That kid who wore a shirt with a gun

In Oregon, a student was recently suspended for wearing a shirt to school that showed a gun. I have read multiple articles about this incident, and it has become very clear that the school was wrong. One of the articles I read can be found at OregonLive.com.


The school cited their dress code policy. The relevant part of this policy has been copied below:

Students shall not wear clothing with obscene, profane, alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug and/or violence-related references.

The shirt in question was showing support for soldiers in the military and displayed a battlefield cross. This is generally viewed as a memorial. It also includes a gun in the design.

A spokesperson for the district indicated that the problem with the shirt was the depiction of the gun. Although guns are definitely known to be used in violent acts, the gun on the shirt was clearly shown in a non-violent manner. It's clear to me that he was not in violation of the school's dress code policy, but he was suspended anyway.

Not too long ago, a kid in Texas was arrested for making a clock. I also ranted about that incident. There are two key differences between these two events that I want to mention. The first is that the kid who made a clock was put into handcuffs and taken into police custody. The extent of the punishment for the gun on the shirt was an in-school suspension. The other key difference is that the Oregonian was given an opportunity to avoid punishment. The kid who made a clock had no way out of his school's mistake.

Right now, I'm actually more interested in the similarities of these events. In both cases, the kids did no wrong but were bullied by paranoid teachers and administrators. The schools were clearly wrong in both instances, and the general public should be supporting both kids.

It's time for the true purpose of this rant. Like I said, I read multiple articles. I have also read comments people have made to these articles. It's remarkable just how many people insist that one is right and the other is wrong.

Part of the problem is that a lot of people seem to inject politics into whether or not a school should be justified in their wrongdoings. Hardcore Republicans insisted that the kid who made a clock should be punished as a precaution, and insist that guaranteeing safety is worthy of traumatizing an innocent child. Hardcore Democrats insist that the schools should be able to change the rules as they go to take away any freedom of speech when that form of speech contradicts their agenda.

I'm sorry, but right and wrong should not change to fit either political party. Children should have rights. These are events that will have lingering implications for these children. This is a legitimate form of harm that we are causing children when we have no legitimate justification for that harm. We should be absolutely outraged that we are seeing this sort of behavior in the schools. We should be thinking of the children rather than our political views. Why are so few people willing to acknowledge that neither of these incidents should have ever happened?