UPDATE: Let the bells of freedom ring across the hills and valleys of this great land! Junction City High School students can finally walk the halls wearing jewelry that proclaims their love of all things wonderful and nippley! Huzzah! Huzzah! Read the update after the jump ...
Original Story (December 8): Why the hell does the Midwest hate
breasts so much? First they banned any nudity in Missouri strip clubs,
and now we're refusing to teach kids who admit to even liking boobs. How
do you feel about nipples? It moved! Don't let this one learn calculus!
We're through the looking glass here, people. Thankfully, the American Civil Liberties Union is on the side of righteousness, and is preparing to sue Junction City High School for suspending a student who's only crime was wearing an "I (Heart) Boobies!" bracelet.
"It's looking more and more like we're going to sue them over this. I haven't told the district yet, but I've checked and we have the authority to file on this," says Doug Bonney, chief counsel and legal director for the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri.
Bonney was contacted Friday by the parent of an unnamed senior who was suspended that Friday and the following Monday after he was caught wearing the controversial bracelet.
"First I'd ask for a temporary restraining order on barring students from wearing that specific bracelet. Then we'd ask for a permanent injunction against banning that bracelet," Bonney says. "We'd also ask if there were any adverse academic results to the student who was banned, and ask that that be remedied and that the suspension be taken off the student's permanent record."
The bracelets are made by the Keep A Breast Foundation, a non-profit that wants to raise breast cancer awareness.
This isn't the first time the bracelet has caused trouble for students. Since its release, it's been banned in schools in Utah, California, and Minnesota. Some kids have admitted in interviews that they just like wearing them because it's a funny message -- no one's yet come up with any "I (heart) prostates!" jewelry even though more than 210,000 American men were diagnosed with that cancer in 2010 alone. Other students have told reporters they wear them because of a close female friend or relative died of breast cancer.
Bonney says he personally called Junction City High principal Stan Dodds about the incident, and Dodds defended the suspension saying the slogan "just made people uncomfortable." When Dodds is evaluating things he could've handled differently this year, telling an ACLU attorney you only ban unpopular speech should be on the shortlist.
According to Bonney, several kids at Junction City High School were wearing the offending bracelet and there have been reports that others were suspended over it, though he has yet to confirm that with the district or any parents. Students who flipped the bracelet over were allowed to freely roam the halls, but at the cost of everyone wondering how they really felt about boobs. Maybe they hated them? Maybe just luke warm? Now there's no way to tell.
Incidentally, the suspended boy's father couldn't be reached for comment, as he's serving a tour of duty in the Middle East, fighting for freedom.
In the news business, that last line's what we call a "kicker."
UPDATE: School district attorney Mark Edwards notified the ACLU Thursday
that the school would take no further action against anyone wearing an
"I (Heart) Breasts" bracelet, after at least one student was given a
two-day suspension for flaunting the wristband.
Senior Stephen Wall was suspended from school for two days when he was
caught with the bracelet. Edwards said the suspension would not affect
him academically.
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�Some kids have admitted in interviews that they just like wearing them because it's a funny message -- no one's yet come up with any �I (heart) prostates!�� You make my point for me. No one cares about the boobies� bracelet except that it�s about kids getting permission to do something that they would ordinarily not get away with when it comes to the issue of sexuality. Students don�t care about what�s behind the message. I guess that just by the mere fact that we are all still discussing this is, in a way, raising breast cancer awareness.
PS... No wonder today's young adults don't understand citizenship... if their schools don't.
Nother example that public schools deserve an F for failing to bring intelligence to work. This is stuff that should be taught in 9th grade. I hope the ACLU cleans their clock and the networks come in on their Learjets to show the country what morons we have running schools in Kansas... same state teaching science... oh never mind.
What's the name and photo of that principal's CITIZENSHIP teacher back in high school?
Another case where schools forget their limited responsibilities to the public they serve.
Principals just get too big for their britches and get their school distracts both sued and made fun of, all over the country.
We really need a picture of the moron making an issue of this.
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