In every setback there is opportunity. The idea of having a party tied to a regimentation center could be a gone forever if students/inmates join together to host a private prom–free from their conservative neighbors who use the regimentation center to squash any type of unique behavior, including unconventional romantic interests.

A private prom would welcome individuality, not conformity. All would be welcome: individuals with any sexual interest, those who prefer casual clothes, students of any age. All these individuals could join together for one night to celebrate life, friendship, love, and the pending liberation of the oldest in attendance from the regimentation center.

See related article on Huffington Post.

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A federal judge ruled a former high school student suspended for creating a Facebook page that criticized her English teacher can sue the high school principal who suspended her. The page entitled “Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever had” attracted current and former students, some of whom criticized the teacher and others who offered support. The student, Katherine Evans, took down the page after a few days. Two months later, the principal suspended her for creating the page. Represented by the ACLU, the student, now in a second year college student, wants the suspension expunged from her record, payment for legal fees, and a nominal award. See news coverage and legal info.

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The parents specifically filed a federal lawsuit stating the district stifled their children’s First Amendment free speech rights. According to Fox News, the parents also sued to repeal the uniform policy.

One of the students had worn a button for more than six weeks before the school protested. The school claimed the buttons promoted Nazi ideology and do not, if you can believe this, constitute free speech. While the lawsuit moved forward, the students did not wear buttons to avoid jeopardizing their education.

“The school cannot prohibit student free speech even where some may find the speech offensive,” said Ed Barocas, legal director of the ACLU’s New Jersey chapter. “The school must show that the free speech is actually going to be disruptive, in order to censor it.”

The parents issued a written statement:

“I’ve gotten overwhelming support from MANY people that tell me that they absolutely agree with what the image depicted, an ominously homogenous group of blindly cooperative children,” the statement said.

“That image showed no swastikas, no weapons, and Hitler himself wasn’t depicted,” she wrote. “The picture makes a profound statement about what can happen when we turn children into ‘uniform’ followers. Our intent was not to offend but to make a bold statement about what we, as an American family believe is an erosion of a simple right, to be individuals, not blind followers. The very basic rights, to wear clothing we choose, and to peacefully protest what we know was the undemocratic stripping of those rights from us as parent and student.”

Wow!

More info:

• First Amendment Center
• NY Times Article (with photo of student wearing button!)
• Hey Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
• Find Michael DePinto on Facebook.

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The school admins claim skinny jeans violate their modesty requirements. They might have a point. Some clothes are not appropriate for all circumstances, and choosing which clothes are appropriate is a subjective decision. The school likely doesn’t allow males to show their briefs, a style favored by some, and students likely leave government schools for this reason.

However, students and their parents also have the right to decide if they think skinny jeans or any other dress style distracts from studying. And they have the right to leave a school that bans styles they deem acceptable, as Seth and his Mom decided.

The dress code could have been the last straw. The school may be conservative with all policies: music, arts, essays, group projects. Do they welcome creativity and new ideas or suppress them?

Seth has an exciting road ahead of him. Not only can he wear any dress style, he will have much more control over what he studies. Clearly Seth thinks for himself and now he can think for himself while learning. And when Seth meets his friends after the government school day ends, he’ll be wearing skinny jeans, while his friends, unless they changed their clothes, will be wearing more conservative attire.

» Read a related article.

» Seth’s facebook page?

» Search Google for more stories about Seth.

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Government admins disagreed. They demanded the Sadie Pendleton remove the hair dye. Well, that wasn’t so easy since the dye was semi-permanent, meaning it would take about two months to wash out. Her parents insisted she be allowed to remain in the school, and the admins backed down but still forbid Sadie from adding more dye to her hair.

Update 1 from Sadie’s father:

“After the purple faded, we proceeded to dye red streaks. The school has said NOTHING regarding the red!”

Update 2 from Sadie’s father:

Thanks again! We have another student that tried to dye her hair a natural color but it turned out green. Same school!

