At Alpena High School in Alpena, Michigan, there are a couple of school
administrators who believe that the word "sucks" is "inappropriate" language
. They therfore consider it swearing and you get reprimanded in you say it.
A kid wore a shirt to school with the word "sucks" on it and they made him
turn it inside out. This seems stupid in the first place, but it really
was stupid because it actually said "racism sucks" , a good message. But 
because of the forbidden "s" word which we now refer to as "forcefully in-
haled", the t-shirt was taboo.

What do you think about this?

40 responses total.

While I often get tired of hearing the word sucks excessively, I wouldn't
infringe on anybody's right to say it.  Furthermore, when administrators
have the right to dictate speech on shirts, they can then move from
regulating words they don't like to banning opinions they don't like.  And
if it starts on shirts, it can spread to bans on other things.  It's a
very dangerous slippery slope.  Unfortunately, there's not too much you
can do about it easily, although you might have  a case if you took i tto
court.  The best defense against something like that is just to refuse to
follow the directions.  No school wants the publicity of having suspended
somebody because of the wording on their shirt.

I suppose I would have told them to go to hell had they told me to turn
my shirt inside out, but then I was anything but a 'good' kid in high school.
It's just plain stupid.

I know somene who brought a cane to school one day, and was told that he
wasn't allowed to bring it.  Since ther is nothing of the sort in the
school rules, he refused to stop bringing it, and kept bringing it every day
for a while.   He told me that he would have stopped if they had just admitted
that it  wasn't in the rules and that they were just making an arbitrary
decision, but they kept insisting that it was in the rules.  I don't know how
it ended.

Steve, the slippery slope concept is fallacious, and its use implies that
there is no personal threshold of tolerance or intolerance in any person
or organization which makes revolutionary, even if minor, changes in policy.

Where do you draw the line, Eric?  My experience with what's been
happening at Community lately, if not with a dress code, is that the
slippery slope comes into play very easily when making what start out as
minor rules that people almost don't notice.

There is a difference between a slippery slope and an agenda.  An agenda to
the uninitiated may look like a slippery slope, especially if it is cunningly
pursued.

A common tactic is to create a rule, law, regulation, or ordinance, then not
enforece it for a year or two, then when enforcing it say, "it's been on the 
books for a couple of years, where have you been?" or something like that.

Speaking of this topic, has everyone heard of the new rule at Pioneer?
You are no longer allowed to wear gloves in the school building, 
because they are seen as "gang symbols."  Naturally there are those who
are adamantly opposed to such a rule, and I've heard some pretty
interesting arguments against it.  I have yet to hear a good argument for
it.  

Reductio ad absurdam!!!!!!!!!!!

flem, it sounds like another walk-out might be in order. I feel more strongly
than ever that the practices of your current administration are paranoid and
unwarranted, and that they reflect the views of people who are well past
their prime as effective administrators for Pioneer High School.
Diplomatically, I'd see them reassigned elsewhere in the AAPS where they're
more needed.

Oh Carson, will you ever let that horrible place go?  I mean, it's been
over a year now.  

     And I could be mistaken, but wasn't the last walk-out a humiliating
display and an over-all failure?

what do you mean?

I always run in the hall, seeing as there is no rule about it in the books.
I checked. When they say slow down, I just whiz by them and yell "There's no
rule against it!" but then they knab me for yelling, its disruptive.

I have a kind of strange schedule this year -- four hours and a sixth hour
twice a week -- which means I usually spend fifth hour sitting quietly in
the hall somewhere, reading or doing homework or something.  I don't think
I can count the number of times I've been reprimanded for the crime of
being in the hall.  Technically it is against the rules, I suppose, but I
think the hall monitors could find better things to do.  I mean, I'm not
smoking anything, I'm not making any noise, I'm not making a mess, I'm not
being particularly rude or disruptive.  I'm just sitting there.  But I'm
IN THE HALL.  <sigh>  Well, I've survived Pioneer for three years, I guess
I can make it another few months.  I think...

sure, you can, sara.  We'll help however we can.  I still think you should
come sit in the band room.  Mr A. really won't bite your head off.

