Yes, the schools have to be able to enforce discipline. But part of the output of our education deliverable is instilling in our children the ability to function in healthy ways when around people who are different. To quote the MDJ, certainly the "schools are meant for learning," but not in the narrow sense the editorial contemplated. The situation last week at North Cobb High School could have been a rich learning experience had the school chosen to have meaningful and mandatory discussions with the students about dealing with each other's differences, no matter how many of their buttons those differences were designed to push. The school system missed an opportunity to truly educate our future citizens. (Oh wait, I forgot! "Tolerance" isn't part of the AYP measurement).
And how about the astounding manipulation skills that adolescents magically develop! I get the impression that the young man at the center of the tempest is quite an accomplished manipulator. The people who are the targets of the manipulative behavior, however, have a choice of how or whether to react. One would hope that it would take more than a man in a woman's clothing to elicit bad behavior and to create "a problem for (his) safety" (per school spokesman Jay Dillon) in the men's room. It's pretty stupid to think these days that people would get upset about a skinny little guy dressed like a woman (remember Prince?).
So consider this: Cobb County students and educators had a choice of whether or not to react to some guy in stilettos. Anybody watch comedian Eddie Izzard? YouTube? If a guy in a woman's clothing makes you want to beat him up, you probably have some pretty serious issues beyond your bruised fashion sensibilities. Get a grip, students. Don't act like hate crime-ers. Don't act at all. Don't react. Nobody's clothes are About You.
Now another finger-wag at the school system. There are children who are in fact transgendered (although I'm not suggesting the young man is or is not transgendered) and often are therapeutically more functioning and whole when dressing as the opposite sex. Should they not be allowed to dress as their "preferred" gender? (In fact isn't the school required to accommodate them under ADA?) If there is therapeutic merit in allowing the true transgendered to cross-dress, then what gives the schools the expertise to determine who is actually transgendered and who is a naughty little miscreant? Has the school system developed a clear-headed process with alternatives other than home schooling for accommodating this type of situation?
And a final lecture, this one for the young man. You could be absolutely free to dress however you like, and even if that were true for you today in the Cobb County school system, there would still be consequences for you. As clothes express who you are, who you are thought to be leads people to decide whether you are trustworthy, reliable and employable. When you make your decision on what to wear tomorrow, do it with the clear mind of someone who is smart enough to know what he is saying about himself in the context in which he lives.
My advice to the Cobb school district: Get over it. My advice to the kids who let their bad buttons get pushed: Get over it. My advice to the young man: Get over yourself and get back to class.
Joni House of east Cobb is president of The Grayfen Group, Inc., a management consulting firm in Marietta and an alumna firm of the Governor's Mentor-Protege Program. She is a graduate of the Leadership Cobb Class of 2006.
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Also kudo's to MDJ, good to see you publish something other then the "good ole boy" party line that you normally stick with.
PWB
that the rules be obeyed. If they let this boy slide, next week someone will show up with even a more bizarre dress mode. Or with no clothes at all. Would you advocate that as an example of tolerance, to allow students to attend school nude? How about nude with various body parts painted? or with plants tied to various body parts? We won't allow a student in school with "disrupitve" or "offensive" language on a tee shirt. How is this case any different?
Get off the soapbox. The longer this kid is made a folk hero for being foolish in his manner of dress, the more people are goign to copy him.
It's his choice whether to conform and continue with his education, or bask in his notoriety. The latter has an extremely short shelf life when it is born of sensationalism.
You have let your politically correct thinking to take you far off the tracks of reason.The only legitimate purpose for public education is to prepare students intellectually and practically for their future. This young man obviously is not interested in education, but rather in creating sensationalism for himself. Think of it this way; Whatever publicity and uproar he creates by his dress and actions, detracts for the learning available to the other students in the school. He has the freedom to express himself outside of school and take whatever philosophical statement he wishes. Outlandish dress or behavior in schools should not be tolerated regardless of whether it is related to sex, gender, size, religion, color, national origin, etc. Can you understand this, schools are not the place for exhibitionism.
Well said, Joni.
Oh, and hey? Does anyone remember why there were no Olympic sporting events in Cobb County in 1996, and how not even the torch run graced our hallowed soil? Sounds like some folks here, as exemplified by Tony Maddox, still need a little help in getting over themselves.
When are you libs going to get it? Why do 1000's have to change for Jonnie? Instead Jonnie should have to change for the 1,000.
I see this as no different that if you are in America you need to learn to speak English. Why does everyone's history mean something except for the US history.