She was told by the school that she cannot return until it was back to normal. Her father went to the school to fight it and they are letting her come back as long as it’s fading!

The good news is that more are standing up for the right to freely express! Soon more will do the same and we will prevail!

Your support is awesome!

The girl and her parents parents plan to continue the fight. They want to remove this restriction on free expression. Learn more.

Her parents are right — this issue is more about free expression, than some hair dye. The gov’t admins can’t stand to see someone act like a free individual, a free thinker.

If other students were in fact distracted by someone’s hair style or clothing or car, the admins should speak to those students who may be suffering from envy or boredom or a failure to concentrate. These are the students who need help. Outside of schools, people have purple hair. A person who cannot produce when faced with purple hair will find it difficult to earn a living.

Hopefully, more students will choose to express themselves with their hair.  Wax, dye, close cuts, braids — all of these options can create some individual style.

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Her parents excused all of the absences, three of which were due to doctor visits, one for an illness, and the other for the funeral of a classmate and a close friend. The government teachers and administrators disagreed.

Many people think that the government, rather than “big business,” cares about the average citizen. The opposite is true. In Chickasha, Florida, the government teachers don’t care that they have ruined the failed student’s GPA, which will have a huge impact on her college applications.

The school does allow five absences if some of them are for authorized activities, which means an activity that is approved by the government. The policy is similar to curfews, which allow teenagers to be out past curfew IF they are participating in a government approved activity.

One of the main reasons for her school’s strict attendance policy is money. Most government schools receive funding based upon attendance. If students don’t show up for class, the school gets a smaller check from the state and federal government. And since a school can lose thousands of dollars if a student leaves school, slackers and trouble makers are rarely expelled. Unless, of course, they have guns.

In the free-market, private schools strive for high test scores and high graduation rates. Attendance is important only if a student is performing poorly. Most college professors at private colleges never take attendance.

In a Libertarian society, all schools would be private and, like many college students, you could sleep all day and study all night. You would set your own schedule and even if you missed 45 computer classes, you could still get an “A” if you aced the final exam.

More Libertarian Rockstar stories

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Paul and Barbara H.
Tijeras, NM

Libertarian Rock responds: “She took away your personal property? Often government school teachers will back down if you protest and get the attention of the press. It would make a great headline: ‘Teacher steals book from 5th grader’

You could contact the press by writing a press release and faxing or emailing it to ALL radio stations, tv stations, and the local newspapers. It must be one page and read like a newspaper article. Any biased quotes from you should be in quotes. If it is objective, lazy reporters will simply print exactly what you wrote.

Read Libertarian Rock’s press releases to get a feel for how to write a press release: http://www.libertarianrock.com/pressrel.html

Update: “Thanks for your help. A well placed word about the press and ACLU was enough to have the principal groveling at my feet. I think this was a good thing because Paul got to see the importance of defending our precious rights. We will be keeping an eye on Libertarian Rock. Young people are the most discriminated against group in the country. The excuse given for confiscating the book ( Tom Clancy’s Net Force) was that they are “just being careful after what happened in Colorado.” I fear that all teens who are free thinkers will suffer punitive measures because of this. Again, thanks!”

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On April 21, Hodits put on his black trench coast, which has been his daily uniform for the past three years, and brought a yellow plastic gun to school. Later in the day, a teacher stopped Hodits and two of his friends, one of whom was playing with the toy gun. The teacher confiscated the toy and sent Hodits and his friends to the dean’s office.

The dean suspended Hodits for 10 days and on May 7, the school board expelled him for the remainder of the year AND the next school year. Hodits claims the board acted hysterically due to the recent Columbine shootings and failed to look at the specifics of his case. Hodits would like a judge to overrule the school board by allowing his return to school for his senior year. He would also like the district to pay his attorney fees.

