15-year-old Sam Saurs, of Port Orchard, Washington not only wore a pair of spiky pumps to school, but a flowy, low-cut dress and make-up. He said he felt "pretty" that day, but the dean at Sedgwick Junior High School told him he was a distraction and to go home, Q13 Fox News reported. That prompted Saurs to tell the dean he was being sexist, the station said. That led to the boy's suspension for the rest of the school year, KING 5 reported. It was later reduced to three days. The ninth grader ended up missing the school's dance and annual trip to Wild Waves.
"If anything, it makes me want to be more out there and more spontaneous and crazy," Saurs told KING 5. The station reported the boy had been suspended before for wearing makeup and hats to school. His mother said the school does have a ban on hats, but no rule against boys in dresses.
And then, I read this...
BIG BEAR LAKE, CA - The Sheriff's Department wants all copies of Big Bear High School's 2011 yearbook returned after finding a photo in it that deputies said can be construed as child pornography. Sheriff's deputies launched an investigation Tuesday after they saw the photo, which appears to show a 17-year-old boy with his hand inside the clothing of a 15-year-old girl. "A lieutenant said the photo printed in the yearbook was taken at a dance. The (couple) are in the background of the photo and are not the intended focus of the photo," said sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman.
"When the photos were scanned and proofed by an adviser, they must have missed the photo," Bachman said. Most students have turned in their yearbooks so they can be edited, but some have not.
"At this time, anyone possessing the photograph should be on notice to turn in the photographs to school staff or the Sheriff's Department or risk potential criminal charges involving possession of child pornography," the Sheriff's Department wrote in a news release.
Child pornography? If that is the case, then the school system should be sued for sanctioning some sort of prostitution ring involving minors. I think the bigger problem is that adults have forgotten what it is like to be a kid. Putting your hand in a girl's skirt is a rite of passage for high school kids. In fact, a popular movie was centered around the concept, when Farmer Ted asked Samantha for her panties so that he could show his friends that he "did it" with her "without getting personal." The idea is as old as life itself.
Incidentally, the school is asking that the yearbooks be returned to the school. They would get mine over my dead body. If the school system can define pornography as two clothed children standing up, then I'd say I have a case to keep the yearbook with all the fond memories of what life in the United States was like in 2011.
It's bad enough that when I wear a pink shirt to work I get comments from my co-workers. If a kid wants to wear a dress to school, why should anyone object? We aren't asking other people to wear dresses or embrace their sexuality. Apparently, it isn't enough that we can ignore the behavior of other people. We feel the need to foist our opinions of what constitutes sexuality on others. If I based everything I believe on what other people found acceptable, I'd stay in my house every day because almost everything I say or do could offend one of these nitwits.
The so-called "officials" in the yearbook case say that no one has been arrested. No kidding. Are they going to start arresting kids for feeling-up their girlfriends? The only people left in school would be teachers and custodians. You can't start arresting kids for stuff that you only saw in a photo. If you weren't sharp enough to see it when it happened, admit that you were either ignoring it or too stupid to catch it and let it go.
From these two stories, it appears that the school systems in America are teaching our kids that they have to conform to society and stop reacting to their primal instincts. When they are adults they are allowed to succumb to advertising and its overtly sexual nature. Until then, they should behave themselves - unless there is a photograph to look back on. Merely because they sell skirts and high heels in the "woman's section" of clothing stores should not make them eligible to only be worn by women. If a kid wants (with the sanctioning of his parents) to wear a dress to school, why shouldn't he be allowed to do so?
Remember kids, you're Americans, and you have the freedom of speech and expression. And you'd better say what you're supposed to say and behave the way you are supposed to behave - or else there will be repercussions. We are only as free as we are allowed to be. Otherwise, you are going to have to be punished and fight your punishment in our expensive and time-consuming courtrooms. It's a valuable life lesson and should serve you well as you enter the corporate world where your freedoms are even more suppressed.
Better you learn it now than later, when it will cost you a job and money.
2 comments:
Thank you so much for keeping me up-to-date with modern American life!
I told these two stories to friends of mine. You should have seen the reactions on their faces. It was hilarious!
It's the beauty of the World Wide Web!
We're crazy-nuts over here, ain't we? :)
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