Carson, I don't think you'll get any argument from me about the quality
(or lack thereof) of the administration at Prisoner High school.
They won't even let us leave the lunchroom during lunch, even to go talk
to a teacher.  It really is starting to feel like a jail.

don't worry...college is a LOT better.  <but I couldn't believe how long
it took to get used to people wearing baseball caps to class!>

flem, swa, you need to start smoking in the halls. parade nude. leave
metronomes going in your lockers. roll bowling balls down the hall during
class time. sing the national anthem before the start of every class.
honk your horn as you approach your school. eat lunch with your principals.
give presents to your teachers. make sure you've got a 4.0 as you do all
of this.

I'll pass on the smoking and nudity.  The rest sounds cool, tho.

I know a kid who got suspended for writing "MEAT HOOK SODOMY" in big letters
on the inside of his locker, in permanent marker. He deserved it.

Gee, my senior year in High School, I had two lockers because someone in a 
previous year had ripped out the wall between them...

re #18: I put the word "sodomy" in a newspaper and graduated!

         well, pribly not *because* of that, but you get the picture...

         no one ever looked at my locker. not even me.

I have a locker.  It won't open.  I've never seen the inside of it.  
I don't really care, 'cuz I wouldn't use it anyway.

I have and use a locker.  I think the worst thing I've put in there so far
is a tangerine (probably moldy by now), but I'm open to suggestions...

Can you imagine what Dr. Jones would do if the entire student body paraded
nude down the halls?  The mind boggles.

he'd take pictures, of course.

did I ever tell you about the time I saw Dr. Jones and Mr.
Hayward coming out of the administrative wing with Dr. J
adjusting his pants? I remember making a lewd remark at the
time to the two of them being butt buddies, but I digress.

Uh, no... I don't think you did.

If the Dr. Jones at issue is the principal of Pioneer, then I met same when he
came to the theatre while we were loading in the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
He seemed like a bland, genial, total bureaucrat who only popped in to see
what this bunch of freaks was doing in his school.  But that's just what he
seemed like to me...   (Of course the only people there were the Theatre Guild,
myself, and the two technical members of the Troupe.)

I think other hinted at an administrative technique I call "selective
enforcement" earlier in this item. 

I did?  where?

        I have a locker.  I've opened it once this year.  I don't even
remember which locker it is, let alone the combination, but I do have it
written down somewhere.
        If I'm remembering correctly from a few years ago when we were
going over the discipline policy with a fine toothed comb, there is no
rule against parading naked in the halls, as long as nobody tells you not
to.  Actually, if they didn't get rid of it, all the dress code says is
that students who woe clothing that was judged (in any school employee's
opinion) to be inappropriate, they can be asked to remove the offending
garment.

Hmm... Maybe I'll go to school naked tomorrow.

general:  Let us know what happens.
I''m afraid I approve of most of Northwestern's practices, so I can't
really add much.  Like I said, college is *much* more permissive than
high school.

When I was in Evanston a few days ago, the people I was talking to didn't
approve of some of NorthWestern's practices.  The complaint that really
stuck in my mind was that they don't allow non students on campus after
dark, but there were also some others that I don't remember.

Vassar was the same way, with the exception of those who carried guest passes
signed by their host within the college community.  The reasons for this are
many, mostly having to do with the security of students and staff and f
facilities in an era of concern.
I was a member of a student org there which patrolled campus at night to make
certain that if anyone needed assistance, it was available.  We locked up
buildings at night, helped with evacuations in the event of emergency, and
provided quick response to assault and medical emergencies.  Many of the
patrollers were EMT's and all were given a rape crisis training seminar.
Closing campus does limit the scope of certain campus entertainments, but
usually there were dispensations to the policy for concerts and events so that
they could be publicly accessible, like when They Might Be Giants played at
the College Center.
        In general, I think it is a sound policy, not only for the safety of
all concerned, but in limiting theft and vandalism as well.

This is my locker. There are many others like it but this one is mine.
(If you don't get this joke, there's this big thing marines have to memorize
about their rifles which starts out like that. I guess I'm a dweeb but I got
a kick out of it.)

That's all right.  I'm a nerd.  I've known that for years.  

At least I'm not one of those potbellied, big afro looking, dumb ugly,
treekkie net surfer nerds, (and believe me I thought this was only a stereo
type until I MET one of them.

Go 'head, face!

Go forward with a galliant fist or somethging like that.

go west young man!

Uh...lemme see..... that's...... Horace Greeley!  Right?   What do I win?!

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