Brickbat: We Won't Tolerate That

When Connecticut's Wolcott High School held a "Day of Silence" to promote tolerance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people, student Seth Groody wore a T-shirt with a rainbow with a slash through it on one side and a male and a female stick figure holding hands on the other. School officials forced him to take the shirt off and gave him another to wear.

Brickbat Archive

Comments

[invisible furry hand]

FFS, if you don't want kids to express their homophobia, then don't basically dare them to do it. If he was bullying a gay kid, clip him round the ears, otherwise leave it alone and get on with teaching readin' writin' and 'rithmetic

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

I forget who came up with the new term "Gayist" - I like that better. "I'm not AFRAID of teh gaiz [homophobia]. I just HATES 'em [Gayist]."

Awesome...

[aelhues]

I agree completely, however in their perfect liberal world, he was bullying gay kids by not being approving of their lifestyle choices.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...and a male and a female stick figure holding hands on the other.

PDA's, even in stick figure form, will not be tolerated.

If they really wanted to teach the kid a lesson, instead of an alternate shirt to wear they should have given him a Chippendales bowtie collar and cuffs and told him to work it.

[sage]

No. Assless chaps with a dildo on a string around his neck.

[Mensan]

Aren't all chaps assless? Isn't that what makes them chaps rather than pants?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Did you know that you can see a penis in the mini-series Lonesome Dove? It was shown on television, television that frail grandmothers and tiny little children have access to on a daily basis.

[WTF]

Brilliant- let's promote tolerance by being intolerant of opposing views.

[invisible furry hand]

Shut up and take your clothes off. Wait, that came out wrong...

[sage]

Sounded ok to me.

[sarcasmic]

Tolerance means not tolerating intolerance!

Inclusiveness means excluding anyone who disagrees with liberal views!

Equality means that everyone who is liberal is equal, and everyone else is inferior!

Duh!

[William Bruce]

Marcuse or 1984?

[Eduard van Haalen]

To paraphrase a famous saying, when bullying comes to this country it will be called anti-bullying.

[SugarFree]

I would have made the kid change. Who hates rainbows? It's just light refracted through water; it's got it all: Physics, Leprechauns and Gold.

This kid is an idiot.

[invisible furry hand]

I hate rainbows. Their gaudiness is an affront. Perhaps if they came in more stylish stripes eg steel, platinum, aluminium, black rubber

[db]

Iwho does this kid think he is, Eric Cartman?

[Mensan]

I dislike rainbows. It's because I'm color blind, so I only see the orange, yellow, and indigo stripes. I know I'm missing out on something, and it pisses me off.

[Bee Tagger]

Aren't kids into irony these days? I would have arrested everyone else.

[Rich]

Details, please. What was on the shirt the school provided?

Also, he could have solved this by putting another slash across the rainbow slash.

[Rew DeDeigh]

What was on the shirt the school provided?

Sequins, Darling.

[TankoFon]

Well that makes a whole lot of sense udd.e WOw.

http://www.Anon-Methods.tk

[Cedric and Bob]

WHO will not wear the rib-bon?!

[Dingus]

Wait, I thought Silence=Death, now Silence is a good thing? Can't they just hold a Day of Dissent and then jail anyone who doesn't agree or participate. I think the CT Office of Cognitive Dissonance, Weights, and Measures can sponsor it.

[T o n y]

I have to agree with the ACLU on this one.

Though I have absolutely no problem with schools encouraging tolerance over intolerance. A student should have every right to say that interracial couples shouldn't be able to get married, but that opinion is rightfully considered hateful and idiotic. Getting people to appreciate that it's exactly the same with respect to gay couples will just take some time.

[Mr. FIFY]

Should the kid in the rainbow shirt be forced to pledge allegiance to his school superintendent, though?

[Auric Demonocles]

I hooked up with a girl that went to that high school. I'm on a string of personally relevant Brickbats.

[protefeed]

"The First Amendment was written to protect unpopular speech, which is naturally the kind of speech that will always need protection," Staub said. "The ACLU has fought hard for same-sex marriage and we couldn't agree with Seth less on that issue, but he is absolutely correct about his right to express his opinion."

Hunh ... an ACLU chapter is actually for civil liberties for everyone. Good on them.