Student suspended for wearing school t-shirt
Snohomish High School calls nickname derogatory; suspends teen for T-shirt
Updated 29 April, 2005: Suspension lifted, “Snohos” t-shirts allowed in school. Details at bottom of post.
Some students at Snohomish High School have a nickname for themselves; SnoHos. The school website talks about “SnoHo traditions” and the yearbook contains many “SnoHo” references. So why was senior Justin Patrick suspended for wearing a t-shirt that said “SNOHOS”?
School officials say “Snohos” contains a slang term for prostitutes and is derogatory toward women.
“As a woman, I am sure that you can appreciate our desire in Snohomish to maintain respect for all members of our community, especially our young women, and to not allow the abbreviated form of our school name to be used to reference them as ‘ho’s,’ ” said district spokeswoman Shannon Parthemer, in response to an e-mail query about the suspension.
“Snohos” is not meant to be anything other than what a small group of friends call themselves. There’s no sexual innuendo, no reference to prostitutes or anything directed at any woman. Before Justin had his run-in with the administration the group of friends had frequently worn their “Snohos” t-shirts and there had never been a complaint or disruption.
Vice Principal Robynn Harrington told Patrick the shirt “didn’t seem appropriate” for school and that he needed to cover it up. Patrick said that when he protested, Harrington called in another vice principal to confirm that the shirt violated the school dress code, which prohibits any display of words, pictures or references to alcohol, tobacco, weapons, guns or sexual innuendo.
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He got a one-day suspension for dress-code violation and sexual harassment and a second day for “gross insubordination.”
Sexual harassment? In order for something to qualify as sexual harassment, doesn’t somebody need to be harassed sexually? Was Vice Principal Robynn Harrington harassed sexually by the statement on this t-shirt? No, of course not. But Justin challenged her decision on it and there’s no quicker way to get an administrator on the warpath than by telling one she’s wrong about something.
(Tip credit Best of the Web)
UPDATE 29 April, 2005
Snohomish district lifts suspension over T-shirt
School administration has lifted Justin Patrick’s suspension for wearing his “Snohos” t-shirt. They have determined that the shirt wasn’t derogatory after all. He’ll still spend 6 days of detention for cursing at a vice-principal but the shirts are now permitted wear in Snohomish.
In a statement released by the school district yesterday, Snohomish High Principal Diana Plumis said the T-shirt did not use “Snohos” in a negative context. But it warned that officials would take action if the term “is clearly used to demean or insult.”
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Over spring vacation, but before the final disciplinary decision was made, Patrick and his friends learned that they would be allowed to wear their T-shirts to school. They had 100 shirts printed that say, “Snohos We Won” and now are selling them to friends.
It’s good to see that enough public pressure can still occasionally force reason onto an administration.
(Tip credit to Opinion Journal)
“As a woman, I am sure that you can appreciate our desire in Snohomish to maintain respect for all members of our community, especially our young women, and to not allow the abbreviated form of our school name to be used to reference them as ‘ho’s,’ ” said district spokeswoman Shannon Parthemer, in response to an e-mail query about the suspension.
Unless Patrick is a female, Shannon needs a little help with the English language.
Duh. I missed that the comment was directed at a (likely) female reporter. My bad.
Actually, she still needs some help with misplaced modifiers. The phrase “as a woman” modifies what it’s next to; currently, it is referring to “I.” The way she no doubt intends it to be is, “I am sure that you, as a woman, can…” Unless, of course, the phrase “As a woman, I am sure” refers to her natural feminine ability to be right all the time (just kidding, please don’t hurt me).
One might note that the popular snack food Ho-hos contains the same derogatory term. Shall we start screening lunches? And don’t get me started on the very incarnation of sexism and malice that is Santa Claus.
words fail to describe the utter blockheaded reasoning of the administration. Barking moon bats every one!
Better ban the Yellow Pages as well. There’s a bowling alley in my area (nowhere near Snohomish, WA) called “Hoe-Bowl”. I have no idea of the derivation of that name, but it always struck me as an odd name.
And I hope that they don’t hire any construction companies that use Backhoes.
Or allow their students to eat at Ho-Jo’s.
Probably time to call the town council and change the town’s name while they’re at it.
etc. etc. etc.
I love how these almost rabid feminists say “I speak for all women when I say…” even though they don’t. I don’t know of a single girl at my school that would find “SnoHo” offensive. For christs sake, have these administrators listend to the rap music most kids like? I can assure you if boys and girls can like this music, they have lost their sensitivity to the word “ho.”
In my city there are over 300 telephone listings with the last name Ho.
Hopefully the same isn’t true with people attending that high school.
Imagine being suspended for introducing yourself.
The stupidity of Shannon Parthemeer, as shown by her comments, is mindboggling. What a dumb BROAD.
“Broad” is the only word I can come up with to describe her, as she certainly doesn’t deserve the respect of being called a woman. A woman has much more sense than is shown here.
Aaron: You’re absolutely right about the improper grammar. But what do you expect, she works for (and was probably educated in) a government school.
