From the tiny state of Rhode Island:

“In the name of both freedom of speech and common sense,” the American Civil Liberties Union has asked Portsmouth High School principal Robert Littlefield to reconsider a decision to bar a senior yearbook photo showing a student dressed in a coat of mail with a reproduction of a medieval sword over his shoulder.

Without naming the student, Patrick Agin, Littlefield suggested last week that the photo would violate the school’s “zero tolerance” policy banning weaponry.

In a note to Patrick’s mother, Heidi Farrington, Littlefield has said Patrick may submit an alternate senior photo, or use the same photo if the family were to take out an ad in the back of the yearbook.

The school’s asinine weaponry policy is one thing.  A dorky kid wanting to wear a coat of chain mail in his yearbook picture is another.  But the last sentence is really troublesome.  The picture violates the stupid zero tolerance policy, but for a wee bribe ad the school will overlook the indiscretion.

Mother and son both belong to the Society for Creative Anachronism, an international organization which reenacts medieval and Renaissance history.

The school, being an institution of learning, should actually be encouraging such active participation in cultural/historical organizations not banning pictures of kids dressed in historical garb.  Government schools: can’t see the forest for the trees.

The ACLU lawyer (Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the ACLU) makes a compelling argument:

In the latest case, “the incident only vividly demonstrates that public school ‘zero tolerance’ policies are popular because they eliminate the need to think,” Brown wrote.

“By failing to distinguish between a photograph of a student who enjoys medieval studies holding a prop broadsword and a photo of a juvenile delinquent holding an Uzi, the school has promoted a vacuous concept like zero tolerance into a policy that prefers rhetoric over reality and simple-mindedness over common sense,” Brown concluded.

Indeed.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 at 12:03 am and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.