Maybe I’m old fashioned guy… but student suppose to learn at school, not demonstrate his sympathy and antipathy…
My two boys attended High School with dress code containing 106 points! (one was “no gun related dress”) There was no single student who had problem with that.
It only seems to be a problem when it goes against the political agenda of the school board. I hate there are politics in play in high school.
I had to deal with a political agenda when I was in high school back in the early 70s.
When they wrote policies back then they tended to use poor choices in the wording, I took full advantage of their mistaken use of the written word on paper.
Yes, I was that kid who was on a first name basis with the principal (not always a good thing I might add).
I’m slightly to the right of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun when it comes to the 2nd Amendment and our nation’s military.
I think it’s stupid as can be for schools to have these nonsense rules.
But let’s be honest here. These are people.looking to pick fights with the schools over dress codes
I took this from an article on school dress codes. I’m not a legal begal but it might apply here.
- Schools can’t discriminate based on the viewpoint expressed by your clothing. The Supreme Court has recognized that public school students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The First Amendment prohibits schools from picking and choosing which views students are allowed to express. All views have to be treated equally, so long as they are not obscene or disruptive. This means that if a school permits items like t-shirts with slogans, buttons, or wristbands, it has to permit them no matter what message they express.
Schools opened themselves up to this when they started participating in things like the “Walk Out” after the Majorie Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Fla.
That’s my old school district and neighborhood.
This kid and their parents are doing more damage than good. Does he have the right to wear his shirt? Sure. Whatever.
This school district allowed me to use the community education center (SCHOOL PROPERTY) for hunter safety instruction involving handling unloaded firearms) for over a decade.
If this kid screws that up, it could lead to the end of a positive working relationship that has proven to work and helped educate hundreds of kids and parents on the positives of the shooting sports.
Find me another place where the shooting sports are welcomed on school grounds. This school also has a sporting clays team associated with it.
I think his action has the potential do more damage than good to the shooting sports in the area. But good for him, he can wear a damn shirt. ARGH!
I appreciate your view on this and you have provided some good context. I don’t know the kid or the family so I cant even guess if their motive is pure.
I do worry about an America where one cannot openly express views that go against the political winds…sounds to much like socialism or the novel 1984.
Keep us posted if you can. I’d love to foll5this in detail.
I had to go back and see what city it was in. This was my kids’ high school as well! One of my sons wore the shirt “.45 because shooting twice is silly” or some similar shirt to school and no one said a word about it. That was JUST two years ago!!
Should school dress codes prohibit firearms shirts?
- Yes
- No
- Depends on the shirt (please elaborate below)
0 voters
I think more than it depends is this–
If yes, then any and all tshirts with writing on them should be banned.
If no, who decides what’s acceptable?
There appears to be no upside in this for a school board unless they ban all shirts re: sex/politics/religion.
Would that decision violate the first amendment? In my mind, yes. It’s the unwritten rule in business on what not to discuss in a professional environment–maybe it applies here.
I guess here’s my bigger point–as an ambassador for the 2A, will this kid’s actions hurt or help? I’ve always thought that 20% of the people are extreme on both ends of most issues–that leaves the 60% of people who don’t really care one way or the other.
I think our job is create a good impression to gain the support of the 60%. Nobody is swaying the 40% on the ends.
Aaron25, I understand where you are coming from, and will admit that is a concern. But on the other hand part of the reason, we as the gun culture, have not made strides in improving gun laws, and advancing our rights is because we tend to capitulate to the anti-gun crowd out of fear of losing what rights we still have.
I for one favor the lawsuit on the basis that we need to make it costly for the anti-gun crowd to infringe on our rights.
Capitulation has never gained us any ground, to the contrary, it usually ends up costing us what we had hoped to preserve through said capitulation.
If the shirt shows blatant violence or agression toward any specific group then I would say NO it shouldn’t be allowed.
I worked in a district that wouldn’t have given a firearms shirt a second look but wear a Budweiser shirt and you were going home. They would say that it was disruptive to the learning environment but I never witnessed any disruption.
Brett,
right on. No arguement from me on that. I don’t ever want to capitulate to them.
There are no good solutions to this that I see.
Maybe a dress code with a blue oxford and khakis and no more problems. There would be worse things.
I pulled this quote from the FindLaw website.
– whereas dress codes that censor student expression because educators do not like the message are generally not permitted.
BTW - the topic for this thread will be featured on one of our Facebook posts this afternoon with a link to this thread. Please welcome any new people who are visiting the Community for the first time!
So how do you teach the 1 amendment - freedom of speech?
Welcome to the Community @George59!
There are certain things that are not covered under freedom of speech (hate speech or threatening people for example).
Private schools have it a bit easier as they are private and can dictate what they allow on their private property. Public schools have a harder time - however restricting distractions to their purpose (education) isn’t always a terrible idea. I’m not saying firearm shirts shouldn’t be allowed - but I’m OK with hate speech shirts not being allowed.
Here is another case of a student suing for the fire arm shirt that was worn to school
Good article. Based on what I know about Tinker v. Des Moines I’d say the student has a case. However, if the school bans all shirts with printings or pictures they may be allowed to ban his shirts. Hard to know without reading their dress code. If anyone has access to it please post it.