Plain T-shirts forbidden in Person County schools
Person County Student Suspended For Wearing White T-Shirt
With all of the chaos caused by imprinted t-shirts and free speech issues you would think a school would welcome plain ones. Not so in the Person County School District where a student was suspended for wearing a plain white shirt.
A Person County mother … claims the school unfairly suspended her son for 10 days — just for wearing a white T-shirt.
…
But school administrators interpreted the T-shirt as a gang symbol and therefore as a direct violation to school dress codes.
The district policy does forbid “Clothing that promotes gang affiliation” but gives no indication of what that clothing might be, leaving literally everything open to interpretation.
Do they also interpret vanilla ice cream as “gang food” and white paper as “gang supplies”?
Contact Information:
Superintendent Ronnie G. Bugnar
School Board Chairman Gordon Powell
School Board Vice-Chairman Jimmy Wilkins
School Board Member Pecolia Beatty
School Board Member Ronnie P. King
School Board Member Vickie Nelson
Heh. If all shirts are banned, only criminals will wear shirts. Unfortunately, I bet not wearing a shirt is also against their dress code (especially for the girls!)
No shirt, no shoes, no service. What about pants?
What will the next gang symbol fad be? Undergarments? Footwear? Maybe individual thought is some new gang gesture.
What if all the kids in a school, or even a single class, dressed in identical clothes. Maybe one day they are preppy, and the next goth. Would that be a gang? I’ve always wonders about the shirts that have a school name on them. Aren’t they gangs too?
I’m sure that teenage boys will avidly await the declaration that bras are “gang symbols”. This falls perfectly in line with school administration logic: Females in gangs wear chest-supporting undergarments, ergo they are gang affiliated. Huzzah!
I was looking at some implentations of pull down menus and I found your site. Good day for me to do so I suppose, since I live in NC.
You have an interesting site, looks like a daily read to me!
The issue isn’t really with defining white t-shirts as “Clothing that promotes gang affiliation,” but rather with the rule itself.
What happened to freedom of speech and freedom of association. Unless a gang has actually been convicted of violating the RICO statutes, that gang’s colors are no different from a Scout uniform, a sports team jersey, or, for that matter, a yarmulka - they’re all clothing that denotes membership in a legal, organized group.
There are both freedom of speech and freedom of association issues here.
“Heyyyy, Frankie, eees not a gang, eees a club.”
Man, I have to fully and completely agree with dweeb!
There is that pesky first amendment after all.
White T-Shirt
They must be insane
Perhaps they want their students to wear button-up shirts, but can’t say this directly.
I didn’t see this anywhere, but whilst driving about downtown Atlanta this weekend with a teacher friend, I saw some kids it the white T-shirts!
As it turns out, it isn’t a white T-shirt like you and I might be thinking about. These white T-shirts are enormous things that look like something a girl might wear as a nightshirt. The gangland wannabes who were wearing the shirts that I saw were unmistakeable.
Food for thought.
Garret, food for what thought? Your observations are completely irrelevant.
You can’t outlaw association.
It’s called the First Amendment; go look it up.
Dweeb,
You’re right!
The first ammendment says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Schools may not ban clothing that they consider disruptive and must give children a forum in which to air their political views.
I never noticed that last sentence before. Darned if it isn’t there. Tinker vs. Des Moines, which further clarifies the ammendment rights as they pertain to schoolchildren doesn’t give kids free reign to ignore the dress code.
My point was exactly this: The dress code specifies no gang wear. In this case a detail was missing that explains how this style of dress can be easily recognizied and is out of the mainstream norm and IS associated with gangland wear.
Hmmm, you might want to think about this one. It’s not what it seems. In Baltimore white t-shirt and jeans is the uniform. Sometimes it’s a hooded sweatshirt. Why? You rob a store. “What did he look like? Well it was a black kid in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans. Officer - Sir have you looked out the window lately?” Being anoymous has it’s advantages.
