Louisiana student has trouble with principal for wearing Colts jersey

[bengalbelle]

Thank you!!

I just noticed your tag. That's awesome!!!!

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

Again, I'm glad I'm from an area where rules are respected. If the administration in "your area's" solution is to ignore rules so they don't seem juvenile, I'm glad you live there too. Obviously you haven't spent much time in education if you think discipline and behavior aren't directly linked to classroom success. He knew he was going to break the rules and bragged about it. IMO he got off easy just having to change shirts.

you are reading what you want to into my post.....not what I wrote.

rules are respected here. We have great schools and great outcomes!

What I wrote about was not about our ignoring rules, but about not setting ridiculous, over-the-top rules to begin with! Abuse of power is not the norm for the most part.

I am well aware of the relationship between discipline/behavior and classroom success, but you do not obtain the best results through over-the -top/ridiculous rules, abuse of power, or enforcing rules in a juvenile manner.

here, we would have a day to support your team, but no one would be left out. The adults would have fun with a kid wearing an opposing team's shirt, not come down on him!!

Thankfully, our educators and administrators are able to be sensible and to concentrate on what is important - and not on the color of a student's shirt!

 

[portocall]

Well that isn't very nice.

Well knock me over with a feather--learn something new every day.

I was there in 10th/11th grade so never covered one bit of any Lousiana history.

I thought all of LA was part of the LA purchase. Did not know there was more to Florida--or perhaps never really noticed on those old maps.

And you went to Franklin?!?!?

My husband went there too. I grew up in Florida and I taught him about the Florida Parishes being part of Florida when I moved here. He didn't learn that either. What is funnier is that we don't have a year of Florida History.


But, keeping my opinion of uniforms out of it, and having children that have to wear them. Whenever a school has a spirit day of whatever kind, the rules are very clear on what is allowed. Black and Gold day is just that, as ilovejack keeps saying. You can wear Black and/or Gold OR the uniform. One school had a Jersey day, must be a jersey, not a team t-shirt. My childrens school had a Superbowl colors day where they could wear black, gold, blue, and white. It isn't the place of one student to try to change the policies of the school. That is called disobedience and will be disciplined and rightly so. If there is a problem with the school policies there are correct channels to navigate (as the students at Franklin did when they were deciding whether to keep free dress or force uniforms) and that would be a better lesson to learn for life in my opinion. Sure there are times to buck the system, but this wasn't the appropriate way.

 

[FireDancer]

And you went to Franklin?!?!?

My husband went there too. I grew up in Florida and I taught him about the Florida Parishes being part of Florida when I moved here. He didn't learn that either. What is funnier is that we don't have a year of Florida History.


But, keeping my opinion of uniforms out of it, and having children that have to wear them. Whenever a school has a spirit day of whatever kind, the rules are very clear on what is allowed. Black and Gold day is just that, as ilovejack keeps saying. You can wear Black and/or Gold OR the uniform. One school had a Jersey day, must be a jersey, not a team t-shirt. My childrens school had a Superbowl colors day where they could wear black, gold, blue, and white. It isn't the place of one student to try to change the policies of the school. That is called disobedience and will be disciplined and rightly so. If there is a problem with the school policies there are correct channels to navigate (as the students at Franklin did when they were deciding whether to keep free dress or force uniforms) and that would be a better lesson to learn for life in my opinion. Sure there are times to buck the system, but this wasn't the appropriate way.

Exactly. If it were "wear any team jersey day" the the kid can do just that. If it is black and gold day they can do just that. In 1986 I was in catholic school when the Browns made the playoffs. We had brown and orange day. I could wear brown and/or orange or the standard uniform and that was it. If I were black and gold, purple and yellow, or any other colors of the spectrum my parents would have been called and I would have had consequences.

 

[shelbys mommy]

My kids had a black & gold day also. Some of the little girls in school wore their Pink jerseys. They were told to call home. It was not black, gold & pink day. Nothing against the team (which I'm sure 99.9% of them were Saints jerseys) but the fact that they were not following dress code. And this is a public school with manditory uniforms.

 

[luvsJack]

you are reading what you want to into my post.....not what I wrote.

rules are respected here. We have great schools and great outcomes!

What I wrote about was not about our ignoring rules, but about not setting ridiculous, over-the-top rules to begin with! Abuse of power is not the norm for the most part.

