In the News…
January 13, 2011
I love my XM Radio, and one of my favorite stations is Oprah Radio. Oprah’s best friend Gayle has a daily radio show where she discusses news and politics. She’s very good about presenting both sides of whatever issue she’s discussing, and takes callers who voice their opinions as well. The other day, she was talking about this story: 2 mothers in Pennsylvania are suing the school district because it won’t allow their junior high kids wear “I Love Boobies” bracelets at school, supposedly in support of breast cancer awareness.
I listened to the story and all her callers, and then I went on her facebook page to read what people were commenting to her question. I was amazed at how many people (probably a good 75%) were in support of the lawsuit, citing free speech. I know a lot of people who read this blog are teachers, and I am curious to know what you think. Here are my opinions:
1. Obviously, these people have never worked in a junior high. Are they really so stupid/idealistic that they think junior high kids are wearing bracelets that say “I Love Boobies” because they want to raise awareness for cancer? This would be really easy to prove- just take away all their bracelets and give them bracelets with just a pink ribbon on them. See how popular they are then.
2. Junior high kids do not have the maturity to wear these bracelets without causing a distraction. It gives me a headache just imagining some of my students from last year wearing these in class. Last year, Silly Bands were bad enough- I just couldn’t deal with adding boobies to the mix!
3. I’m worried about the girls at the schools that are allowing the students to wear these. Again, most of these kids (in my opinion) aren’t thinking about cancer when they see/wear the bracelets- they are thinking about…boobies. Junior high girls are self consious enough about this subject without having it shoved in their face, or worn around their wrist- at school.
4. Seriously? You are SUING over this? Really? Do you have that much time and money on your hands?
That’s all for today!
I work at a middle school and many of the boys are wearing these bracelets. I agree with you that they are not doing it to raise breast cancer awareness. But, I make it a point to talk to them about breast cancer all the time when I see the bracelets. I ask them if they know anything about the disease, if they know anyone who has been afflicted, and so on. I make it clear that if you where something that supports a cause you can be expected to talk about that cause. But I don't think they are a distraction, maybe for the first few days they were (I never noticed it though) but by now, they are old news and so not a big deal.
omg this reminded me of a "MATH EXPERT" shirt i saw in class a few years ago. being a math teacher, i was like "TOTALLY COOL SHIRT!!" and then i looked closer and it had the numbers 80085 on the screen of the calculator on the shirt (BOOBS). gah. if it is a boy wearing it, just like the bracelets, it is for 96% of the time for the wrong reason. maybe 4% have a mother / grandmother who had cancer.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and saying 'Hi!'.I can't imagine if these braclets existed when I was in junior high how that would have gone..what a disaster. I can't believe moms are suing over this …ridiculous!