No "Queer Eye" at Missouri High School

[Pookie]

This was from before the election, but it's fitting considering we now have the religious right running the country for four more years ...

ACLU Scolds Missouri High School for Censoring Gay Student

October 29, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WEBB CITY, MO - The American Civil Liberties Union has come to the defense of a high school junior who was sent home twice from school for wearing t-shirts bearing gay pride messages. The principal cited concerns that other students may be offended by the shirts worn by Brad Mathewson.

"This school allows its students to freely express their views on gay and lesbian rights - but only if they’re on the anti-gay side of the issue," said Jolie Justus, a member of the legal panel for the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri, noting that bumperstickers in favor of Missouri’s recently-passed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment are ubiquitous in the school’s hallways and parking lot. "This is a classic case of censorship. Brad Mathewson has the same Constitutional right to political speech and expression that the Supreme Court says all students have."

Mathewson was sent to the principal’s office by his homeroom teacher on October 20 after she spotted his t-shirt. The shirt bears the name of the Gay-Straight Alliance at his old high school in Fayetteville, Arkansas (FHS Gay-Straight Alliance), a pink triangle, and the words, "Make a Difference!" When an assistant principal saw it, he told Mathewson to go home and change shirts because someone might be offended by it. Although Mathewson pointed out the anti-gay marriage stickers seen throughout the school, his concerns were ignored. Mathewson was again disciplined when he came to school on October 27 wearing a t-shirt featuring a rainbow and the phrase, "I’m gay and I’m proud."

"Even though nobody complained about my t-shirts, my school told me I couldn’t wear them just because someone might get offended," said Mathewson, a junior at Webb City High School. "But every day I see students at my school with anti-gay stickers on their notebooks and sometimes on their shirts, and I find that offensive. I understand that they have a right to express what they think, but I have a right to do the same thing."

Mathewson and his mother met with school officials yesterday morning to express their concerns about the censorship. In the meeting, two assistant principals and the principal told Mathewson that they wouldn’t allow him to wear shirts bearing gay pride messages because they feared it would cause controversy.

In a letter sent late yesterday to school, the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri pointed to the school’s dress code policy, which only states that students’ clothing must be "free of obscene or suggestive markings, advertisements of tobacco, alcoholic beverages, drugs, and/or other products deemed inappropriate by school officials." The ACLU demanded that officials remove any mention of the incident from Mathewson’s records and allow him to wear the shirts without fear of punishment.

"You can’t trample someone’s First Amendment rights just because someone might take offense at what that person has to say," said Dick Kurtenbach, Executive Director of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri. "Schools that unlawfully censor students’ views should be given an F in civics."

The recently formed LGBT Task Force of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri is working with the national ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project in handling Mathewson’s complaint.

...

The text of the letter sent to Webb City school officials is as follows: ...

http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=16915&c=106

 

[superman_cock]

I live like 10 minutes from this city and was SO pissed off when I heard about this. I thought about contacting the kid for some 'feel better' time lol. He has been so stressed out, I bet.

 

[Regis2001]

Schools can be bloody stupid about Gay rights sometimes. It beats me why they even bother trying to discipline people on these issues - better just to let everyone get on with their lives and leave it until things really become disruptive to intervene.

 

[Lightning]

Schools can be bloody stupid about Gay rights sometimes. It beats me why they even bother trying to discipline people on these issues - better just to let everyone get on with their lives and leave it until things really become disruptive to intervene.

No shit. Oh well. Schools have gone downhill for a while in my opinion. Like corporations, they're too worried about protecting/limiting/hiding from themselves or for others (students), that they're not focused on teaching as much anymore.

I'm not saying that public school is bad, just that like anything else, you need to pick the right one... after doing some basic homework.

Oh well. I can only hope that this turns out good for the kid.

 

[CJontherocks]

This should be a crime. People in a position to make a difference in the world, and they use it to further their own agendas or squash the rights and liberties of those who will someday challenge that position.

The cool thing is, by doing so they'll garner more opposition than support. I just hope it's enough.

 

[Pookie]

I've really become disillusioned over the past two weeks. It's so difficult for me to understand how so many millions of people can vote in favor of discrimination. And then shit like what happened in this school happens over and over and over ... all of it rooted in hatred and ignorance. I just can't understand how people who preach about freedom for foreign countries can be so willing to take it away from their very own citizens.

 

[Regis2001]

*Sigh.*

Look, perhaps it has escaped the attention of many people, but the average American voter didn't even think of discrimination when they went to the polls. They may have voted for a candidate who will pursue a discriminatory agenda, but that wasn't their goal.

Bush won the election not because he was anti-gay, but because he presented himself as a war leader. The electorate weren't voting on civil rights, nor on health, nor on welfare, nor on anything else. They voted based on the war, both in Iraq and on terrorism. To be frank, a lot of people are going to come out of this election worse off, but they accepted this under the belief that everyone would be safer under Bush. They aren't exactly saying "Oh, protect us from the terrorists mister President, but we don't mind if you let them bomb all those feelthy queers!"