I am well aware of the relationship between discipline/behavior and classroom success, but you do not obtain the best results through over-the -top/ridiculous rules, abuse of power, or enforcing rules in a juvenile manner.

here, we would have a day to support your team, but no one would be left out. The adults would have fun with a kid wearing an opposing team's shirt, not come down on him!!

Thankfully, our educators and administrators are able to be sensible and to concentrate on what is important - and not on the color of a student's shirt!

I came in late to this discussion, but it seems to me that you are missing the point that the day's assigned clothes were to be black and gold. It was about the colors not just the team.

Maybe I am not reading correctly but it is my understanding (and from most of the special clothing days we get here) that they could wear anything black and gold. Right? It didn't have to say "saints" or be a "saints" t-shirt. Just black and/or gold.

We have to wear uniforms every day. Every so often on a Friday and if they have had a great week; the kids are rewarded. Some times they can wear jeans. Jeans--not pink shorts, not tie-dyed capris, not corduroys-jeans. If they wear anything besides jeans it must be their uniform pants. And they must wear their uniform shirts with the jeans. This is the same thing.

Sometimes they get to wear a t-shirt instead of uniform shirts. It has to be a school t-shirt on football days. It cannot be just a t-shirt of any color. Some days its USM day and they wear black and gold shirts (not some other random college's colors), and some days its a certain color like "red" and they all wear red shirts (I guess that was for drug awareness week).

It sort of defeats the purpose of wearing uniforms if they are allowed to not follow the dress code. No one was abusing power, just enforcing the rules. It wasn't about not supporting the Saints, it was about not following the rules.

Do the rules support "creativity" and "individuality"--no probably not. (Although most of the kids find a way to show their individual styles while following the dress codes.) But uniforms and dress codes do serve a purpose.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

I came in late to this discussion, but it seems to me that you are missing the point that the day's assigned clothes were to be black and gold. It was about the colors not just the team.

Maybe I am not reading correctly but it is my understanding (and from most of the special clothing days we get here) that they could wear anything black and gold. Right? It didn't have to say "saints" or be a "saints" t-shirt. Just black and/or gold.

We have to wear uniforms every day. Every so often on a Friday and if they have had a great week; the kids are rewarded. Some times they can wear jeans. Jeans--not pink shorts, not tie-dyed capris, not corduroys-jeans. If they wear anything besides jeans it must be their uniform pants. And they must wear their uniform shirts with the jeans. This is the same thing.

Sometimes they get to wear a t-shirt instead of uniform shirts. It has to be a school t-shirt on football days. It cannot be just a t-shirt of any color. Some days its USM day and they wear black and gold shirts (not some other random college's colors), and some days its a certain color like "red" and they all wear red shirts (I guess that was for drug awareness week).

It sort of defeats the purpose of wearing uniforms if they are allowed to not follow the dress code. No one was abusing power, just enforcing the rules. It wasn't about not supporting the Saints, it was about not following the rules.

Do the rules support "creativity" and "individuality"--no probably not. (Although most of the kids find a way to show their individual styles while following the dress codes.) But uniforms and dress codes do serve a purpose.

I am not missing the point. I am saying thank goodness I do not live in an area where strict dress codes and ridiculously restrictive "color days" are tolerated in public schools. (we have color and spirit days, but because we do not have restrictive dress codes - it doesn't matter whether or not you participate. You wear whatever you want, within reason, either way.) I don't agree that uniforms serve a purpose, but that is IMHO. I believe that worrying about what color shirt a student wears, only allowing some students to support their teamand not others, and making this an issue IS abuse of power. I also feel it is counter productive to true respect for authority and the learning environment - again, IMHO. I get that he broke the rules, I am just glad our adminstrators would never make this an issue and choose to focus on truly important issues.

as an aside, whenever uniforms come up - we are told they are important to level the playing field as far as "haves" and "have nots". What is the point of that if you allow days where the kids that can afford $120 official jerseys get to show them off while other "less fortunate" kids have to "feel bad" about their black $5 t-shirts? I have never bought this reasoning for uniforms - this is just one example of why!

another excuse is that uniforms cut down on disruption - here you have a case where things have been taken so far to the extreme that the ridiculous rules and the stupid reaction of the principal are causing the distraction!

 

[Heidict]

We live in Indy and my kids go to a private school with a dress code. On Fridays during playoff season, the parents all got a note saying the kids could wear their Colts gear. Last Friday a boy wore a Saints jersey, and was asked to take it off, because he was out of the dress code for the day.

