student wearing Klan attire not found to be harassing (local)

[transmothra]

Klanswear ok at Tecumseh Local Schools?

i just sent this letter to District Superintendent Jim Gay:

Mr. Gay,

Hello, i was just reading about the Civil Rights case at Olive Branch and wanted to know more information. Specifically, i would like to know by what methods it was determined that "no harassment took place." It is very interesting to me that a kid could claim that another kid was wearing a Klan getup on school property, yet nothing found to be deserving of further inquiry. If the other student was not wearing Klan regalia, then what, exactly, were they found to be wearing? And if they were indeed wearing Klanswear, what action was taken, if any, and why was this sort of attire permitted (or was it instead encouraged)?

I understand freedom of expression is a precious and invaluable thing in our society, but likewise is freedom from harassment. I think you'll agree that wearing a swastika to a synagogue would constitute a similarly grave social blunder, if not also break harassment and/or anti-hate crime laws.

I thank you for your time, and will greatly appreciate your response.

Regards,

x jeremy jarratt, POEE
1990 Senior Class President, Tecumseh High School

(of course, i plan on forwarding any "interesting" information received in return to local media.)

Comments

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

I basically copied parts of my lj post about that story and emailed the reporter to let her know that shit like that goes on all the time in that school district only this time, someone had the balls to speak up.

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

yeah, but when it comes to group-intolerance, especially racial- or GLBT- intolerance, it makes me thundering mad. i want to know just who the fuck LET some kid wear Klanswear at school. allowing intolerance/ignorance only encourages it.

of course, if it's all bullshit because the kid was wearing something mis-interpreted as Klan gear, i'll shut up and sit down. it's hard to prove either way... but i'd assume there were witnesses aplenty, and talk amongst peers.

Bah. This reeks of hysteria to me.

[howdypumpkin.livejournal.com]

Tabie goes to school at OB. I'll ask her if she knows anything about this.

I'd guess it was an error in judgement on the student's/parent's part and there was never an intent to harrass anyone. You know, if something was actively done to harrass someone I'm completely for making a huge issue of it, but if the only infraction was wearing the wrong thing (the very wrong thing) then I'd be concerned about blowing it up. Really, where do you draw the line then? There were plenty of students sporting swastikas on their notebooks at THS when we were there - and they were OUR friends...(not Nazis - just trying to stir things up, right?) I didn't like the symbols, but, the fact is, they only had the power I (or someone else) gave to them.

Did the kid do anything evil or mean or malicious while wearing the garb - or was it a tool to make a presentation more powerful?

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

witnesses don't mean crap. It's like a crime in the ghetto...no one wants to speak up for fear of being ostracized

[howdypumpkin.livejournal.com]

So, the fact that one person claims something happened is enough to judge it as having happened, and all witnesses should be disregarded? That's crap. (In fact, that means the reporting student should also be ignored, as a witness)

How can you suggest that we should just go ahead and go with what one student said to her mother and how her mother may have (or may not have - since I don't have all the facts either) blown it out of proportion? Witnesses are all we have in this case...

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

and I'm also saying that there is always the chance for the whole "gang up against someone" mentality.

[howdypumpkin.livejournal.com]

Okay, I do see your point. I don't believe, however, that a whole classroom full of kids (different groups, different cliques, etc) and a teacher would all turn a blind eye to a child outwardly harrassing another child in a klan-like way. It would be professional suicide. Frankly, I think the dress codes are too strict at school, and the teachers there (now) throw detentions around like candy at a parade. I really think this is a parent with a chip on her shoulder who has just found the soft spot on the giant white underbelly of the school. But, as I said before, I'm going to find out...

[howdypumpkin.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about your statement...what kind of other stuff has gone "on all the time in that school district"? I was certainly not everywhere all the time, but was a student there for 9 years and have been a parent of children there for 7 and am not aware of other things like this...

Fill me in, Amy!

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

I was harassed by numerous teachers...nothing was done.
I was harassed daily by students to the point I almost wanted to kill myself...nothing was done.
I had my books/personal belongings stolen and destroyed by another student...nothing was done (except my parents had to pay for all the textbooks)
I was barked at like a dog when I entered prom...nothing was done.
I had my hand almost broken when a locker door was slammed on it intentionally...nothing was done.
I was denied a part in the musical despite being the only female student in the school to be selected for all-area choir because "unpopular kids don't sell tickets". So I took a part in the chorus and was then removed from the performance on the night my parents were in the audience because I was accused of skipping rehearsal. Of course, the attendance log showed I was indeed at rehearsal, but only AFTER all my chorus parts were over in the show.

