You've got to be kidding me!?

Red, white and ridiculous!

This happened in the USA??? This is totally ridiculous!!!

OMG. I can't believe this would happen, ESPECIALLY right now when this country needs to pull together more than ever!

I'm going to get beaten senseless for this I'm sure, but it makes me wonder if that assistant principal is an American or foreign born.

Being PC has gone waaaay to far.

?? where was this? US Virgin Islands?

Ughhhh This was wrong!!!

How can being patriotic be punished by schools? This was a foolish act by administrators.

exactly, lilkimbo. What's next? Banning 4th of July?

...and how sad is it that they have "Dress Code Violator" shirts made out? Don't they have anything better to do with their time and money?

I thought the same thing, em! We had to either go home and change or wear a shirt from the athletic department for dress code violations. They weren't very strict about enforcing them, though.

Girl, it's a good thing most schools aren't in session over the summer, or that may be next!

Good lord. There are many things wrong with this! First off, it is celebrating the country which funds that damn school. Second, since when did we start branding our children with the scarlet letter?

Also, I am so happy and relieved that this doesn't seem to be a partisan issue!

I'm guessing the same school says the pledge of allegiance each day, right?

Plus, I wouldn't classify "USA" as a "race, culture or ethnicity." It's a country!

Um, unless I'm mistaken aren't schools supposed have students say the pledge of allegiance every day? How is wearing a flag shirt much different? And it's promoting the country we LIVE in!

That is ridiculous. My dauthger goes to a magnet school in our community and they ban acknowledgement of all holidays and birthdays. There is no valentines card handout, no christmas, hannukah, kwanza etc. discussion, nothing. Her school tauts itself as a multicultural school (the name of the school is Regional Multicultural Magnet School) but instead of being all inclusive they are all exclusive. I should note that education wise the school is great, they have a great language program that teaches spanish from kindergarten on and has recently added russian. So overall its a great school, but in the worry about offending someone, anyone, they have banned the before mentioned things.

Well first of all the ding bat who started this should be written up for not knowing what "races, cultures, or ethnicity's." means.

This act also goes to show that school boards, administrations and teachers are so wound up about over issues of race, culture and ethnic conflict that their due diligence to create a buffer zone between those conflicts is over zealous to say the least.

Roarman, that is insane! How are we supposed to teach our children to celebrate each other's differences and individuality if we force them to not speak of them? How will they understand the world? This kind of stuff scares me. PC has gone way to far.

And birthday's banned? Everyone has one of those. There is no culture or anything behind that. It is the day the child was born. Why not celebrate that?!?

Yeah lil..I thought about it after I posted it, that that made no sense at all! But I think being PC (even in the workplace) gets so out of control.

I agree with your sentiment, though!

It's beginning to feel like we're fighting for a can of pop with no bubbles...

Interesting analogy...

And I love the fact that you used the word pop!

Sommelier --

Celebrating birthdays is unacceptable according to the Jehovah's Witness faith. But my knowledge on this is really shallow. I had a couple of friends who were practicing JWs. I remember that they did not celebrate holidays or birthdays.

For what it's worth (if at all).

thanks. I wonder if they have an JH's?

ARGH. This is RIDICULOUS.

Lilkimbo...that was in honor of my father (Midwesterner)

A - mouse: that's true. My friend is too. But she throw's one heck of a Mary Kay party...go figure.

This is so dumb it was homecoming week and from my recollection it's a week when there are themed days and dress up is a part of it so it should have been a clear exemption. I also think that Dress Codes are infringing on the rights of the student some things should be left up to the parent. If a school wants kids to be dressed at a certain level of appropriateness then they should have school uniforms that way there is no real room for someone to look "different"

wow - what is this world coming to when someone is dressing up in a theme for school and they are punished like that. it's not like the shirt was propaganda for anything, and it's not like it was disrespectful in any way. it was a shirt with the American flag on it -and it was tasteful i'm assuming. i don't know what that says when you're punished for something minor like that - when it's in support of school spirit. the hippie era was a time when people were all for peace and against the Vietnam war and that's what people promoted at the time. if i were that kid's family i would look to get some type of apology from the school and perhaps some retribution for it as well.