There are people who will discriminate, and there are a lot of them. But America is a big country, and for every one of those fools, there are probably a dozen or more liberal, fair-minded people who don't give a flying monkey-fuck what you wear or who you marry as long as it doesn't impinge on their rights.

Now repeat after me: "The majority doesn't hate me, the majority doesn't hate me..."

 

[Pookie]

*Sigh.*

Look, perhaps it has escaped the attention of many people, but the average American voter didn't even think ...

That about sums it up in so many words. They accepted what they were told at face value ... by politicians ... without looking at the ramifications of their supporting a ticket that supports things like a Constitutional amendment that takes away rights, or the Patriot Act that blatantly infringes on everyone's rights and civil liberties. It's a mixture of hate and ignorance. In the end, their vote for Bush and/or the various State Amendments was one that favored discrimination, whether that was their specific intent or not. Either out of ignorance or hate, they valued their freedoms and liberties less than this irrational fear of terrorists if Kerry was elected that so many bought into.

There were many in this election that did go to the polls strictly because of their hatred of gays, but I won't say it was the majority. But a majority did vote for a candidate/party with a clear agenda to impose their morals on all Americans, no matter how many rights and liberties have to be taken away in the name of doing it. Social conservatives and the religious right thrive on telling others how to live. They'll define everyones "freedoms" if you give them enough of a chance. Now they hold the power of legislating and signing bills into law for the next four years.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[Regis2001]

That about sums it up in so many words.

Ooh... Sharp. Very sharp.

It's a mixture of hate and ignorance.

True, but the ignorance far outweighs the hate. I feel (seriously) that ignorance is something to be corrected, not criticised. How can you attack someone for taking a wrong decision if they are not in full possession of all the facts?

I know it would be easy to say that the average voter was given the facts, that they knew about the Federal Marriage Act and the Patriot Act, that the agenda of the Bush administration had been laid out before them to look at, but in reality the facts were obscured by spin. Both sides took the issues under discussion and put them through their propaganda machines until you'd be hard-pressed to know they were talking about the same things. The average floating voter, who wants to be given the basic facts and decide based on those, was instead given information distorted by spin-doctors. And in the end, the election was won by the candidate with the best PR machine.

The public did not choose based on their own pure, unsullied judgement. They were hoodwinked by unscrupulous politicians, misled and misdirected. They didn't vote for Bush the oppressors of human rights, they voted for a fictional candidate, Bush the Strong War Leader, Bush who will triumph in Iraq, Bush who will save us from the terrorists. So don't blame people for voting GeeDubya in for four more years. They were so misled it was practically hypnosis without the swinging watch.

 

[Adrenaline]

Ooh... Sharp. Very sharp.



True, but the ignorance far outweighs the hate. I feel (seriously) that ignorance is something to be corrected, not criticised. How can you attack someone for taking a wrong decision if they are not in full possession of all the facts?

I know it would be easy to say that the average voter was given the facts, that they knew about the Federal Marriage Act and the Patriot Act, that the agenda of the Bush administration had been laid out before them to look at, but in reality the facts were obscured by spin. Both sides took the issues under discussion and put them through their propaganda machines until you'd be hard-pressed to know they were talking about the same things. The average floating voter, who wants to be given the basic facts and decide based on those, was instead given information distorted by spin-doctors. And in the end, the election was won by the candidate with the best PR machine.

The public did not choose based on their own pure, unsullied judgement. They were hoodwinked by unscrupulous politicians, misled and misdirected. They didn't vote for Bush the oppressors of human rights, they voted for a fictional candidate, Bush the Strong War Leader, Bush who will triumph in Iraq, Bush who will save us from the terrorists. So don't blame people for voting GeeDubya in for four more years. They were so misled it was practically hypnosis without the swinging watch.

I'm sorry but I can't wholly agree with that unless a significant portion of the American population is illiterate and suffering from some sort of inhibitive disease that curbs any spark of initiative that would prompt them to be maybe, I don't know, look shit up instead of relying on 30 minute news programmes and political conventions. There is something called wilfull ignorance and I can be quite critical if people are complacent about it.

 

[Pookie]

I'm sorry but I can't wholly agree with that unless a significant portion of the American population is illiterate and suffering from some sort of inhibitive disease that curbs any spark of initiative that would prompt them to be maybe, I don't know, look shit up instead of relying on 30 minute news programmes and political conventions. There is something called wilfull ignorance and I can be quite critical if people are complacent about it.

I was gonna reply, but you said it better than I would've.

 

[69forever]

*Sigh.*

Look, perhaps it has escaped the attention of many people, but the average American voter didn't even think of discrimination when they went to the polls. They may have voted for a candidate who will pursue a discriminatory agenda, but that wasn't their goal.

