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Originally Posted by photon
No one's limiting his freedom of expression, he can wear his shirt in public, to the store, whatever.
Freedom of expression does not equate to being able to do whatever one wants whenever one wants wherever one wants.
Freedom of expression is frequently limited for very good reasons... I seem to recall you not being on the side of the Occupiers downtown in Calgary, but the court case with them said that their tents ARE part of their freedom of expression, but there were circumstances that had to be considered and when they were it was reasonable to limit their freedoms.
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I was anti Occupy because it was literally a protest about nothing, It was more about people sitting in a park, partying, smoking dope, pooping in a public place, denying a group who rented the park from actually using all of a park.
[/quote]This is no different, having rules about wearing offensive shirts is a reasonable limitation on freedoms because a) it just promotes the whole "do unto others" idea b) students can't just leave school if they don't like the shirt and c) keeping peace among teenagers is difficult enough without unnecessary distractions.[/quote]
My disagreement point is that I don't see anything on that shirt that is offensive, I think its a real stretch to make it offensive. I think its a really weak interpretation of offensive by the suspending body, and I think that the punishment is extremely punative in the face of lighter suspensions for fighting for example or a lack of action in terms of bullying that we've read about in the paper over the last two years.
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Originally Posted by photon
Wearing a shirt that denigrates others is like trolling the forums, except that people can leave the forums, they can't leave school.
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I just don't see it as a denigration of anything, maybe he's born again and this is his testimony.
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Originally Posted by photon
I'm sure he does feel that way, I'm sure he feels that everyone who doesn't subscribe to his particular beliefs are going to hell for all eternity.
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Where was that stated on the shirt?
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Originally Posted by photon
The slogan targets others' religion saying they're worthless, which is against the rules.
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Where does it state anything about other religions in that slogan? You can't banish or suspended based on filling in the blanks with your own personal interprestation.
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Originally Posted by photon
If the student doesn't like the rule then he can work to get it changed. Of course if it is changed, then there's no problem with wearing a shirt that says "Life is wasted if you're not white." right?
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Photes that's a real stretch. The suspension is based on an interpretation, not on hard facts. If the shirt was actually naming other religions, or had a component of hate speech, suspend away, but I don't think that you can punish someone based on your interpretation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
Weeks of ignoring requests to comply with the clearly outlined rules doesn't justify a suspension? Rules are ok to ignore as long as you really really want to?
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You could argue that weeks of ignoring requests is a legitimate protest in this case.
Just playing devils advocate on this, but I would be more interesting in seeing what the warnings were like, if they were written warnings etc.