Should I continue? because I can go on for a while. I have plenty more material.

In almost every single incident, administration did nothing (except try to put the blame on me in some way saying I brought it on myself by the way I dressed, acted, music I listened to, books I read, ideas I had, etc.), but any time I defended myself, I'd no doubt find myself in detention for at least a week. I also never thought to go to other sources (ie: media, school board, etc) to get my voice heard because I didn't want to make things even worse for myself.

[howdypumpkin.livejournal.com]

I think the stuff that happened to you sucks - but this isn't the thing that happened to you and to support it without all the facts would be wrong. Most of the people that were there when you were there are gone now, and they shouldn't have to pay for the crimes of the people that went before them.

I experienced harrassment from students there as well, and I can't remember much of anything being done about any of it either. No one much cared for the way I dressed or acted... I don't deny that these things happen. I just don't think that is what has happened this time.

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

well it's time that something is done about all the harassment that is overlooked time and time again before we have a "Columbine"-type incident or some type of horrific suicide. I'm EXTREMELY passionate about fighting any type of harassment in schools.

here are a couple of interesting reads:

Fear The Geek

and

more of my own views/experiences

[howdypumpkin.livejournal.com]

Amy, I am just home from work now and gettting ready to go to bed. I will come back and read all of this stuff. I will. I agree with you about harassment and Columbine, etc. But, the media is evil. Everynight reps from 7 and 2 and 22 call me and ask "Do you have any good calls? Any suicides or bombings or house fires or fatal crashes?" They want the worst because that's what sells - and they'll take a story and spin it to make it look like something horrible with a complete disregard to who they might be hurting in the meantime. I am going to do my best to find out more about this over the next 2 or 3 days, and I'll let you know what I find out - if you'd like. I just have a very strong feeling that the victim in this incident is really the kid who thought they'd come up with a neat spin for their report...

Be well - and I'll talk to you soon. Please know that I'm not trying to attack you in any of this.

[transmothra.livejournal.com]

dear god, the media is evil indeed.

honestly, i have the feeling that the other student probably didn't do anything intentionally. maybe s/he/it was only wearing a white hoodie - big deal, right? but i do think it's important that all the facts be made public.

one thing i always hated about New Carlisle was the racial intolerance. we may have seen different things, Kathy, but where i grew up, a popular activity (which i am proud to say that even at a very young age i understood to be inherently Wrong and never partook in) was for kids to go "nigger knocking." well, there was really only one house in town to do that at, just down the street from me (the house right across from Smith Park), and every year there was a new family there (oddly, always a black family, until sometime in the mid-to-late 80s - i think it was a rental, so maybe the landlord happened to be one of the few tolerant people in town). i always felt there was a strong connection between the fact that families came and went at that house, the constant knock-and-run-away "sport," and the fact that these kids got the idea from somewhere - most likely their fuckhead parents, of whom i am very aware racism was prevalent and encouraged in at least a few cases.

then there's the annual, thankfully now renamed* "Heritage" Festival at Smith Park. i've never ever heard the word "heritage" used by any other people so often as it has been employed by neo-Nazis. i made this connection in the mid-Eighties, and was so upset by its possible implications that i never went again, except for one year when i went snooping for foulness. i found lots of white people making money selling bad, fake "Indian" paraphernalia, but no reportable open racism. i still think the whole thing was a badly veiled attempt at celebrating White Pride.

nowadays, i drive through Nuke City and see black families openly walking the streets, even in broad daylight!, and it makes me proud to see, although i'm certain that these people, too, probably suffer similar injustices as in the past.

i just want Nuke Our Lyle to be a normal town, and not such a stuffy, isolationist little closed-to-outsiders White Island any more. i want to be proud of my hometown, not ashamed of it.



*the guiltily-named "Salsa" Festival is hardly any better, considering the townies really have no idea about our migrant workers' Latino culture, except for images of Chihauhaus and Taco Bell... but at least the focus is off White Pride (and now on White Guilt, which at least is far funnier).

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

Oh I know you're not attacking me and if this is some attempt to get media coverage and things have been blown up, then yeah wrong. If not, though, then let's investigate.

I interned at Ch 7 while in college and I also lost a teen family member in a car wreck, so I know what those local stations do.