Student's 'Jesus' shirt sparks feud with school

What if a student stopped bathing and got a complaint? Could the school just as easily over turn a stinky person as a clean person wearing a jesus t shirt that only offended someone if they read it? Probally not...

If im not mistaken rastafarians dont wash their hair due to religion beliefs

Originally posted by Annee

You seriously believe if a student was wearing a "Satan Rules" T-shirt - - - a group of Christian parents wouldn't make some noise?

I don't know why they would. It's a choice of the individual wearing the shirt.

If a student wore the same "Satan Rules" T-shirt for 2 weeks straight - - like this kid did with his Jesus T-shirt - - no one would say anything? That if the school did ask him to change it and he refused - - - the school would just dismiss it?

If it smelled of 'funk' I believe something would be said.

I am 100% opposed to any and all religion - non-religion in public schools. I would object to any reference to an organized religious belief.

World History is non-religion. Are you oppose to this? World History has references of all the religions of the world and how they came about. It's history. To deny history is to deny our humanity.

That doesn't mean - - - objection to a positive message. There are phrases that can be used - - without pointing out any specific belief.

Would you care to elaborate on what phrases can be used? Are they Biblical? Non-Biblical?

reply to post by Annee


Not necessarily overnight, but they could impose a set of guidelines which istates what is and isn't appropriate and some other kids might find that these guidelines affect their choice of dress, the school is well within its right to ban shirts with any kind of slogan on it, what's wrong with casual clothing without slogans?

The kids are meant to be there to learn not to show off their clothes...why does wearing clothes make a statement? Why do people need to express themselves through the clothes they wear? They're going to school not a fashion parade.

They don't necessarily have to have all kids appear the next day in a shirt, blazer and tie and I didn't say that.

Well in my opinion it probably wasn't because it mentioned Jesus. It was probably because it said "Life is wasted without Jesus"

It could be comparable to somebody wearing a shirt saying "Life is wasted with Jesus", because you know people would have a lot bigger fit over a shirt like that.

reply to post by ideasarebulletproof


If you would have read the thread you would find that this was covered from about 3 angles. Just saying...

I still remember wearing the Slayer "God Hates us All" shirt in school and no one complained, I didn't get banned.

Neither should this person.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
reply to post by ThirdEyeofHorus

 

Um...all that stuff you are citing is pretty groovy and all, but if you notice, it's all about 'religious humanism'. Please google secular. It's nothing but a sidebar to the debate anyway.

Kid's a smug little robotnik who got a little confused on the path to 'question authority'.

Thanks for the lesson Johnny, Religious humanism is merely a segment of humanism in general. The Humanist Manifesto declares humanism to reform religious values and update them to exclude a deity. It is still a collection of beliefs and faith. Scientific humanism just disagrees with a Creator and believes that the Universe just exists.

reply to post by ideasarebulletproof

good point. Most schools have written in their dress code no offensive t-shirts. But I guess it all depends what culture your coming from. A school in iraq would find the life is wasted without jesus offensive, while an american school woudl find the life is wasted with jesus offensive. America is a melting pot society where different viewpoints are constantly side by side.
So with this understanding we could limit freedom of expression to intermediate, or we could let everyone express their opinions from different cultures.
i think the main thesis to this thread, is how a melting pot society doesnt fail.
comments?

Originally posted by Starchild23
Hold on. Religion is an innate part of our country...our country was founded based upon Christianity.

No, it wasn't. It was founded on freedom of religion. Many of the founding fathers were deists.

Anyway, this kid should rejoice, like Iason says, because he's being persecuted. He's stacking up rewards to receive when he reaches heaven. He's gonna have all kinds of rewards to put in his trophy case to show off to his christian friends who come to visit him in his heavenly mansion.

Originally posted by samerulesapply
reply to post by Annee

 

Not necessarily overnight, but they could impose a set of guidelines which istates what is and isn't appropriate and some other kids might find that these guidelines affect their choice of dress, the school is well within its right to ban shirts with any kind of slogan on it, what's wrong with casual clothing without slogans?

I would suspect they do have guidelines. I know my granddaughter's school does - - - and I know I'd be supporting the school and those rules.

Where are this kids parents?

Are his parents claiming religious persecution and blaming the school?

so pretty much what this school is trying to tell the world is...
melting pot societies stifle freedom of expression and diversity is not allowed.

reply to post by Foxy1


No.

2nd.

reply to post by samerulesapply


But this isn't a night club, it's a pubic school. Parents pay for their kids' education here. Parents and principals work for these parents (and really all of us.) This is a nation of freedoms. When I was a kid and I wanted to wear a certain shirt (maybe a Buddha one or whatever) I'd have worn it anyway. Let them call the cops. What would they do? If they called my parents they'd have had my back on it.

