The schools have waging a war on individualism for years now. Cliffy is right, they want to mold the kids into brainless, robotic sheeple and nothing more.
A suspension for a t-shirt??? WTF is far to nice a way to react. If this had been my kid I would have snapped, lost it even. Probably would have bought a crap load of the shirts and given them to any student who would wear it. Maybe a box load with the slogan "teachers do it with class". I'm sure some of you remember that one.
All said and done it's a f*cking shirt with his expression of free speech. It's not like he showed up naked!
I think the school is just upset that his brainwashing technique was interfering with theirs. 8O
What brainwashing are you talking about?
They teach you math, science, english, french, etc... they teach you the basics. They may teach you the history behind things which include some religions and cultures, but they are not supposed to tell you which one is the best or which one is more right than the other.
The only time I ever experienced brainwashing in a public school was when I was in primary & grade 1, when we still had to pray and thank God for our lunch before we ate, and how many of the teachers pushed their Christian beliefs on us from time to time.... which all but stopped in the late 80's.
Schools are not teaching children to be brainless automatons..... I'm not the biggest fan of schools, but even I know such a claim is just silly.
They're there to teach kids the basics. To teach them how to read, write, count and basically function in society when they graduate......
Oh I forgot.... they're also teaching kids to try and at least be a little more tolerant to those around them who are different than they are.
Now if
not teaching kids to believe in one specific God, to
not shove your religious beliefs in other people's faces and to
not treat those different from you as lower human beings than yourself because you think you're more right than they are & to promote tolerance of others...... somehow translates to making children brainless robots and is some how a bad thing, then it sounds to me like somebody's just not liking that their favorite religion isn't getting a free pass anymore.
I've seen plenty of kids in my school be sent home or get suspended for wearing something offensive.
One of my friends had a shirt that said "Energize Her" and showed a bunch of pink Energizer bunnies in various sex positions.
prior to that, multiple students were sent home back when the overalls were in fashion with one shoulder strap not buttoned. Teachers said if you're not going to wear them properly, you don't come to school wearing them at all.
Those who continued to repeat this after being told more than once, ended up getting suspended.
It's no different than if a student continued to wear their hat in class or during the anthem, or continually refuses to take it off when asked/told to..... it's the same as chewing gum in class and refusing to stop when asked/told to.
The teachers have every right to discipline kids who want to be jackasses because they think they can get away with it & because they think teachers can't do anything about it.
Teachers can and they will. My father has been teaching in Nova Scotia since around 1975 and is one of the upper members in the NSTU. They all have a little book that states what they can and can't do when it comes to students being little sh*ts, just like this punk.
Getting back to the OP, I noticed the OP avoided some of the other quotes in the report that explain the situation a bit more than the out-of-context details the OP supplied, such as:
Nancy Pynch-Worthylake, board superintendent, said some students and teachers found the T-shirt offensive.
"When one is able or others are able to interpret it as, 'If you don't share my belief then your life is wasted,' that can be interpreted by some as being inappropriate," she said.
When I made similar comments above as this quote, I didn't even read the full news report.... funny how me just stating my common sense on the situation matches almost word for word their reasons for taking their actions.
It's not that they were worried some teachers and students would find it offensive.... They did find it offensive.
Also just as important, if not more:
Swinimer wore the T-shirt every day to class for several weeks. The principal told him repeatedly to stop wearing it, but the student refused to comply.
^ Right there is clear justification for his suspension and if this bible-thumping crack pot can't clue in as to why there has been such an issue over this that he ended up being suspended after being told multiple times, then he's a complete moron and got exactly what he deserved.
^ If you and a couple of others in here actually read the report beyond the first two paragraphs, you wouldn't be asking "WTF?" in the first damn place, as this situation is pretty clear on what happened and why.
So stop acting like the whole world has gone nuts, because if you opened your eyes and looked around a bit more, you'd see it all makes pretty damn good sense.
Swinimer says the principal would have accepted a shirt with the slogan, "My life is wasted without Jesus."
"But I didn't go for that because I have my rights as a Canadian citizen," Swinimer said.
And what rights exactly is he referring to that give him the right to go into a publicly funded educational institution with a slogan that insults and attacks other people's beliefs based on his own religious beliefs?
Swinimer says he never intended to attack anyone else's beliefs.
Oh bullsh*t he didn't..... he just trying to get attention & his excuses are pitiful.
He's either trying to get attention, or he's deliberately attempting to create a disturbance, offend other students and teachers and incite a situation that can turn ugly for his own amusement.
And if that's the case, I wouldn't suspend him, I'd expel him from that school as he has repeatedly ignored the school/teachers/principals' rules & requests, he's proven to not give a flying damn for anybody else at the school and their own views/beliefs, directly attacked those beliefs & views with that ugly looking, cheap shirt, continues to defy any reasonable discussion, solution or requests and further wishes to continue to cause a disturbance in the school even though he is fully away of the consequences of doing so.
If he's that "Devout" of a Christian, why the hell did he decide to go to a public school and why didn't he simply go to a Private Christian-Based School??
He's a fk'n moron who wants to be an attention-wh*re, that's why. And the school has been more than patient with this situation & has gone a lot farther than I would have to try and meet him halfway
He says he will continue to wear the shirt and is prepared to be suspended the rest of the year.
Good.... he better get real prepared because if that's the attitude he's going to keep, that's the consequence he's going to face.
Hope he's looking forward to repeating Grade 12.
The board is looking for some guidance on the matter. It hopes to bring in an expert to help mediate the dispute with Swinimer, his family and church supporters.
"We'll be looking for some people with understanding in this area to help us with that," Pynch-Worthylake said.
Give me a call.... I'll sort this sh*t out real quick.
.... School in Canada more and more bears absolutely no resemblance to society. Well, maybe just Nova Scotia, if students elsewhere can actually defend themselves without being suspended.
I've defended myself plenty growing up.... if its a fight started by both persons & agreed to, then both are at fault. If you are attacked, regardless of when or where, school or out around town, you have the legal right to defend yourself.
Where you got this idea that you're punished for defending yourself from physical harm, I have no idea.
Unless you're talking about some other kind of defense?