What? How did we not hear about this in the news? Didn't they know that they should have called the ACLU and could have sucked this for their 15 minutes of fame? What is wrong with these people? Maybe the father from the LA article needs to give them some pointers on how best to exploit and inflame?

 

[luvsJack]

I am not missing the point. I am saying thank goodness I do not live in an area where strict dress codes and ridiculously restrictive "color days" are tolerated in public schools. (we have color and spirit days, but because we do not have restrictive dress codes - it doesn't matter whether or not you participate. You wear whatever you want, within reason, either way.) I don't agree that uniforms serve a purpose, but that is IMHO. I believe that worrying about what color shirt a student wears, only allowing some students to support their teamand not others, and making this an issue IS abuse of power. I also feel it is counter productive to true respect for authority and the learning environment - again, IMHO. I get that he broke the rules, I am just glad our adminstrators would never make this an issue and choose to focus on truly important issues.

as an aside, whenever uniforms come up - we are told they are important to level the playing field as far as "haves" and "have nots". What is the point of that if you allow days where the kids that can afford $120 official jerseys get to show them off while other "less fortunate" kids have to "feel bad" about their black $5 t-shirts? I have never bought this reasoning for uniforms - this is just one example of why!

another excuse is that uniforms cut down on disruption - here you have a case where things have been taken so far to the extreme that the ridiculous rules and the stupid reaction of the principal are causing the distraction!

I sometimes get very frustrated over the uniform rules, but the fact is they are the rules. We don't get to pick and choose which rules we follow and which ones we don't.

The uniforms do level the playing field to a point. Some of the kids (my dd included) still wear Northface, Nike and other more expensive brand shoes and jackets; but they don't get to wear $50 jeans every day. They don't get to wear shirts with the brand blazened across the front--and those were the main issues around here.

The other and most important part of the dress/uniform code for our schools was to eliminate the constant issue of not being within dress code. Gone are the low cut jeans or low cut shirts, the too tight tops, the t-shirts with inappropriate sayings, the jeans falling down below the underwear, the short shorts and short skirts. Uniforms have actually done the opposite of what you are saying and taken the focus OFF of the student's clothing and on to the more important issues.

IF a kid shows up on one of the special days not within the dress code that was given to them, then the school calls (I believe that is what the principal in the op did?) for a parent to either bring the student appropriate attire or to pick the student up--parents choice on which to do. But the school is not doing anything on those days that they wouldn't do on any other day that a student showed up and was not within the code.

You keep refering back to "supporting their team". Was the day called "Saints Day" or "Black and Gold Day"? If it was the latter than he could have worn something black and gold without supporting the Saints. The boy knew the rules and he knew what he needed to do to comply. He made the choice not to comply. If that is the stand he chose to take, fine, but he has to be willing to take the consequences also.

 

[Sparx]

It's also being overlooked that he inquired about wearing the Colts jersey the day before & was denied, yet he wore it anyway.

Bored media looking for any story that adds to the hype.

this.

he asked, they said no, he broke the rules with parental permission. stupid choices all around and the dad is setting a bad example for the child. and no one forces the dad to send the child to this dress coded school.

and it really must be a slow news day.

 

[mickeylove2]

I work for the federal government and have a dress code policy of business casual...on the Friday before a Ravens game we are allowed to wear purple and black, or business attire, on certain days during baseball season, we are allowed to wear orange and black (Orioles games), or business casual. Rules are rules that's all there is to it. I have co-workers who are NOT Ravens fans, they show up to work in business casual and that's that. How hard is it for people to follow rules? This boy is going to have a hard time in the real world if he keeps pushing his boundaries! And what about his parents? They should have taught him about respecting authority and following rules, then they wouldn't have run into this problem.

 

[ilovejack02]

You keep refering back to "supporting their team". Was the day called "Saints Day" or "Black and Gold Day"? If it was the latter than he could have worn something black and gold without supporting the Saints. The boy knew the rules and he knew what he needed to do to comply. He made the choice not to comply. If that is the stand he chose to take, fine, but he has to be willing to take the consequences also.

Black and Gold, yes in support of saints, but if you had a black tee it was fine!

 

[luvsJack]

Black and Gold, yes in support of saints, but if you had a black tee it was fine!

That's what I thought. The boy did not have to be in support of the Saints. He could have just worn a black shirt.

Sounds like this boy was determined not to follow the rules and just wanted to take a stand about something that really should not have been such an issue.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

I sometimes get very frustrated over the uniform rules, but the fact is they are the rules. We don't get to pick and choose which rules we follow and which ones we don't.

