Tuesday, February 15, 2011
I'm Sorry if My Free Speech Offends You
Today, I was on comcast.net and this headline popped out at me: "School Boots Girl for Red Hair." My jaw dropped in recognition of what a blatant violation of the First Amendment that this is. In the video (link) on comcast, I found that a 12-year old girl decided to get red highlights in her hair, but was sent home from her school in Texas because the highlights were "distracting" and violated the school rules. If highlights were truly distracting in a school setting, no one would get anything done at New Trier. I think it is ridiculous that they would not let her return to school until she dyed it back to her natural color- who are they to say what personal choices you make if they don't harm other people? In the end, Stephanie dyed her whole head an auburn-ish brown to match the highlights but darken them, and has yet to find out if even that is good enough for the school.
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Hayley, this is just awful. Especially after watching the video, I think it's pretty clear that those highlights were not a distraction in the slightest. Some kids in our school wear things that are much more distracting than that. However, if this school is private then don't they have every right to do that? It is terrible but I think that it's true.
ReplyDeleteYes Jon, you're right that they have the legal "right" to do that- but just because it's legally correct doesn't mean it's constitutionally just.
ReplyDeleteIf the school was private, I think I could understand that the school has a right to send her home. However, I looked up the school (Cobb Elementary) on Google and it turns out that the school is public. Since the highlights clearly weren't very distracting, sending the girl home seems to me to be a big overreaction.
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