This particular conflict spawns from a teenage boy who decided that on The Day Of Silence, a day all about acceptance, he was going to wear a t-shirt with the words, “Be ashamed, our school has embraced what God has condemned,” and on the back he quoted the scripture, “Homosexuality is shameful.” In the end, the court ruled that the school was correct in their policy of offensive speech, and that this boy was wrong to write that on his T-Shirt. The teen gay suicide rate in America is so high, why should this ignorance be permitted? I guess I just don’t understand where the teen is coming from.
I’m all for expressing your rights of free speech, and I believe that this boy has a right to get his message out to the public, just like anyone else. However, he needs to do it in a way that doesn’t directly offend homosexuality. If he would have written something else on his shirt and probably done it on a different day, I don’t think that it would have become such a big deal. In other words, if he would have used his brain and not have been so ignorantly offensive, he would have been fine. He asks during his segment “Since when do schools censor things that are offensive, strictly on that basis?” My answer to that is as soon as he chose to go to public school. By going to a governmentally funded school, he follows the schools rules. Period.
Another question that comes to mind with this is what other students are allowed to wear/use. A swastika patch? A confederate flag? A large, wooden cross? May a student carry a rope tied into a noose? These things are symbolistic. Yes, a swastika has a history of being a violent symbol, but isn’t it actually a very old symbol of being united? Even if someone is against Jews, he or she has that right, as long as they aren’t directly offending them in a way like the ignorant teenager did. All of the things on this list are symbolistic, and so, different than directly telling people that the lifestyle they lead is shameful.
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