Just passing on what the police passed on to me. Pretty funny to see a 19 year old in the uniform driving a BMW 9(100k+) series through the neighborhood.
Joe,
That’s a good point… a VERY good point.
The shirts (and outfits) I saw were very different. These kids were wearing shirts that were incredibly large. It was obvious by looking at them that they were trying to acheive the ‘gangbanger’ look.
I think what you’re describing is something different, and perhaps far more sinister and dangerous… and scary.
The article is too light on the details to tell for certian, but I’d guess that the XXXL T-shirts is a more likely case. Most administrators and teachers aren’t power mongers with Napoleon complexes… they’re just trying to keep order and get a lot of kids educated.
Garret, again you fail to grasp the concepts at hand. Tinker clearly covers white t-shirts - GO AND READ THE ACTUAL DECISION. Furthermore, the courts have ruled that expressive association is also protected. Simply put, it’s your inalienable right to belong to any non-criminal organization you wish, be it a church, synagogue, fraternal organization, political party, service club, or GANG, and to express your membership by wearing a cross, yarmulka, pin, button, uniform, or COLORS. Until such time as the PARTICULAR organization is shown by due process to be inherently criminal (something that has only happened once, with the KKK, and even that didn’t stand long) these rights remain in effect.
Are gangs societal problems? Yes. Do they immerse our youth in degeneracy? Yes. Would I want a child of mine to be in a gang? No. Is the existence of gangs unfortunate? Yes. Of course, I also lament the existence of religious, political, and cultural beliefs contrary to my own, and organizations that promote them. That’s the trade off of life in a free society. Don’t think it’s a good bargain?
Go to Miami, buy a boat, and travel 90 miles south, and see if that’s more to your liking.
First off, I’d like to say thank you for putting up the contact information for the involved educators/school board members in these stories. I’m not one that can keep quiet, and I put those email addresses to use.
Mr. Jimmy Wilkins responded to me message today. Just so everything remains readable, I’ll first copy the original email I sent to him, also to Bugnar, Powell, Beatty, King and Nelson.
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Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 1:48 AM
Subject: Suspending for wearing a white t-shirt?
Hello there!
Just a quick note: I grew up with a father teaching in my own local school system. It was idiotic leadership like the ones you jackanapes put forth as an example that made him have no qualms about retiring early.
Please, get out of your local school system before you harm another childs future. Please? Make room for people that are capable of doing the job.
-
Yes, I’m a bit vindictive. I’m just tired of people being (what I considered) with the title of educator, yet consistantly dashing and destroying childrens futures. Anyways, here is the response from Mr. Wilkins:
Jimmy Wilkins wrote:
> could you be a bit more specific about what makes you unhappy? feel free to call me or we’ll set up a meeting and i’ll listen to whatever your problem is and be happy to hear suggestions…i do, however need to know what it is that upsets you. no one has been suspended for wearing a white t-shirt in this county.
No wonder that poor mothers appeal failed, the school board doesn’t even seem to know whats happening in their own schools.
The oversized t-shirts is a hip hop fad not gang wear. It’s been going on for several years and apparently it is new to Person County!
There isn’t anything these days that dont resemble some kind of gang or drug except for plain t-shirts.
If you take that away what can they wear.
Apparently anything involving the hip hop culture is also part of “gangland” (whatever that is, you SQUARE)
GANGLAND?? What is this, Rockstar Games?
Just because the urban youth are wearing clothes you don’t understand doesn’t make them all part of gangs. If you still insist, what gang, pray tell, does a white t-shirt signify? Do you know what a gang is? Where does your perspicacious eye for gangland come from? Were you in a gang as a kid? Is that how you know? Precisely which gang is indicated by a white t-shirt? Or does it mean all gangs? Have they all united? Since the national guard is now in Iraq, have the gangs stepped up, United We Stand, under the single solemn banner of the white t-shirt, to protect us all?
i think wht kids where expresses them and plus i dont see teachers wearing plain stuff so foget all ya’ll who is hating >=I