What's so hard to understand about rights and freedoms? Education is a public institution, not a private night club!

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


okay well lets say every other student in a class of 30 is of a different faith? 10 people are wearing burkas and covering their faces. 10 people are christian and wearing some type of clothing claiming their faith same as the people wearing burkas. the other 10 are rastafarian who dont wash thier hair and smell funny to the other 20. I suppose everything will be fine and dandy all semester? apparently not according to this story, which is the death bells of melting pot society.

reply to post by Annee


Indeed, my mother always used to make sure I was respectable when going to school, I come from a catholic family but I doubt she'd have allowed me to wear something like that as a kid, not even outside of school, not that I'd have wanted to.

I really don't get the whole expression of the self through clothing, how is an item of clothing purchased from some store an expression of the self, kids are strange nowadays. People seem to think the clothes they wear somehow manke them better people or define them as a person, it's all a bit odd.

I hate wearing clothing that draws attention to me and find it increasingly difficult to find clothes that I like, people walk around looking like billboards.

People have remarked that ooh it wouldn't be that if it was a satan rules shirt or a shirt that said life with jesus is wasted, etc...maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Neither should be allowed, that's the compromise that ensures people can co-exist wit others with different beliefs and backgrounds.

I think the school did right to take action, they took the wrong action in that they singled out that particular student.

It's a crazy world, eh?

Though I don't agree with a lot of Christians or the teachings of their religion, I do agree that everyone has a right to their religion and expressing it in a non hateful way is acceptable. This just sucks that Christians are being barred now. I apologise for all negative assumptions I have ever made about Christianity and am now willing to raise hell about this so everyone can express themselves.

reply to post by LoneCloudHopper


I don't think it's possible for exeryone to co-exist in a world where we all get our own way and dictate the world around us.

Rules are rules, what doyou want exactly? Your inidividual rights and freedoms might be all well and good but what about others...what about the madman who thinks it's his right to kill? It doesn't matter if people pay...because you pay you shouldn't have to obey rules?

I'm glad this isn't the case in the real world because it'd be absolute anarchy...that's tghe problem these days, people think their own personal wants and likes are more important than everyone elses and there's no respect.

reply to post by samerulesapply
you see thats just the thing majority rule. If we were lead under a nation where madmen were the 90% according to them the 10% would be considered different or crazy "madmen"
i think whats going on here is the whiplash of a melting pot society.
Same like the race differences (byproduct of meltingpot) blacks get scholoarships to school for being black so do native americans but whites dont get a grant for being white. (im not even going to mention the zimmerman case)(or why we have websites called blacknews.com but nothing called whitenews.com)
our society is starting to favor the minorities of the mainstream thinking or race to compensate for the meltingpot problems according to majority rule.

So keeping that line of thinking, most americans are christian but in favor of the melting pot working we must compensate.

Originally posted by samerulesapply
reply to post by Annee

 

Indeed, my mother always used to make sure I was respectable when going to school, I come from a catholic family but I doubt she'd have allowed me to wear something like that as a kid, not even outside of school, not that I'd have wanted to.

There is a fine line between freedom of expression and respect. Do I expect my kids to be "sheep"? NO. Do I let them express themselves through clothing? Yes.

However - I also expect them to show reasonable respect for positions of authority that they are directly involved with.

It is a "give and take" world. There was no real reason for this kid to be a complete jerk. And again - - where are his parents.

I think the school did right to take action, they took the wrong action in that they singled out that particular student.

The article said several requests had been made - - prior to suspension. I think the school acted appropriately. The kid was being a complete jerk.

Why did this go to media? Did his parents claim religious persecution?

This is a total non-event. Many school districts have a 'no-slogan' rule in their dress codes. I would bet this school district is no different. That the student wore a slogan of any kind could have been reason enough for the action. Nobody is suspended immediately without there being some dialog or warning prior. The fact that he wore it for two weeks leads me to think that he was making some kind of statement. That, in itself, speaks volumes. "I'll wear this because it's my right as a Christian" or something akin, against, "I'm sorry I violated the dress code." Teenagers. Pfft.

It seems to me that people are making a big fuss about this because it made claims about Christian belief. Most are Christians who seem to feel that if their religion is 'attacked' like this, it's a violation of rights, free speech, or some similar hogwash. If someone wore a T-shirt saying, "Your God doesn't exist!" would you see this as an expression of free speech? Of course not, because it's against your beliefs. You'd be screaming at the school district.

Please try to live in this world peacefully with your own faith. Don't be affronted when your beliefs are not shared.
There are other faiths, and non faiths. Try not to feel persecuted when someone has an opinion other than yours.
Try not to cry when people object to having your beliefs forced upon them, or at least be sensitive to the beliefs or non-belief of others. Schools should not be a forum for religion of any kind (unless they are specifically religion based schools).