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I never understood why suspension is punishment at all. Sounds like a reward.
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I think it originated back in the days when parents trusted public schools, so if their kid was suspended, they’d spend that day whipping him.
Suspension is strange. What if you miss a test?
But intent is impossible to prove, and allowing intent to become a factor gives anyone a get out of jail free card.
Our kids are growing up in a world where, frankly, intent doesn’t matter, impact does. I don’t think this lesson is the worst one for a kid to learn.
The punishment seems a bit harsh, not knowing how much, if any, education was done with the students to make them aware of the policy. But this is a racist sign, it’s been talked about on the internet for years, and kids are more online than anyone, so I’m guessing any teenager with access to social media has heard this. I know we have even talked about it on the AO. If I know about it, more than likely a teenager does, too.
Educating oneself on how to not associate with bigotry is important; ignorance is how those kinds of groups continue to operate in broad daylight. It’s not fair that bad people turn decent things into crappy things, but pleading ignorance is also not the solution.
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My son is mostly concerned with not being able to participate in the concert tonight. But I’d argue that generally, and definitely in this case, they could have served my son a lot better by just explaining why he shouldn’t make that gesture anymore. My son is pretty anti-racist and if they told him that doing that could make him look like a racist, he’d drop it.
But now it’s a whole thing. I’m currently drafting a pretty blunt email to the Ass. Principal. (That abbreviation is intentional)
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George bush senior did that to the cameras as he was departing Australia - didn’t go down too well. He did go on to vomit in the Japanese prime ministers lap, so not a great trip.
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I would generally agree that in the current day, people should try to actively avoid doing racist or bigoted things. But in context, given that my son is 15 and what he was doing was pretty innocuous, I think what they did stinks.
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I never heard of it. Suspension is going too far. A warning seems sufficient to me if he never did this before and isnt normally in trouble. Whats wrong with just telling him why its wrong and not to do it again?
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He’s never had detention or anything before at the school. He’s got straight As and is on the freaking robotics team, lol. In terms of inclusion, he has friends who are POC, non-binary, and trans. My son isn’t the problem they need to solve for.
I’ve only learned about the OKAY sign being racist on the news (well Fox News).
I think it’s an overreaction from the woke community to call that out, and then an overreaction from the conservative community to call out the overreaction from the woke community.
I’ve never heard of that being racist prior to like 3 years ago.
As far as the school goes, how scared are they of being canceled? We know doctors nowadays are being canceled for say pregnant women instead of pregnant persons
That’s the ideal, logical solution. But this is a public school we are dealing with. There aren’t resources to document who has been told what, they aren’t staffed to handle exceptions to every rule, unfortunately they rely on zero tolerance policies because the only other realistic option is chaos and complete non-enforcement.
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You cant put it in a computer that the kid was warned?
Seems pretty simple
There are consequences to a zero tolerance policy
Maybe over the weekend (after your family’s emotions have settled), you or your son could certainly compose a well thought out email to the principal/head of schools/newspaper etc. And you may choose not to send it.
You are going up against a machine that generally does not allow judgement or tolerance itself. The school system needs to answer to why your (white?) son received leniency/judgement when my black/minority son did not for a different disciplinary matter. And if they made an exception for your son, then they would need to have a hearing for all disciplinary issues that would take up an excessive amount of time. You no longer live in a common sense environment. This is absolutely a lesson on the fair. And at the same time, a lesson on the woke.
The OK symbol was even the focus on a full scene in Silver Linings Playbook (2012). (I don’t believe the reason given was the actual origin, but I digress). I’m not seeing a call for that movie to be pulled. I do recall a scene from Mississippi Burning where Gene Hackman shows “3 fingers down” as a KKK sign (not OK per se). I’m now hearing buzz that the state of Oklahoma now needs to change it’s state abbreviation.
BTW, I saw 2 racists wave to each other. I think that racists have appropriated the “hello” wave. Good thing I stopped doing that years ago.
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I think you’re significantly underestimating the resources available at public schools.
My son was forced to participate in gym class when he had a cast on a broken arm because we hadn’t yet submitted a doctor’s note excusing him from physical activity, as it was the same day the cast was put on - logic would have said don’t make the kid run and jump, but that’s just not how things work. We complained, and were told that was the policy and next time make sure he has the note.
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that doesn’t sound like resources, but rather than teachers are idiots.
your son should have said no, my body my choice and i choose not to injure myself further fuckers.
That is a false dilemma. Public schools rely on zero tolerance policies because they have people looking over their shoulder to report on bias and scream “systemic racism” on disparate outcomes. And they need to push children through their system and abide by “the rules” in order to receive federal funding.
Resources are having a computer system equipped for that kind of thing. I guarantee you my kids’ district doesn’t.
It’s having teachers with free time to document these things. Teachers have pretty much no time to do their actual jobs, let alone additional stuff.
It’s having people who know all the kids by name and can invest in those kinds of conversations. Teachers and administrators simply don’t have the time to hear out why my son can’t participate in gym class or what the entire scenario was that led to a rule being broken, including gathering testimony from other kids.
My son could have said yeah I’m not doing that, my arm hurts. He would have been told to go to the nurse and she would either send him home, or back to class to participate.
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Mathman, are you concerned the school will inform third parties (e.g., college applications) that your son was “suspended for promoting white supremacism”, with no nuance or context?
The fact you put systemic racism in quotes is telling.
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