According to Stuart Swenson, director of student services, the school board may expel students who carry weapons or look-alike weapons to school. He also acknowledged that the school board is not required to expel students who carry yellow plastic guns to school.

Hodits lawsuit is a direct attack on zero-tolerance policies, which have become the justification for expelling non-conformist students. Before zero-tolerance, a toy-gun, which is just a toy, would mean detention or possibly a suspension. Now school boards can banish students who do not conform to a government-approved, Ritalin personality.

Zero-tolerance policies for weapons are simply another way for the government to disarm you. Police and teachers don’t want you to carry around pocketknives, bb guns or anything else that you could use to defend yourself. They don’t even want you to become comfortable with guns or knives by playing with toy replicas.

Hodits claims that the school board acted hysterically when they expelled him. However, hysteria arrived years ago. Dozens of students in the Chicago area have been suspended or expelled for lugging fake guns and knives to school. These students are pranksters not potential assassins.

Hodits’ case may resurrect logic in his suburban Chicago high school. If you also become a victim of zero-tolerance policies, you have the right to ask a judge to overrule your school board. If you are suspended, on your first day of suspension you could file a lawsuit against your school and ask the court to grant an injunction that would allow you to immediately return to school until the court decides your case.

You must have zero-tolerance for zero-tolerance.

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The school’s Code of Conduct specifies that an expulsion hearing is held after either five suspensions for the same infraction or six suspensions for the different offenses. Additionally, school officials immediately expel students who assault a district employee or bring a weapon to school.

Kushner admits to the five initial offenses, which included using profanity to a hall monitor, repeatedly being disrespectful to teachers, failing to appear at detentions, refusing to stop sleeping in class, inappropriately using a lavatory pass, not wearing his student identification pass and possessing marijuana in class. However, he claims the sixth offense of skipping detention was caused by a teacher.

According to Kushner, he reported to the detention but he left because a teacher said that he was not on the official list. The school denied his offer to “make up” the detention and then expelled him.

Kushner’s lawsuit also contends that on two occasions he was inappropriately suspended for not possessing his ID, when in fact he was simply not wearing it on the exact part of clothing required. Kushner would like the court to review these and the remaining suspensions.

Kushner may not like school but he gets an A for legal issues. By reading the exact specifications of the school code, he has figured out a way to challenge his school by using the school’s own regulations. His ingenuity is similar to the student who successfully challenged his suspension because he did not receive a written notice.

Get a copy of your school’s student code and take advantage of your rights as they are specified in the code. If your government school officials have left some things out, you can get a copy of The Bill of Rights and take them to court.

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The second and third were related. They allowed administrators to conduct random, unannounced searches of lockers, backpacks, and students.

Even though I do not expect to be caught on these new attempts to stifle any attempt at personal responsibility in the name of safety, I still recognize these as a direct violation of 4th amendment rights. More importantly, they also wish to install metal detectors and hire someone to monitor the security cameras. Though I have no problem with this personally, it is one step closer to hand-held metal detectors and then not too much longer to legal strip searches.

So, in response and largely due to articles found on your web page, I have created what I call a “Civil Liberties Folder.” In it, I keep articles and court cases that are proof of my rights within school (I’m trying to find a convenient way to carry one outside to protect myself from unchained police who seem to have nothing better to do in a suburban town than hassle teenagers.)

I highly suggest to any and all Rockstars out there to look though this page and as many others as you can find and keep a copy of any article or highlights from any court case (make sure you get case names or it won’t mean much) that will support your cause. If you like, staple a copy of the Bill Of Rights in the inside cover as I did, since it is the most crucial document you could possibly put in there.

Most importantly, try to read it in class (when school starts numbing our brains to the point of being perfect machines again) and let anyone who is curious read as well. If you see injustice, have the courage to step in for that person, even if you can’t stand them.

This is the new passive resistance. By knowing our rights and spreading that information we have earned them. I just thought others might benefit from this.

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