Jeraiser

In the past few months, a sincere anti-emo movement has transpired at the high school where I live. (Emo being, to my knowledge, a style of music and clothing.) The abhorence among most of the students toward the tight pants and black attire associated with emo has escaladed to rediculous preportions, and frankly, I see no motive whatsoever.

The controversy began when one of the anti-emo loyalists had a number of cheap, white T-shirts printed with the phrase, "It's not okay to be emo." After handing out the shirts to some friends, the interest in the shirts lead to the printing of more, and eventually, the anti-emo movement became a fad. People claimed to "hate" emos to be "in." In time, the student responsible for the t-shirts was suspended, as would anyone wearing one.

In a similar predicament, some sort of law was recently passed that allowed Gays and Lesbians the same freedoms in some educational field as would a straight person. (I'm not exactly sure of the terms of the law.) Our high-school took it upon itself to recognize the law and inform the student body of its importance. (Once again, I am at a loss of knowledge on the matter. I've know idea what the high school did to recognize the law, as I'm not yet in high school.) On the day the school would do such, a select group of students wore shirts stating, "God hate's Gays," and other phrases of the sort, as well as biblical scriptures to support their declaration.

In this situation, the school staff acted quite differently. For whatever reason, having biblical text to back the student's shirts, the statements became opinion rather than a hate-speech. When the students refused to turn the shirts inside out as to hide the text, the staff felt it was beyond their power to take further action. (As told by my father, who’s principal of the school where this occurred.)

Some consider to ban the shirts in both instances would be an infringement upon our freedom of speech in America. My argument is that such assertions violate the safe, working environment that is vital to a quality education, which in the adolescent stage of life, is more essential than that of freedom of speech. When should we impede on one of our most coveted liberties in such a situation? When is such an action ethical?

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary

You right well for someone in junior high school. I'm impressed.

Secondly, I notice that you are from Montana. I guess that would also explain a lot of this predicament. This shit would not fly in any urban center one the East or West Coast, IMO.

Lastly, what is an emo? Is that like a goth?

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Forum Rule 3: Discuss the Issue, not your opponent.

Jeraiser

I wouldn't define it as "Goth." Emo, once a simple musical genre, is prominately identified by tight pants and shirt, eyeliner, and most imperitive as a qualification of "Emohood," the hair style. (Dyed black)



Some bands considered emo include "My Chemical Romance," "Panic At the Disco," "Jimmy Eat World," and plenty of othr lesser known artists. Actually, you'll probably find this site will answer any questions.

Good ol' ultraconservative-Montana, especially where I live. The tolerance threshold of the place outrageous. Even as an eighth grader, I'm often subject to ridicule because of my left-winged leaning views.

"Man, somebody should just shoot Hillary Clinton."
"And exactly what is it you don't like about her?"
"I dunno...she's a democrat."


And thank's, WEB! I've been looking for a place to ventilate some thoughts I've had without being accused of being a nerd by my peers.

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary

Well Montana just elected a Democratic Senator. I guess that was more due to Conrad Burns being an idiot though, than due to the Democrat's popularity, I guess you would say.

I really don't know jack about this whole emo thing. I think I need the entire concept explained to me.

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Forum Rule 3: Discuss the Issue, not your opponent.

Jeraiser

You wouldn't believe how close that election was, but that sticky business Conrad had with lobbyist Jack Abramoff definitely allowed John Tester that win.

Brother Oz

As a hardcore metalhead, I detest Emos, for they are our mortal enemy...


But this is an interesting situation. It's kind of odd, since there are laws protecting gays, you said yourself it had just been passed, but obviously there are no laws protecting a small teenage clique. And yet those with the anti-gay t-shirts were allowed to wear them.
What they really ought to do is have a school uniform.

Personally, since I'm not a Colonial fed on fanatical devotion to the American constitution, I can see absolute Freedom of Speech for the rubbish it is. A school is not a place to allow you to express your political views, neither is a work place. If you can do so without disrupting things, then fine. But this is a situation where it does disrupt things.

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... I am surprised at your insolence in writing to me at all. You know, as I know, that I bought this constituency... may God's curse light upon you and may it make your women as open and as free to the excise officers as your wives and daughters have always been to me while I have represented your scoundrel corporation.
I have the honour to be... your obliged humble servant, Anthony Henley
- MPs reply to constituent, mid 1700s

Izzibeth

Time for your school to look into buying uniforms. ^_^ Obviously the student body is not mature enough to continue wearing non-uniform clothing.

People should be careful with this emo thing. About... 4 years ago I lived in Cape Cod and emo was in. This was before it became this big internet joke to hate emo kids and all that. People don't seem to understand that it only takes a few to turn a joke into a reality and make it some kind of "war against emo kids". It's just a style of dress and music. However, if it starts to get out of hand we'll see emo kids getting attacked just for being emo. I know it happens anyway but with the way it's spreading that "emo sucks" and whatnot... it's starting to look like it's "cool" to hate kids who dress that way. It'll end up not being safe. As ridiculous as that is.

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Izzibeth

Oh, also... if you can't have organized prayer in school then you should not be able to have a group of people (or even one person... but more for a safety issue) wearing a shirt that says "God hates Gays" or whatever.

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Jeraiser

If an Islamic extremist attended the high-school and wore a shirt stating "Kill all Americans," accompanied by passages from the Koran that support his declaration, would this be acceptable to the staff? Abspolutely not. The overall Christian dominance reigns.

RightPride

***s use emos to indoctrinate our youth.

like homos, emos are immoral lost souls.