Also I'm sure that there is an American Flag waving on the schools flag poll I think the school should deem that inappropriate too and take it down.

Great, There are actual religious groups that don't celebrate birthdays but should the rest of the class be punished because to the beliefs of one or two...especially when the kid is young/elementary age most kids don't' truly have there own belief system it's there parents who don't celebrate b days.

This is pretty damn stupid.

ok i finally read the article. this was in merced county, ca. i've been there. it's a totally middle-american farming area and it's really surprising that something like this would happen there. i wonder if there was tension between the kids before this happened and the shirt was seen as incendiary?? even then it's just ridiculous to use the dress code to defend this, totally off base.

Thanks for the info on the county, yy. I read the article and wanted to look up more about the community, but you just saved me some time!

Wait, Yesteryear it was in Merced ahaahha my dad lives in Turlock near Modesto in Stanislus County which is not far away and I have been to Merced County before and work with someone from there. I agree that's truly odd, because most of these areas are very tight-knit all the kids and families tend to know each other....but over all the schools are good and the areas are pretty progressive, not as liberal the Bay Area but pretty liberal.

When I was younger and in public school in NYC we celebrated Christmas and Easter. Later in college I was assisting teachers as my after-school job and they were not allowed to say Christmas or Easter- it became Winter or Spring holiday events. They could not use anything associated with christmas or easter (like easter eggs). It was so silly- and I loved doing stuff for those days. I mean Christmas- you can use santa, decorate at tree, etc. I loved doing easter egg hunts too. It makes me sad that these things are considered inappropriate. I was not raised Christian but my family always celebrated the parts that are more for kids and not religious and no one was offended. People are just going a bit too far now.

There's definitely a point where PC becomes ridiculous.

My public probably didn't follow the rules very well. We always celebrated Christmas and Easter. In class we used symbols that weren't overtly religious, like Easter Eggs, Easter Bunnies, Santa, Christmas Trees, etc. In choir/music class, however, we always sand religious songs. It always struck me as kind of odd. I do have to say that the elementary school I attended still celebrates Easter and Christmas, even though the breaks are technically Spring Break and Winter Break. They still have a Christmas Tree (well, it's a giving tree). They also still have an Easter Egg decorating contest. I guess it's different in different areas, though. I grew up in a town without much diversity; there was a huge Catholic population and those who weren't Catholic either practiced another form of Christianity or weren't religious. (They weren't typically atheists, they just weren't religious in any way.) Come to think of it, I can't remember one friend I had growing up who wasn't Christian. Hmmm... We also had a picture of Jesus in my elementary school, but that was challenged by the ACLU several years back and taken down.

Anyway, I am rambling.

The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.

This year a definition required for the contemporary term, 'Political Correctness'.

The winner wrote: 'Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.'

Ha, Yesteryear! Do you expect this sort of thing out of the USVI? I am from there, and, I have to admit, being PC is not really normal there.

Haha, that's pretty good GS.

There's definitely a point where PC becomes ridiculous.

I totally agree.

Ann Coulter will have a field day with this...as well she should. This is one of the more ridiculous examples of liberal pc crap I've heard in awhile.

political correctness is tyranny in disguise....

This punishment and rules are ridiculous.

I went to a christian school (st john lutheran baby! Go Saints!) and i was a bit...different. I wore a red hot chili peppers shirt once, the one where they are naked except for tube socks, Homeroom i was told to turn it inside out and that was it, no public humiliation, no trip to the pastors office.....

All I can say is that I'm glad they reversed the decision.

But the fact that it happened in the first place baffles me.

WOW. That really pisses me off..

Sugasuga, I think the liberals are in agreement that this is completely stupid. Who cares what Anne Coulter thinks- this was one person's bad judgement.

I agree, colormesticky. This isn't "liberal pc crap," this is just crap.

Ridiculous bs.