The decision of an Ohio middle school principal is garnering quite a bit of attention this
week. Ms. Young, Principal of Clermont
Northeastern Middle School in Batavia, Ohio, recently had a student’s t-shirt
digitally edited to remove a message and avoid controversy.
Surely this
t-shirt must have had some foul language, right? Or made some vulgar innuendo? Violated the school’s dress code? What message could have been so
controversial?
Turns out, it is the word FEMINIST.
(Photo: WXIX)
Sophie Thomas,
an eighth grader at Clermont Northeastern wore a black t-shirt with the word
“Feminist” written on it for a recent picture day. When questioned about the decision to alter
the image, Principal Young reportedly stated that the “class photo was no place
for a statement that she deemed controversial” and that she decided to alter
the image because “some people might find it [Ms. Thomas’ t-shirt]
offensive.”
After
discovering that her t-shift had been blacked out, Ms. Thomas took to Instagram
to launch a protest:
(Photo:
idiotsophie/Instagram)
Apparently,
after enough local scrutiny, Principal Young apologized to Ms. Thomas. In one report,
she even admitted that the shirt did not violate any school policies or dress
codes. And when asked what she hoped to
accomplish, Ms. Thomas reportedly stated:
I want everyone to realize that we need feminism ... I want you to have someone come into the school and educate everyone about feminism. I want us to go to the news station together and show the people that we are working together to make this school and our community a better place for everyone. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Principal
Young’s attempts to avoid controversy certainly failed. In addition to several articles being
published (see them here on BuzzFeed,
Ravishly,
Think Progress,
and the Washington Times),
feminists on social media are showing their support using the hashtags
#ideservefreedomofexpression and #keepfeminisminschools.
(Via Twitter
here.)
One education
reporter summarized the situation perfectly: “Yes, we live in a society where the word
‘feminist’ is still, apparently, controversial. Sigh.”
Sigh,
indeed.
While the
articles have not addressed it, this cases seems to trigger an interesting 1st
Amendment argument. Could Ms. Thomas and
her mother claim that Clermont Northwestern violated her 1st Amendment right to
freedom of speech when they censored her t-shirt in the class photo? Obviously, would need more information to
answer that question legally.
But this case also
raises important policy questions. Do we
want school administrators censoring students’ t-shirts at all? Do we want school administrators censoring
this message?
Apparently,
the school has stated it will hold larger discussions with students regarding feminism. Here’s hoping the school can learn from this and
provide a meaningful opportunity for its students to discuss feminism because
clearly Ms. Thomas is right: we need feminism.
This is incredibly frustrating to read, but sadly this Principal is not alone. Apparently, "feminism" and "misogyny" are banned words on trip advisor, as part of a site-wide ban on "political language." You can read more about it here: http://kitchenette.jezebel.com/feminism-and-misogyny-are-apparently-banned-words-o-1691599391
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely discouraging to see how feminism is still considered by many to be an extreme viewpoint. I don't really know why the term "feminism" is seen to be as "controversial" as it is. Or why a shirt with the word on it should offend anyone.
ReplyDeleteWhich is not to say that I would encourage children to use Class Photo Days as opportunities to rage against the machine, generally. A class photo is for everyone in the class, after all. And the teen seems to admit that she was intentionally provocative. But, I think it's important to consider that it's much MORE sad that this particular fight to reclaim the word even needs to be fought in the first place. And that its not so clear who is winning.