The uniforms do level the playing field to a point. Some of the kids (my dd included) still wear Northface, Nike and other more expensive brand shoes and jackets; but they don't get to wear $50 jeans every day. They don't get to wear shirts with the brand blazened across the front--and those were the main issues around here.

The other and most important part of the dress/uniform code for our schools was to eliminate the constant issue of not being within dress code. Gone are the low cut jeans or low cut shirts, the too tight tops, the t-shirts with inappropriate sayings, the jeans falling down below the underwear, the short shorts and short skirts. Uniforms have actually done the opposite of what you are saying and taken the focus OFF of the student's clothing and on to the more important issues.

IF a kid shows up on one of the special days not within the dress code that was given to them, then the school calls (I believe that is what the principal in the op did?) for a parent to either bring the student appropriate attire or to pick the student up--parents choice on which to do. But the school is not doing anything on those days that they wouldn't do on any other day that a student showed up and was not within the code.

You keep refering back to "supporting their team". Was the day called "Saints Day" or "Black and Gold Day"? If it was the latter than he could have worn something black and gold without supporting the Saints. The boy knew the rules and he knew what he needed to do to comply. He made the choice not to comply. If that is the stand he chose to take, fine, but he has to be willing to take the consequences also.

again, I totally get this specific situation. It isn't that I don't get it, the point is I do not agree with the situation. It is the situation that is equally wrong and ridiculous. Yes, the kid broke the rules. IMHO, the rules are ridiculous and I am glad that this entire situation would not take place around here! I do believe that teachers and administrators who need to go to this extreme are abusing power and have issues.

ETA: we have very reasonable dress codes at our school. There are not major problems with inappropriate dress. The difference is that when administrators choose to deal with it - there is a legitimate reason for the move and not over something as foolish as the color of the shirt!!!!!! Again, thankfully ours choose to pick their battles wisely, spend time and effort on things that matter, and not play power games!

 

[Muffin]

again, I totally get this specific situation. It isn't that I don't get it, the point is I do not agree with the situation. It is the situation that is equally wrong and ridiculous. Yes, the kid broke the rules. IMHO, the rules are ridiculous and I am glad that this entire situation would not take place around here! I do believe that teachers and administrators who need to go to this extreme are abusing power and have issues.

ETA: we have very reasonable dress codes at our school. There are not major problems with inappropriate dress. The difference is that when administrators choose to deal with it - there is a legitimate reason for the move and not over something as foolish as the color of the shirt!!!!!! Again, thankfully ours choose to pick their battles wisely, spend time and effort on things that matter, and not play power games!

You mean there's absolutely nowhere in upstate NY that does this kind of dress code thing? Not one single school? How large of an area are we talking about? One school? A school district? A county?

I'm trying to understand how you can be so absolutely, positively sure that "this entire situation would not take place around here!"? I'm really curious.

Thanks.

 

[luvsJack]

again, I totally get this specific situation. It isn't that I don't get it, the point is I do not agree with the situation. It is the situation that is equally wrong and ridiculous. Yes, the kid broke the rules. IMHO, the rules are ridiculous and I am glad that this entire situation would not take place around here! I do believe that teachers and administrators who need to go to this extreme are abusing power and have issues.

ETA: we have very reasonable dress codes at our school. There are not major problems with inappropriate dress. The difference is that when administrators choose to deal with it - there is a legitimate reason for the move and not over something as foolish as the color of the shirt!!!!!! Again, thankfully ours choose to pick their battles wisely, spend time and effort on things that matter, and not play power games!

So are you saying that if a student CHOOSES (as opposed to accidently) to go against the school rules, your schools will say "oh, its just a little rule, its ok"? So who decides if the rule is worth enforcing?

I am not sure I understand how enforcing a rule is abusing power?? Abuse of power would come from intimidating the students about thier actions when no rule is in place.

There may not be major problems with inappropriate dress with the kids you know of or within the school your kids attend, but I can assure you there are students dressing inappropraitely somewhere in your area. That problem is, unfortunately, not a regional thing.

I don't really think the whole issue is about the color of the shirt; its about this young man's choice to break the rule. He made his choice and now he must live with the consequenses--sounds like a pretty good life lesson.

