A local junior high school student is suspended from school after writing “I Love Jesus” on his backpack.
His mother wants to know why.
His principal said it’s not as simple as the boy and his mother say.
The buzz Friday at Actis Junior High School is about Justin Molatore, sent home after he refused to leave his backpack in the school’s office.
Molatore said it’s because of the principal, but the school won’t budge.
Three words written by Molatore’s brother on his backpack days before the brother was sent overseas in the military, they read “I Love Jesus.”
But it’s those words that are causing the eighth grader to miss two days of class.
Actis Principal Bill Galloway said all writing is prohibited so covert messages don’t get through.
“They could be making a reference to drugs or gangs in a slang that we’re not aware of so that’s why we just keep it to the names,” said Galloway.
The Bakersfield City School District said they do allow writing on clothing and supplies that is appropriate for school.
You can find the school’s completely lame website here. Unlike websites for most schools, there are no pictures of the school grounds or of the principal. And this picture is about as lame as possible:
Geezer – what I’m saying is that these two ideas are not contradictory:
1. Students have established free speech rights that protect their speech, oral and written, while in a public school.
2. Schools have the right to enact and enforce dress codes (even though they may seem to infringe free speech rights)
I brought up the California law, just to bring it up. It seems to limit what kind of speech can be limited in schools – I don’t think it applies to situation, however. Why? Because, schools enjoy quite a bit of latitude in enforcing dress codes – consider clear back packs and school uniforms.
So, the rule would protect the student who wore an “I love Jesus” button or just told people that he loved Jesus, or even if he had a T-shirt that was commercially printed that said, “I love Jesus.”
The school’s dress code however, prohibits any kind of writing on the students’ person, clothing or backpacks. By writing on his backpack, the student broke the dress code.
#36 – Wow! One California joke, and I get blasted. Thanks for proving my point about the easily offended.
Anyway, I’m all for schools enforcing a reasonable dress code, and I can understand where the principal is coming from (working in a public school district myself as well as being a softball umpire). If he had let this one case slide, he’d undermine his own authority when a student violates the dress code in a more colorful manner. Where does the principal draw the line? I’m faced with similar situations on the ballfields where I have to enforce a rule that, on principle, I may not agree with. If I fail to do so, I undermine my own authority when another player performs the same action in a more flagrant manner. Sometimes, it’s either all or none.
I realize I’m kinda stretching it with the softball analogy, but it’s the one that I find most relevant to my own life.
How lame it it becoming to be in High School today when you can’t even but “I love Jesus” on your back pack! He wasn’t walking around with a gun saying ‘love Jesus’ or else. I know not all believes the same way I do, but no one wants to be outed for there beliefs.
#6 – I personally think this part of a conservative effort to force a backlash. I don’t see “liberals” arguing for any of this idiocy.
Comment by Smartalix — 2/6/2007 @ 5:10 am
But there are plenty of conservatives (the Fox Watching kind, not all conservatives) who can sure invent liberals in favor of this idiocy.
Yes. I argue for the death of religion. But it doesn’t do any good to force it. The “enlightened” must end religion through logic and reason… not thought control. (Thought control is a neo-con tool, not ours)
Maybe the school’s administration thought he had a crush on a hispanic kid named “jesus” and suspended out of homophobia instead
#40, meetsy
It doesn’t matter what he wrote on his back pack. It doesn’t matter how indoctrinated he might be. The LAW of the land says he may write whatever he wishes to provided that it is not disruptive to the normal school activities. So the breaker of the rules is the Principal himself, not the student. When this is over, some Principal is going to have to apologize and the district will have to cut a teacher or two to pay for the court costs.
See Tinker v Des Moines.
Mr. Fusion, you are forgetting something….a high school student is a minor, and doesn’t have full rights. This is how schools get away with what they get away with. The backpack kid is still – in the eyes of the law- a MINOR. They cannot assume full punishment (except in extreme cases) and they also do not get full rights under our constitution. Our Constitution outlines who and what is a citizen, and kids are not included.
The courts, however, see a human life as a human life, but this should not confuse the issue.
And the individual states have their own statues that further define things. So, I think you have good intentions, but, except in rare exceptions and rare court cases (there are oddball judges and decisions all over the place…you need more than one citation to impress me), a minor child is not an adult. Which means, they do not have first amendment rights, yet.
45. Angel, your comments are always so funny!