HS Student sent home for backing his team - thoughts?

[HellsBells2]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 2:08pm

Interested in others thoughts on this subject. I believe his rights were being stepped on, but there are grey areas.
LA student sent home

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 3:05pm

He should be drawn & quartered after being burned at the stake for his offense

Has he no shame.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 3:16pm

You can't force someone to support a sports team and if you open the door to wear one team, you have to allow the others.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 3:24pm

That's just ridiculous. I agree with you, jg2.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 4:07pm

I'm also going to agree with JerseyGirl2. I could see if the kid had something on his jersey that said the Saints suck, but he didn't, so there is no issue.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 4:17pm

I'm trying to see the other side of it and only came up with the fact that the regular dress code rules were relaxed specifically for the wearing of the saints shirts. By wearing the colts shirt, perhaps the school took it as an act of rebellion. That's the only thing I could come up with.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 4:56pm

^ That's probably what part of it is. But, why send him home for the entire day? At my high school, the nurse had a collection of shirts and other clothes from the lost and found. If you were caught wearing something inappropriate, and had nothing else to change into or put over it, you got to wear one of those special shirts. I think it was also in case you spilled something on your clothes and it was unwearable.

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 4:58pm

The article says that it was a "Black and Gold" day. So, if only those two colors are allowed, and he wore blue and white, he's against dress code.

He was in the wrong.

I don't think he should've been sent home. As to changed shirts, yes, and if he didn't, then he should've been sent home.

Here's the kicker: "a teacher told him not to and warned him that he'd get in trouble". He was told not to wear the jersey and he did so anyway.

I don't see why the ACLU would be involved. It's not like the kid wore a "I'M GAY!" shirt, or a religious shirt, or whatever. I don't think this kids rights were stomped on.

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 5:10pm

Marianne,I think they just wanted to punish him somehow, so they sent him home.

He probably was glad, lol!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 5:26pm

He must be a Republican, Roxy.

[HellsBells2]

Posted: 2/6/10 at 8:03pm

I love your responses - for when I first read this, I was very conflicted in my response and it pretty much covers everything you all have just posted.

At first, I was like you, JG2 and Stockard.......this is ridiculous. But then I thought the same thing that Jane posted and also what Biff posted. I ended up not really knowing how I felt about the whole issue.

I work in a public elementary and on Friday we had a "Wear Your Favorite Football Team Shirt" even though it was in honor of the Superbowl and most everyone focused on the Saints or the Colts, it was still open to honor which ever team you support. So with this school declaring it "Black and Gold" day, it takes away that freedom option (which kind of rubs me wrong).

[Biff AKA Levi]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 3:46am

The school (well, the Principal) approves these kind of decisions.

I'm pretty sure an overzealous student council or something decided to only wear Black and Gold and the Principal approved it.

That's how it worked at my school.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 4:39am

It's the Louisiana Saints 1st superbowl.

"Maurespas High does require students to adhere to a dress code, but those requirements were relaxed on Friday to allow students to support the hometown Saints."

The dress code was relaxed to support the Saints (black and gold), not wear anything you want. The kid wasn't arrested, he was sent home. He knew full well he was flaunting the rules, and to get the ACLU involved in this is beyond ridiculous.

Talk about picking your battles....

[javero]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 5:54am

The kid's parents should have involved the ACLU, local elected officials, the Governor, their delegate from the US House of Rep, the White House, the Tea Party, and most importantly, Fox News beforehand. That's a public high school supported by taxpayers all of whom might not be Saints' fans.

Let me put this in another context. Supposed the merchants throughout LA agreed to only sell Saints gear this month in honor of the home team. It could be argued that they were conspiring to create restraints to trade for other teams from both the NFC and AFC.

What's not revealed in the article is if any faculty member or school administrator negotiated a deal with local merchants for student discounts on Saints' gear specifically as part of Black-and-Gold day. If that was the case, damn skippy somebody crossed the line in a fit of Super Bowl fever.

I agree with those of you who suggest that a Your Favorite Football Team Day would have been more fitting.

Updated On: 2/7/10 at 05:54 AM

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 11:59am

Now, if black and gold are the school's colors, I would understand it. The Saints have absolutely nothing to do with this school. Allowing the kids who are Saints fans to wear their favorite gear in lieu of a uniform is fine, but it is not fair to not allow a Colts fan to wear theirs. Sure, he could have worn his uniform, but I would have done the same thing. On favorite college shirt day in high school, I wore the classic John Belushi Animal House "College" shirt.

Updated On: 2/7/10 at 11:59 AM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 4:55pm

Not quite so inflammatory now.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 6:21pm

I'm taking the side of the student. This reminds me of how crazy some people get with school spirit stuff. In third grade, I got so upset on crazy hair day when my teacher said that lacking school spirit would show on our report cards when I was one of maybe two or three who did nothing to my hair. My middle school is having a spirit week this week, but nobody cares anymore. My sister says that at her high school there is such a lack of school spirit that teachers have to give extra credit for students to participate. Maybe for the next crazy hair day, I should wear a Hair t-shirt.

Well, anyway, I remember when I was in fifth grade and the Bears were going to the superbowl, we had a day where we were encouraged to wear stuff with any team, and while the student who had moved from Indiana was in the minority, everybody was respectful of team preferences.