Lain

[Link]
---
Student Sent Home For '69' T-Shirt
Angry Mom Wants Suspension Expunged

POSTED: 8:32 am EDT May 23, 2008
UPDATED: 8:53 am EDT May 23, 2008
BOSTON -- A Billerica, Mass., mother is furious after her 14-year-old daughter was suspended for a day from her middle school for wearing a T-shirt that said "SOPHOMORE 69."

Christina Morrison, an eighth-grader at the Marshall Middle School, was sent to the office Tuesday when she arrived at school wearing the shirt. The assistant principal told Morrison and her stepfather that the shirt was "sexually explicit," and that she was being suspended for the day, the Lowell Sun reported.

The teen said she felt like crying because she only wore the shirt she'd recently purchased from a store called Urban Behavior because she liked it.

The school principal, Roland Boucher, said he wouldn't talk about the specific incident, but added that the school's dress code prohibits "any clothing that displays offensive language or images or suggests inappropriate or illegal behavior is not allowed in school."

An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said she believes such a dress-code clause would violate the state's Student Free Expression Act, which "protects even speech that could be considered 'vulgar, lewd or offensive' as long as it is not disruptive.

Morrison's mother, Kimberly Cifelli, said the school should apologize to her daughter and wants the suspension expunged from Morrison's record. She said she cannot imagine how the school can say the shirt is sexually explicit.
---

This reminds me of so many innocent words and possibly symbols that have been converted in to something sexual when it's not intended to be sexual. For instance, there's a good chance that someone would catch a snicker if you were to say that you were home one night and as bored as you are, playing with balls against the wall (which I meant those small bouncy ones that you find in the toy machine at the store for fifty cents) or having a pack of nuts or seeing so many boobies at once(and by that I actually mean the birds: Link).

While I understand on one end on how the powers that be have gotten used to the fact that the number 69 is a somewhat sex symbol in popular culture, at the same time, maybe that was never the shirt's attention. It's just a number. Same goes for 666, being the devil's number.

Sorry if my ramblings sound...odd.

vc318

Even as a teacher, I must say that the school went too far. I can understand sending her to the office but not to embarrass her and get her in trouble. The school could've easily given her a P.E. or school shirt to wear. Now this ridiculous thing is put on her record. Wow, this school must have time on their hands to entertain something as petty as this.

sunnykerr

I'd be curious to find out if there was a pre-existing list of banned symbols or T-shirt styles or whatever before she wore that.

Because, while I agree that it's always inappropriate to teach children/young adults by shaming them, high schools generally have a well established code of what isn't allowed in school.

At least mine did. And it didn't all make sense, like we weren't allowed shirts with flames on them or Rage Against the Machine shirts, but we were all well aware of the rules.

I do think that schools are getting ever more reactionary with these things. Suspending six-year-olds for kissing a classmate and sending students home for a shirt... it's all very strange to me.

Jen Jaree

Wow in eigth grade I didn't know what 69 was.

Lain

Slightly off the subject but when I was the first grade, I had no idea what was so bad about sticking the middle finger. But my classmate, who was a complete...er...vain one ratted me out twice so in total, I had to write in my notebook "I will not stick the middle finger" 200 times and had to have my mom sign it.

Luckily my mom didn't think too much of it because she probably knew I didn't know what it meant.

Sgt. Angle

This school went too far. I think just asking the girl to change shirts at school would have been better than sending her home. Besides, how do we know the shirt was about something nasty? I mean the girl's shirt could have been a reference to Woodstock.

sunnykerr

The girl's shirt was probably just one of those shirts with numbers on them. I'm watching the sixth season of Buffy right now and, every single episode, it seems like there's at least one character wearing a random numbered shirt. For no reason. For no special meaning.

It's just a shirt.

Of course, if the girl didn't know what it meant before, I'd love to have seen her parents' reaction when they had to explain it to her. Either way, she certainly knows what it means now.

Of course, since her school is likely not teaching proper sex ed, none of this really helps her in the end.

Sgt. Angle

Isn't freedom of speech and expression of students in school limited? Seems like it's always been that way.

fetch

I agree. They could have told her not to wear the shirt again. Then, if she failed to listen, only then suspend her.

jalapeno_wildchild

me either. i'm suprised the principal knows

migamoo

Obviously I think we all know why the girl was suspended, but I have to agree, was there anything really sexual about the shirt? It just says a number. It's up to the person reading the shirt to put any connotation into it. I'm sure the girl didn't and wouldn't wear the shirt to school if she did.

sunnykerr

So then the only thing is if the school had that specific number down as a prohibited symbol to wear on a shirt.

Because you would get sent home for wearing a "banned" symbol at my school. We didn't have gym shirts, so they couldn't make us change. So they'd just send us home.

But you kinda had to know ahead of time that it would happen. High school is not a place where breaking the rules that actually clearly laid out is something you can get away with.

migamoo

Right, unless the school specifically banned the number "69" from being worn, they did wrong. I know if someone did this when I was high school, they would never have been sent home, but given another shirt. Or someone from their house was to bring them a new shirt. They were not about to send a child home if they didn't have to.

iheartjustinchambers

ME EITHER

sunnykerr

Well, I'm pretty sure I did, but I don't think that means I would have ALWAYS associated that number with that meaning...

I mean, I'm not particularly knowledgeable when it comes to sports, for instance, but there's got to be a couple of players out there who have worn that number. I'm sure some people have fond memories of the year. It can be an address... It can be a lot of things other than sexual.