Girl has uncle in Iraq. Girl makes red, white, and blue bead necklace to wear in his honor. School decides that’s intrinsically a gang-related thang, and orders her to take it off.
The school’s code of conduct states student’s jewelry “will be safe, appropriate and not … interfere with the educational process.” It also says “students will not wear any clothing deemed to be gang related.” The code of conduct does not explicitly mention beads or beaded necklaces. But school officials say the beads have been affiliated with gangs in the past. So they’re not allowed.
“We want to make sure that our students have options to express themselves, but it has to be done in a way that’s safe for everyone in the school building,? said Shari Greenleaf, the attorney for the city school district. […] School officials say the color red is often affiliated with one particular gang, and the color blue is often affiliated with another.
I suggest that the school issue gray jumpsuits and house the students in concrete cubicles to avoid any possibility that something that some gang member has worn at some time in the past might somehow make its way onto school grounds. But I guess it’s a good thing that the 4th of July doesn’t occur during the school year (and Flag Day is somehow passé and, well, of course, patriotic displays around Presidents Day are, no doubt, no longer seen as educationally sound or permissible.
Yeesh.
(via ThisIsTrue)
It reminds me of the time our superintendent of schools banned baseball caps because they could be used to deliver “gang signals.” This would be in a school deep in the Appalachian mountains with zero documented cases of gang violence and with a 96% redneck population — baseball caps were more necessary than underwear to these people.