PROVO — A Provo elementary school principal confiscated a 12-year-old boy’s “I (heart) boobies” bracelet for breast cancer awareness, deeming it too risque for the classroom.
The boy’s mother, Jena van Frankenhuijsen says she understands there’s a snicker factor to wearing something that says “boobies” when you’re a 12-year-old boy. But she also says she supports her son wearing it and disagrees with the school that it confuses younger children.
Provo schools Associate Superintendent Greg Hudnall said that the district doesn’t bar students from wearing items touting breast cancer messages. But he says the issue is what’s appropriate at the elementary school level.
Hudnall says the school’s principal plans to allow students to wear the bracelets in the future as long as they’re not disruptive.
‘I [heart] boobies’ bracelet too risque for some at Provo school
Education » Mother irritated that 12-year-old son wasn’t allowed to wear a breast cancer awareness bracelet at school, adminstrator says school is now reconsidering.
Jena van Frankenhuijsen didn’t think sending her 12-year-old son to school wearing an “I d boobies” bracelet would land her in the principal’s office.
But the Provo mother found herself picking up her son’s rubber wrist band at Westridge Elementary School recently, after it was confiscated and deemed too risque for the classroom.
It’s a situation that infuriates van Frankenhuijsen, who doesn’t see the point in banning a bracelet during “Pinktober,” when charities and businesses publicize breast cancer awareness with everything from pink-colored egg cartons to the “boobies” bracelets.
Van Frankenhuijsen said the school’s assistant principal told her that her son’s bracelet was taken away because “it confuses younger children” at the school — a reason she disagrees with.
“I said there is no dress code stating they cannot wear a bracelet that supports breast cancer research,” she said. “Yes, I understand the snicker factor of wearing something that says ‘boobies’ when you are a 12-year-old boy. However, the more they make a big deal about it, the more the boys want to do it. I support my kid wearing that bracelet.”
Greg Hudnall, associate superintendent in the Provo School District, said the bracelet was confiscated to make sure the wording didn’t make other students — particularly girls going through puberty — uncomfortable.
“Students are allowed to wear those bracelets or wherever. We just don’t want them to be distracting,” said Hudnall. “All it takes is one student running around and putting it in the face of a fifth-grade girl.”
The controversy isn’t the first in Utah. In 2010, Hunter High student Corbin Barber, 17, won the right to wear a bracelet containing the word “boobies.”
Barber, of West Valley City, gave bracelets to his friends near the time his aunt was recovering from breast cancer. A committee of teachers and an assistant principal deemed them “not appropriate,” but the school relented after the students sought help from the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah.
“[Schools] can regulate political or religious speech only if it is lewd or vulgar, or if it would cause a substantial and material disruption in school,” Darcy Goddard, the former legal director of Utah’s chapter of the ACLU argued in 2010. “It’s a stretch, at best, to argue that another word for the female breast is either lewd or vulgar.”
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55176478-78/bracelet-breast-bracelets-cancer.html.csp
'Boobies' Breast Cancer Bracelet Controversy
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar