Of Course She Should Be Allowed to Wear Her Shirt

Filed under:Church of Liberalism,Politics,Priorities — posted by Anwyn on March 24, 2007 @ 12:00 am

I have a different issue: How exasperated must it make the teachers when kids can refuse to speak in class or answer direct questions by hiding behind a school-sanctioned–and thus by the standards of the church & state crowd, government-sanctioned–political opinion?

On the Day of Silence, students can refrain from speaking as an effort to protest discrimination against homosexuals.

In response to a Day of Silence event at the school in April 2006, Zamecnik wore a shirt that read “MY DAY OF SILENCE, STRAIGHT ALLIANCE” on the front and “BE HAPPY, NOT GAY” on the back, according to the suit filed Wednesday.

According to the suit, one school administrator ordered Zamecnik to remove the T-shirt and another official ordered her to cross out “NOT GAY” with a marker.

Sauce, goose, gander. If the school sanctions a “form of speech,” again lifting from the crowd that is the most zealous about defining the terms, that supports a particular viewpoint, surely they must allow speech on different viewpoints as well. A T-shirt does not rise to the level of “discrimination,” and gee, even if it did, wouldn’t that just give the protesting students somebody to practice their silent treatment on? Win-win! (Sarcasm, for the humor-impaired.)

Let the girl wear her shirt or kick the whole thing to the boundary line of the school property. Who’s being silenced here?

2 comments »

  1. Link is broken.

    And, yup… Let her wear the shirt.

    Comment by Allen — March 24, 2007 @ 10:04 am

  2. Fixed. Thanks.

    Comment by Anwyn — March 24, 2007 @ 10:18 am

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image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace