At least two students from a middle school in McKinley, TX were sent home yesterday for wearing T-shirts that said “Gay O.K.” Others were told to turn their shirts inside out or risk being disciplined.
“Being gay is OK,” Anna Thompson, who was one the students who wore shirts, told her local news station. “And it is OK to be open about it.”
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The students were wearing the shirts in support of another classmate who had recently come out and, as a result, was being bullied.
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Thompson says almost as soon as she walked in the school doors, a teacher approached her.
“[He] came up to me and said that he doesn’t believe this message is school appropriate,” she recounted.
Other students said problems arose at lunchtime, when they were in the school cafeteria.
“We were doing perfectly fine until lunch,” said Sammy Heiman, the seventh grader who designed the shirts. “And then [the administration] called us all out, all the people wearing them, called us out of the cafeteria. And people started getting rowdy because they knew what was going on. They were making us take off the shirts.”
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Cody Cunningham, spokesman for the McKinney Independent School District, claims the students were causing “a verbal disruption,” saying they were not acting “civil,” and that’s why they were disciplined.
“While we respect student free speech, our primary obligation is to ensure a safe and productive learning environment for students,” he said.
Cunningham added that the T-shirts violated the school’s dress code for being “disruptive or distractive” and “adversely [impacting] the educational process.”
Evidently spreading a message of tolerance and support is not considered “educational.”
Kristy Heiman, a mother of one of the girls wearing the shirts, said she supports what the middle schoolers did.
“I’m just so proud of them,” she said. “I just want everybody to know that it just takes one person. This was just supposed to be a nice, quiet five or six kids wearing something. And it turned into something much bigger.”
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Edward Herschel Williams
The spirit that brought our independence, what courage. …
Kangol
So proud of these brave young people! They know they’re being silenced and censored by cowardly, adult officials.
I hope this only strengthens their resolve against hate, cowardice, ignorance, and fear, because that’s what they’re dealing with.
Arvo Toolanen
What else could anyone expect from educators in the state that is ranked 48th in education. Lou B
Daniel Youngs
Way to keep it classy Texas.
Löû?ê Bdš
If the school bullying those students then what do you expect from other students ! Shame
Douglas Massey
Id send em home too. Not enough glitter or bedazzling, gives us a bad name. Sheesh
GG
Would they have been told their shirts were inappropriate if the message was
“Straight OK”?
DuMaurier
This is not only ridiculous but it flies in the face of case law on student free speech. The First Amendment right of students to wear ANTI-gay t-shirts on campus has been upheld in the courts. ACLU, are you listening?
Seth Ruimveld
Not surprised the administration said that they were causing a disruption…anything that you don’t agree with would cause a disruption, especially when it’s rooted in hate, but it’s a necessary disruption! Props to you girls!
Mickey Rock
It is a really common school dress code stipulation that you cannot wear T-shirts with politically provocative slogans
Mack
It’s Texas why should there be any surprises?
BigGayMe
Using words from their very own book Isaiah 11:6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; AND A YOUNG CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM
BigGayMe
@BigGayMe: Sorry… Misquote. “AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM”
Xzamilio
@Mickey Rock: Politically provocative? The shirt said “Gay O.K.”, not “Guantanamo Bay O.K.”
BlueDude
@Douglas Massey: YOU GO!!! At least add some color, huh? I am SO F’n sick of everything about Texass. I’m still laughing over their fear of the “invasion”, and Obama taking away their precious GUNS! LMFAO, Y’ALL.
polarisfashion
I hope more people wear the shirts. Id love to see the school try to expel half the entire student body.
Curty
So free speech doesn’t include being pro gay? Wow… smh…
jason smeds
This school is pathetic. I hope that the administrators are brought to book on this.
Moises Medina
Need not to say anymore…it’s Tex ass!
NoCagada
@Mickey Rock: So, please, oh, light headed one…tell me when being gay became a political act?
Michael D Harris
And they should have been sent home….everyone wants attention these days.
Gee Rosato
Welcome to discrimination 101
They can drop the class but some people call it a life long nightmare
Gee Rosato
Errol Semple
School suports bullying.
sweetbrandigirl2004
They should hire a lawyer, get the ACLU invloved and file a class action suit against the school board and the teachers who accosted them.
4runnergui
I support them, however I would have had “GAY OK” on one side and “STR8 OK” on the other. equal screen time!
Giancarlo85
@GG: “Straight OK” is like saying “White Supremacist OK”. It has nothing to do with this topic.
THis is a story about students standing up for their friend. Maybe you should actually read the topic next time you comment.
THe ACLU will be all over this one. The school is going to get sued big time.
GG
I did read the article. You should give it a try, you might be surprised how it might keep you from appearing so ignorant.
DarkZephyr
@Mickey Rock: what the hell is “politically provocative” about “gay is OK”? Please explain.
Giancarlo85
@GG: You didn’t read anything thoroughly and the only ignorant one here is you. Get a life. You just posted something incredibly stupid.
GG
@Giancarlo85: Three things are obvious: 1) that you don’t know anything about me; 2) your ignorance, and 3) your hypocrisy (i.e., your entire post read, “You didn’t read anything thoroughly and the only ignorant one here is you. Get a life. You just posted something incredibly stupid” which has NOTHING to do with the article’s topic – the very thing for which you attacked me). Fail.
jwtraveler
This is the state that just approved a law permitting college students to carry concealed weapons on campus. Apparently they don’t think that college campuses overrun with drunken, armed teenagers is “disruptive or distractive” and “adversely [impacts] the educational process.”
It is impossible for any rational human being to understand what goes on in the mind of a Texas public official.
jwtraveler
@Giancarlo85: No! “Straight OK” is like saying “White OK”. Unnecessary, but not nearly as offensive as you tried to make it sound.
You know, it’s really not necessary to verbal attack and insult everyone who says something you disagree with.
Patrick Flanagan
Teachers & school policies _ucking stink!
Giancarlo85
@jwtraveler: White ok? Straight ok? That isn’t necessary because straight whites are already confirmed and protected. This was about a group of friends defending a bullied gay teen.
Robert Rupp
Hey it’s Texas. Small minds that go to big churches
David Andrew Roubideaux
That is fucked upp! Asif the school gets offended. Just comes to show they are better then their school! :)’s
Chuck Stevenson
How very Texan of them.
jimmycurry01
Doesn’t sending the students home go against the precedent that has already been set by Tinker vs. Des Moines?
Giancarlo85
@GG: Oh stop blabbering. There is no ignorance or hypocrisy in my post. You can’t point out any as none exists. You probably say the same thing about gay pride events… Why not straight pride too? Go pontificate somewhere else and to someone else that will listen to your arrogant replies. And don’t try to turn this around as you just look like an arrogant idiot in the end.
GG
@Giancarlo85: Haha! Your latest posts prove my points!
“People like you aren’t worth anyone’s time. All you are is negativity. You even managed to turn this positive uplifting article into something negative because you are pompous bitter asshole.”
– Project much??
Giancarlo85
@GG: Oh and good one trying to act smart. People like you aren’t worth anyone’s time. All you are is negativity. You even managed to turn this positive uplifting article into something negative because you are pompous bitter asshole.
jwtraveler
@Giancarlo85: Yes, I know. That’s what I said. I read and understood the article. Glad you agree.
Brian Hunter
Thank you guys for being brave enough to wear them!
Joan Jenkins
Great kids…Always stand for equality !!!!
Saint Law
@jwtraveler: “You know, it’s really not necessary to verbally attack everyone who says something you disagree with.”
Bitch, please. Minus the abuse this blog would be unreadable.
Adam Hackel
Well again I keep saying it, TEXAS!
jwtraveler
@Saint Law: The same goes for you, but I wouldn’t waste my time; you’re already a lost cause.
Saint Law
@jwtraveler: It’s a bunch of randoms nattering via the internet, you squeamish, hysterical fucktard.