What’s frustrates me is it’s very unlikely this protest actually addresses the very real threats these kids are experiencing. Kid’s were always rebeling against the dress code when I was a kid and it sure didn’t draw much adult sympathy. Note these are boys, I suspect at this school, like most others, is the price of being a boy is high. Boys are given more dull repetitious work while the girls are encouraged to articulate their passion and express critical analysis (as long as they support planned consensus). I was told 50% of the boys in our local school needed 2 years to complete Biology and 85% of special ed students are boys. The real argument that gains public support is some kids are targets. Fixing numbers doesn’t fix problems, but that’s another story.
It isn’t a noble fight with an adversary who steals money and abuses children. It distroys the potential of kids to respect authority. For these kids to really experience the dignity and respect the public is paying for, education has to be fair and not an economic resource in the hands of self-appointed feminine zealot.
The very real risk of polarizing society to promote a social agenda, is we are a society that no longer tolerates opinion.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-01-30-students-press_x.htm
The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get “government approval” of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.
Boys in the situation you just mentioned would probably be better off in a boys’ school where the staff knows how to successfully deal with them.
Studies are coming out now showng that many boys are not interested in going to college either. Well, why should they when it’s going to be more of the same feminazi propaganda and outright hostility towards them that they experienced in high school, and they have to pay through the nose for the priviledge of attending?
Just what would a sno ho look like? Hard to visualize…
Maybe a ban in this district on all words with ho? How about sc-ho-ol?
So basically any word containing any syllable that sounds like “ho” is now derogatory towards women. That Santa Claus guy is goin’ down! As well as all of the residents of Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey… toss ‘em all in the joint!
Bettina, one of the problems with boys schools around here is they are run by people who dealing with traumatized kids. Parents are forced to define their child as disabled to afford the therapy the school offers, and schools are forced to ‘treat’ the disability (including lots of medication). It removes the child from the mainstream and the community. As long as people believe boyhood is a disease and childhood can be uniformly regulated, even the boy’s schools will not help. They are either military schools or let the kids run completely wild, none produce spectacular academic scores.
I think we need a society that pays working people a living wage, instead of trying to invest the nations resources in have our freedom professionally managed. We use to need more plumbers than social workers and we don’t have less people.
Since “SnoHo” is used on the school website and in the yearbook, someone should sue the school for sexual harrassment and see what the school says then. Hey, they could use this case as a precedent!
“The plural form is another matter”
So if I called a female a “ho” I am not offending her, but if I call her “one of those ho’s” I am offending her? Is that correct?
I don’t blame the kid for losing his temper. I would do the same if I were in his shoes.
SWP - I’m not talking about therepeutic schools, I mean established boys’ schools such as Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC, which has been in existence for many years and has educated many prominent men in Washington, DC.
This school knows how boys operate and makes allowances for that besides giving them an excellent education. They take boys from all across the spectrum — sons of the very wealthy and sons of single mothers in the inner city — black, white, Asian — it doesn’t matter.
We need more schools like that and fewer public schools that are run by feminzazis on the rag and wussy “male” principals.
Public education is promoting military schools for boys and they’ve got guns.
I’m a little suspicious they are being run by the same feminzazies who believe girls need expereiences in leadership and boy need more experiences in obeying women. Also the flagship of zt himself Paul Vallas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/education/06academies.html?pagewanted=print&position=
when Paul Vallas, the former chief executive officer for Chicago’s schools, moved to head Philadelphia’s public school system three years ago, he brought his enthusiasm for the military model.
I like the structured approach to education and feel that boys need it more than girls. I don’t know why they need a hand-picked sexually segregated military motif to accomplish that. Any hand-picked model will work. It would be easier to challenge the progressive model of early childhood education.
Is it just me or is that official assuming the reader is female “As a woman, I am sure that you can appreciate”.
Also they seem to be using the possesive form of ho, ho’s, not the plural, hos, or the possesive plural, hos’. Yes I am aware the plurals look silly, but it is a silly word, and this is a very silly reason to suspend someone.
PS. does anyone else think of one of these http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/h/h0230700.html when they hear rappers and the like talking about their ‘hos’?
In a statement released by the school district yesterday, Snohomish High Principal Diana Plumis said the T-shirt did not use “Snohos” in a negative context. But it warned that officials would take action if the term “is clearly used to demean or insult.”
It’s galling how these petty tyrants have to continue to make threats even after they’ve been forced to admit they were wrong (assuming they do admit it.) They have nothing but hubris in their souls.
Congrats to the kids for standing up for themselves, and resisting tyranny. They’ve learned a valuable lesson, at least.
Matt — I don’t know what a Sno-Ho would look like, but I imagine she would be frigid.
Where do I get one of these shirts?
sno ho sno ho it’s off to sc- ho we go… i’m with swp, where do i order a t shirt?
In Matt Thiel’s comment: “I don’t blame the kid for losing his temper. I would do the same if I were in his shoes,” the word “shoes” contains the word “hoes” and is therefore derogatory to women.
While waiting for an apology from him, I’m going to have a coffee and some Ho-Hos.
It might also be offensive to farmers.
Um…just to set the record straight, I accidentally put “Christ Simpson” as my name. Of course, it’s actually “Christopher” and I meant to put “Chris” but slipped up.
Wouldn’t want to offend anyone else.
And Jim, I think farmers must also be offending women — as they say, “You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.”
Hard to visualize…