

And yet, in most places, pro-gay shirts go unconfronted my the administration.

[Kitty]

It depends on the school. Have you been to "most schools" in this country?

[Fidei Defensor]

[quote name='picchick' post='1485970' date='Mar 27 2008, 03:44 PM']I think that the founding fathers meant for freedom of speech to be one that is not insultive to the public. I think that pro-life shirts and shirts that show that you stand up for a cause is fine. I knew a kid who wore a pro-abstinence shirt to school on St. Valentine's Day. The teachers made him cover up the words with duct tape.

I do not like the fcuk shirts. Those are insultive. Even if it does not say the true curse people's minds can automatically switch the lettering. Anything that degrades another human being is insultive. Any t-shirt that can cause sin is insultive.

Meg[/quote]
Fear of a word is silly.

[Socrates]

I say schools are perfectly within their rights to restrict wearing of "message tees" on school grounds, or to impose other dress codes (which until fairly recent decades were the norm in most schools.)
In the "old days" boys usually had to wear shirt and tie to school, girls skirt and blouse.

The idea that the first amendment right to free speech means total and aboslute "freedom of expression" is an invention of '60s-era Lefty politics.
Kids have no more "right" to wear obscene or offensive messages on their t-shirts than to spend the day screaming obscenities at people.

If people have an absolute right to "self-expression," then what's to prevent a student from coming to school in the buff as a form of "self-expression"? (I believe this was actually an issue on some college campuses.)

And I think most "free speech" liberals would be against kids kids wearing shirts with racist or even "anti-gay" statements on them to school.

I just think if schools ban shirts with certain "controversial" political messages, they should be consistant and ban all message tees, hats, etc., rather than only banning those they deem "controversial" or politically-incorrect.

Edited March 31, 2008 by Socrates