Should 'legalize marijuana' t-shirts be permitted on public school property?

[© tweed]

Vote

[Alcon]

Yes.  It doesn't even really encourage drug use.

[nclib]

Yes.

[angus]

My guess is that you wouldn't get arrested, but you would probably be made to change it.  Or expelled if you refused.  Probably the same would happen if you wore a shirt that said "Q:  what do you say if your TV starts levitating in the middle of the night?  A:  Drop it Nigga"

As a student I despised dress codes, whether they said I couldn't wear a shirt with a Pot leaf, a shirt that said "Drop it Nigga", or a shirt with Reagan's picture and the phrase "Asshole of the Month" on it.  (I actually had one of those which I ordered from Hustler Magazine.)  I remember a kid Kenny being asked to go home and change his shirt because he had no buttons on it and you could see his exposed chest.  I remember Mrs. Hartley actually sewing up a hole in my shirt that I got during lunch period when I was smoking a joint and the cherry dropped down and burned my shirt.  Dumbass.  I told her I ripped it in a fight, not wanting to admit to smoking weed to my teacher.  She seemed to buy it, which seems bizarre to me in retrospect.  I suppose that she was just letting me lie to her and not giving me grief.  She was pretty cool like that.  But cool or not, I wasn't comfortable that Mrs. Hartley felt the need to mother me like that, and I really despised the fact that Kenny was forced to put on a shirt that covered his belly and chest.  Nowadays, I don't much give a damn either way about dresscodes/uniforms.  Frankly, the older I get, the more comfortable I am with the idea of dress codes/uniforms.  I suspect there'll come a day that I'll be downright ecstatic about dresscodes and/or uniforms.  At the moment, I think I'm in the transition period during which I don't really have a strong opinion one way or the other.

[opebo]

Not just the shirt, but the marijuana should be permitted!

[Gabu]

I don't see why not.  Unless the shirt is structured to somehow create a tangible disruption to classes, the idea alone that marijuana should be legalized is just as valid an opinion as any other.  As Alcon said, it's not even as if it's sanctioning minors to do drugs, anyway.  You can support the legalization of pot without supporting giving everyone access to it.

[Bdub]

Yes.

[Speed of Sound]

Certainly. It argues a political point.

[angus]

the idea alone that marijuana should be legalized is just as valid an opinion as any other

agreed.  And like any opinion held by any person who has not yet reached the age of reason and wisdom, that opinion is meaningless and worthless and may generally be discounted, therefore the there should be no problem with the shirt.  Political slogans, racial slurs, and all the rest of the things children say are merely reflections of the familial subculture into which they're nurtured.  Still, this is not why I'm becoming more uniform-friendly as I grow older.  Of course at your age, and even well into my late 20s I'd have ranted against any uniform dress code as unnecessary authoritarianism.  But having reached a state of wisdom myself, I now understand that it is not the message on the shirt, but the distraction it can cause, that matters to grown-ups (i.e., the ones actually funding the education).  While I still think marijuana (along with other drugs, all gambling, prostitution, etc.) should be legal, I do not want our school students to continue to lag behind the students in other OECD countries in mathematics preparation, etc.  I think removal of distractions, political, sexual, or otherwise, is appropriate.  In fact, an appropriate school uniform should be baggy, white, and cover the entire body except for the eyes and hands, which are needed for performing the schoolwork and laboratory exercises. 

[Gabu]

Of course at your age, and even well into my late 20s I'd have ranted against any uniform dress code as unnecessary authoritarianism.  But having reached a state of wisdom myself, I now understand that it is not the message on the shirt, but the distraction it can cause, that matters to grown-ups (i.e., the ones actually funding the education).  While I still think marijuana (along with other drugs, all gambling, prostitution, etc.) should be legal, I do not want our school students to continue to lag behind the students in other OECD countries in mathematics preparation, etc.  I think removal of distractions, political, sexual, or otherwise, is appropriate.  In fact, an appropriate school uniform should be baggy, white, and cover the entire body except for the eyes and hands, which are needed for performing the schoolwork and laboratory exercises. 

I think you missed the qualification of my statement in which I said "unless the shirt is structured to somehow create a tangible disruption to classes...".

Or, perhaps you simply felt that you agreed with me so much that you'd write an entire paragraph about it.

[J. J.]

Of course at your age, and even well into my late 20s I'd have ranted against any uniform dress code as unnecessary authoritarianism.  But having reached a state of wisdom myself, I now understand that it is not the message on the shirt, but the distraction it can cause, that matters to grown-ups (i.e., the ones actually funding the education).  While I still think marijuana (along with other drugs, all gambling, prostitution, etc.) should be legal, I do not want our school students to continue to lag behind the students in other OECD countries in mathematics preparation, etc.  I think removal of distractions, political, sexual, or otherwise, is appropriate.  In fact, an appropriate school uniform should be baggy, white, and cover the entire body except for the eyes and hands, which are needed for performing the schoolwork and laboratory exercises. 

I think you missed the qualification of my statement in which I said "unless the shirt is structured to somehow create a tangible disruption to classes...".

Or, perhaps you simply felt that you agreed with me so much that you'd write an entire paragraph about it.

I would agree, except to note that the "structuring" need not take place; a shirt that says "criminalize tobacco,"  "Attend your place of worship regularly," "Support the Troops," or one with an American flag, could be just as disruptive.  I would argue that the shirt itself is not the problem, but the reaction of the student population is.  This is the theory behind school uniforms.

I have no objection to the shirt, unless, in that environment, it is disruptive.

[Platypus]

Shirts with overtly political messages probably aren't a good idea. Should it be allowed? as long as it meets the dress code in terms of siza and quality....myeh. 'm a uniform kinda guy. I don't support casual clothes in the first place, so I'm not going to say I could support this kind of shirt.

[Giant Saguaro]

I probably fall on the side that says as long as it's not an interuption to the teaching, there are bigger problems to deal with in schools. Like complying with NCLB until the thing can hopefully be deep-sixed some day. Of course I'm not one of these back-to-basics people: Eveything should be reading, writing, and arithmatic. Well, good luck preparing kids for college then if you're barely out of the 19th century in terms of philosophy of education.

However, I have no problems with dress codes and their enforcement - keeping in mind, of course, that most kids will push it as far as they can on a daily basis, I can easily imagine. If a shirt like that is deemed to be encouraging drug use or some illegal activity, then it's got to go.

[Nym90]

Yes, I think they should be allowed. The shirt is merely stating a political opinion, not encouraging illegal behavior.