 

[Shutterbug]

I am not missing the point. I am saying thank goodness I do not live in an area where strict dress codes and ridiculously restrictive "color days" are tolerated in public schools. (we have color and spirit days, but because we do not have restrictive dress codes - it doesn't matter whether or not you participate. You wear whatever you want, within reason, either way.) I don't agree that uniforms serve a purpose, but that is IMHO. I believe that worrying about what color shirt a student wears, only allowing some students to support their teamand not others, and making this an issue IS abuse of power. I also feel it is counter productive to true respect for authority and the learning environment - again, IMHO. I get that he broke the rules, I am just glad our adminstrators would never make this an issue and choose to focus on truly important issues.

as an aside, whenever uniforms come up - we are told they are important to level the playing field as far as "haves" and "have nots". What is the point of that if you allow days where the kids that can afford $120 official jerseys get to show them off while other "less fortunate" kids have to "feel bad" about their black $5 t-shirts? I have never bought this reasoning for uniforms - this is just one example of why!

another excuse is that uniforms cut down on disruption - here you have a case where things have been taken so far to the extreme that the ridiculous rules and the stupid reaction of the principal are causing the distraction!

To me this is just a teen being a rebellious teen. Going against the establisment and he got the consequence of it as well.

Its just not school that has dress codes or uniforms. Its the business world as well. At the factory I work at, there are uniforms. If you are not in uniform your are sent home and or written up.

There is one deviation allowed. If you donate a certain amount to the united way through the company you are allowed to wear the united way t-shirt to work. No you cannot wear a red cross shirt if donate to the red cross, zilch nada no other charity shirts are allowed. Its either the united way shirt or your uniform shirt. Thats it.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Wow! Some of you have totally lost touch with your youth. Remember how you felt as a teen? A principal telling me that I could wear a Saints jersey but not a Colts jersey at that age would have had me working out a way to make him look as small as he is.

I lived for things like this at that age...

 

[luvsJack]

Wow! Some of you have totally lost touch with your youth. Remember how you felt as a teen? A principal telling me that I could wear a Saints jersey but not a Colts jersey at that age would have had me working out a way to make him look as small as he is.

I lived for things like this at that age...

Oh, I remember it well. Thought rebellion was the way to go. Got a son that was the same way. But, we faced the consequenses for that rebellion.

I don't think this is an an evil kid or anything, this may be the one and only time he ever goes against the grain. Whether its a stand he is taking or a prank to be funny--he just has to be willing to take the consequenses for that action.

 

[portocall]

again, I totally get this specific situation. It isn't that I don't get it, the point is I do not agree with the situation. It is the situation that is equally wrong and ridiculous. Yes, the kid broke the rules. IMHO, the rules are ridiculous and I am glad that this entire situation would not take place around here! I do believe that teachers and administrators who need to go to this extreme are abusing power and have issues.

ETA: we have very reasonable dress codes at our school. There are not major problems with inappropriate dress. The difference is that when administrators choose to deal with it - there is a legitimate reason for the move and not over something as foolish as the color of the shirt!!!!!! Again, thankfully ours choose to pick their battles wisely, spend time and effort on things that matter, and not play power games!

Look, I am no huge fan of uniforms, but for whatever reason, the parents and the districts decided that uniforms were needed to address whatever problems they were having. However, just because I don't like having to spend a fortune on uniforms each year in addition to street clothes for my boys, that doesn't give me the right to dress my children in their street clothes. Rules are rules and one of the requirements for my children to attend school on any given day is that they are dressed the way the school has decided. Dressing out of uniform is often a reward for my children and they look forward to those days more than you would believe. Those days often come with specific rules as well, red t-shirts for Red Ribbon Week, school t-shirts, black and gold day, jersey day (which we could buy at Walmart for $30 or less if you want to, not the $120 previously stated) and pajama days. The school sends home a note to the parents listing what is and is not acceptable. Since there aren't a ton of parents beating down the doors of the schools to rid them of the uniform requirements, I have to assume that I am in the minority.

What I can't get over is how people can call this an abuse of power. I will have to assume that the disser's here that say that must not deal with uniform issues. Truthfully, and even though I do dislike them, the focus of the kids is not on clothing or what so and so is wearing. The school seldom has to crack down because the children know what is expected of them (belt, socks, school polo, uniform pants, ID) and mine rarely forget a component that they need. But really, a uniform is a uniform... everyone dresses alike, for better or worse and days where the uniform is relaxed to bring awareness to a cause or celebrate a home team or an event are not free for alls. I sure would hate when my children go to work and are given a dress code they don't tell their boss that s/he is abusing their power. There are all kind of silly little rules that need to be followed to prevent chaos.