Bush won the election not because he was anti-gay, but because he presented himself as a war leader. The electorate weren't voting on civil rights, nor on health, nor on welfare, nor on anything else. They voted based on the war, both in Iraq and on terrorism. To be frank, a lot of people are going to come out of this election worse off, but they accepted this under the belief that everyone would be safer under Bush. They aren't exactly saying "Oh, protect us from the terrorists mister President, but we don't mind if you let them bomb all those feelthy queers!"

There are people who will discriminate, and there are a lot of them. But America is a big country, and for every one of those fools, there are probably a dozen or more liberal, fair-minded people who don't give a flying monkey-fuck what you wear or who you marry as long as it doesn't impinge on their rights.

Now repeat after me: "The majority doesn't hate me, the majority doesn't hate me..."

You are so wrong. The majority of what pushed Shrub over the top (still questions about that i.e. stolen election) is the religous, moral community being appealed to. Anti-Gay, Anti-Abortion....Anti-anything progressive. Status quo.

I tried telling people. This was not a single issue election. The Republican's did their homework. They drew on every fear of change and progressive social policy there was. The war was icing on the cake.

The majority does hate me....because I'm not blind sheep led to slaughter.

 

[Pookie]

Even more of the same ...

ACLU Exposes Censorship at High Schools in Ohio and Missouri

April 6, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Incidents Stand in Contrast to Recent Survey about Student Awareness on First Amendment

NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today took on schools in two different states for violating the First Amendment rights of students who wish to wear t-shirts expressing their support for gay rights issues.

In Missouri, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court against a high school that twice punished a student for wearing t-shirts expressing her support for gay rights. LaStaysha Myers, a heterosexual 15-year-old student at Webb City High School in Missouri, was twice sent home from school last November for wearing homemade t-shirts; first, one bearing several handwritten slogans such as "I support the gay rights!" and "Who are we to judge?" and the next day one that bore a rainbow and the Webster’s dictionary definition of "gay": "M[e]rry, happy."

Also today, in Ohio, the ACLU sent a letter to school officials demanding that they stop censoring a group of students who want to wear t-shirts supporting marriage for same-sex couples. Two weeks ago, a student at Dublin Jerome High School was told to take off a t-shirt that read "I support gay marriage" after administrators claimed that a student had been offended by it. The next day, about 20 students protested the action by coming to school in similar t-shirts. They were required to change their t-shirts, turn them inside-out, or go home. In both schools, administrators routinely allowed students to wear shirts expressing other messages, including endorsements of the Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns, students’ views on abortion, and religious messages.

"Our principal says that the shirts are disruptive, but the truth is that the only thing that’s been disruptive has been the way the school has reacted to them," said 16-year-old Zach Hust, one of the Ohio students who was told to change shirts. "I haven’t heard anyone complain about our support for gay people and their right to marry, but everyone’s upset and angry that our school is trampling all over our First Amendment rights."

"Because the Supreme Court has held that students have a First Amendment right to free speech at school unless that speech disrupts the educational process, many administrators try to justify illegal censorship by claiming a student’s speech is disruptive without any evidence or proof that it really is," said Jeff Gamso, legal director at the ACLU of Ohio. "But for the censorship to be legal, the speech itself must be genuinely disruptive -- it can’t just be censored because someone finds it offensive or it generates discussion or the administration is worried that it might cause controversy."

In January, results of a national survey by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of more than 100,000 high school students were released showing that nearly three-fourths of high school students either don’t care or don’t know how they feel about the First Amendment, or admit they take it for granted.

"Schools that prevent students from expressing their opinions on gay rights or any other issue are not only failing their duties to teach students how to be good citizens -- they’re also violating the United States Constitution," said Dick Kurtenbach, Executive Director of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri who represents Myers. "With those who are supposed to be teaching our young people acting this way, it’s no wonder so many students don’t understand or value their First Amendment rights."

In Webb City, the recently formed LGBT Task Force of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri is working with Kenneth Y. Choe, a staff attorney at the national ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, in handling Myers’s complaint, with William Fleischaker of Fleischaker, Williams and Powell as co-counsel. In Ohio, Hust and the other censored students are represented by ACLU of Ohio legal director Jeff Gamso.

Legal documents, photos, and additional information on the Missouri case, LaStaysha Myers v. Jeff Thornsberry, Stephen Gollhofer, and Ronald Lankford, can be viewed online at: http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=17929&c=106 .

Photos, the demand letter, and additional information on the Ohio matter can be viewed online at http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=17932&c=106

Source: http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=17949&c=106

http://www.aclu.org/images/client/zachhp.gif

 

[nihil0001]

 

[Wolfman1982]

Bush won, because of the voting booths were rigged. Hacking democracy........