Published: September 26, 2008 05:26 pm         

School violates Constitution to avoid violating its dress code

The Back Porch column

It seems inevitable that the attempt to quell objectionable speech would reach a level of ridiculousness. So it was in Dos Palos, Calif., where a teenager was told he couldn’t wear a shirt with the American flag pattern on it.

The irony in America today is the ultraconservative reaction to the ultraliberal sharing of everything holy and unholy in a so-called pluralistic society where both sides want to tell everyone else how to live — and what to say — and what to wear. Along the way, civil liberties have picked up more tread marks than the asphalt at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Wednesday marked the end of the 2008 observance of Constitution Week, a time set aside to study and reflect on the document that created the United States of America. It also marked the week that a tie-dyed T-shirt ran afoul of a dress code designed to prohibit “shirts/blouses that promote specific races, cultures and ethnicities,” as reported by the Student Press Law Center.

So much for freedom of expression in a free society.

Jake Shelly wore the shirt only to be told by a new vice principal at the high school that his patriotic attire violated the school’s dress code. He was told to take off the flag shirt and don a bright yellow shirt emblazoned with “DCV: Dress Code Violator” for the rest of the school day.

The school was celebrating its homecoming with a hippie dress-up day. Shelly’s shirt included the words “United States of America, Washington, D.C.”

Heavens to Betsy! What is wrong with young people today? Maybe what is wrong with young people today is how they are treated by the idiotic older people of today.

School district officials apologized — to Shelly, his family and the local American Legion Post.

In their zeal to “protect” students, school officials often stomp all over students’ civil rights. They may be smaller, but they are not lesser human beings. They are, after all, still human beings.

It’s insane that pedophiles can find children through their Facebook and MySpace profiles because society encourages children to put their lives on public display, but that same society considers it an apocalyptic moment if a student wears a shirt that may offend someone else.

Technically, Shelly’s shirt did violate the policy because it promotes American culture and that has become a bad thing even in America.

One could chalk up this whole mess to a lack of common sense. Common sense doesn’t exist anymore; a few people still have uncommon sense to see that straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel doesn’t do anyone any good.

Those with uncommon sense can see how ridiculous the efforts to stop offensive behavior have become. And yet the general behavior of people becomes more offensive each day.

It’s enough to make one long for a few honest, old-fashioned hedonists. At least they don’t try to fool anyone about their purpose in life, and they’re not interested in trampling everyone else’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

— Young is a Register-Herald columnist. E-mail: ynerissa@verizon.net

© 2008 by Nerissa Young