"TAKE OFF YOUR HAT!" a hall monitor built like a linebacker yells at a high school senior walking through the "commons" area towards the lunchroom. "What?" The senior asks incredulously. "DO YOU THINK IíM JOKING?"
A bit frightened by the threatening tone of the imposing hired mass, our senior complies and conforms. After getting lunch and sitting on the "common" steps to eat, our senior puts his fleece golf hat back on. Near the end of lunch break, after peacefully eating his lunch, our senior is confronted once again: "Give me the hat; youíll get it back after school". Not trusting hall monitorís intentions, our senior takes the hat off and puts it away, standing there silently waiting to see what happens next.
Taking out his pad of detention slips, hall monitor demands,
"Give me your name".
Not caring or having the time to stay after school and get punished
for simply wearing a hat, (he has laundry to do and a job to go to)
our senior gives a false name and is done with it.
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Is this story familiar to you? Do you have friends
this has happened to? Do you think the power given to insensitive, disrespectful,
wannabe cops has gone waaaaaaaaaaay overboard?
Do you think the whole attitude of those in ëauthorityí at your high
school has changed in the last several years for the worse? It was not
always like this. You used to be
free to wear a hat. You used to be free to go wherever you liked during
an assembly. I hear that certain styles of pants are off limits.
I hear that studentsí collar lines can be no
more than 1.5 inches lower than their necks. Are hall monitors
going to start holding a ruler up to girlsí chests to make sure they are
within the limit? Where does it stop? What if tomorrow a rule
is made that says that everyone is required to wear underwear? Perhaps
our hall monitors could stop everyone at the door and ëinspectí you all.
This may seem ridiculous but if people who get their wages from our tax
dollars are allowed to take away your personal property such as hats or
other things, then it is a small step to encroach further on your liberties.
You used to be FREER than you are now in school! The
Supreme Court of the United States Ruled that Studentís constitutional
rights DO NOT END AT THE SCHOOL DOOR! You are a free person!
This is AMERICA! I listen to stories of how it is now in some schools and
get a sick feeling in my stomach. I get
Mad. This is not the way to treat people. You are a person
and citizen of the United States. You are not to be yelled at or
threatened, or have your civil rights violated in any other way.
You mustnít stand for this. "In our system, state-operated schools may
not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute
authority over their students. Students in school as well as out of school
are ëpersonsí under our
Constitution." Justice Abe Fortas, Tinker v. DesMoines (1969).
Peace and Freedom,