School and system failed both students!

You are correct, but if our schools, which use to demand discipline are going to enforce dress codes, then the "tolerance" that you speak of should not extend to boys wearing high heels, and making themselves "stand out" in such a way.....thus  become distractions to themselves and others. If you do not understand that, then you are coming from the Liberal Left that I refer to.

You have missed my point and are expressing your opinions which is fine....my point, with Dress Codes, there should be rules. They bent them backwards, and in doing so created a very avoidable environment.

Ridiculous LIBERAL standards regarding Discipline is the reason that the school admin's did not and could not protect him against "str8 Bullies"...nor could they or would they make Larry calm down, and "appear", from his code of dress..... like the rest of the kids.

Originally posted by Alan You are correct, but if our schools, which use to demand discipline are going to enforce dress codes, then the "tolerance" that you speak of should not extend to boys wearing high heels, and making themselves "stand out" in such a way.....thus  become distractions to themselves and others. If you do not understand that, then you are coming from the Liberal Left that I refer to. To constantly make excuses and then to excuse those supposedly in charge is foolish in my opinion. This was tragic, but adults should not allow youth to use school as a place to express sexuality!   Allowing this type of behavior "contributed" to this sad day. I said Contributed!

Firstly, your argument is flawed because you completely overlook the ridiculousness of its application to other "distractions" aside from dress:
It is never "acceptable" or simply "to be expected" or "unavoidable" for violence and/or other forms of enforced discrimination to occur just because a student "stands out".
Students with skin problems "stand out".
Albino students "stand out".
Unusually Tall students "stand out".
Unusually short students "stand out".
Unusually plump or thin students "stand out".
Students with speech impediments "stand out".
Students with physical handicaps "stand out".
In majority white areas, black kids "stand out".
In majority non-white areas, white kids "stand out".

Should we try to enforce hight, weight, and eugenic "codes" in schools so that our children all act the same and are all the same skin color, height, intelligence, shape and ability?
Perhaps we should start making all the schools only allow blond haired, blue eyed children who are over 5 feet tall so they would not be distracted by the "inferior" children? Better yet, maybe we can make Nation-wide breeding laws so non-Aryan children are not even born here!
Oh wait--looks like Adolf Hitler beat you to your idea....

Secondly, children get distracted* by many things including pretty lady teachers, airplanes in the sky, passing notes, or even bugs on the window sills, but usually, mere distractions* don't lead to gun violence.
This shooter was convinced that he should hate the boy because he was feminine (or perceived to be).
He didn't shoot Larry for being "distracting".
He shot him for supposedly being a what he thought was something which is acceptable to hate and destroy in our culture: a homosexual, or more commonly called, a 'faggot'.
The problem was not that the shoes didn't fit the dress code so much as it was that they didn't fit the "gender role" assigned to that piece of clothing.

Thirdly, While it may be true that it was not the best idea for the boy Larry to wear high heels to school, you must remember that 15 years olds don't always have the best ideas of how to express themselves, and should not be blamed for being hurt by others because of it: hormones are changing, their psychology is just beginning to develop their adult mind, they are experimenting with the ideas of what they want to be/do when they "grow up". This is why parents and adolescents endure such stress during puberty, and also why citizens must be over 18 to vote and over 21 to drink liquor.

However, the drone-like conformist mood created by even having the uniform dress code more likely helped cause the hate crime, as opposed to the lack of enforcement of it.

The more students felt like they themselves were forced to all look the same, they began enforcing that within their own ranks.
This type of trying to "impress" the elders through being "stricter than the rulemaker" is common in all types of communities, and even in animal societies such as wolf packs.

Even one minor expressive infraction of the code then represents the  perceived 'freedom' of the student who "stands out" (both mental freedom to even think of the idea to wear it, and also perceived freedom from the rules they all have to follow) . This, in turn breeds Envy, and the collectivist-fascist attitude that the "the nail that stands up will be hammered down". 

Were it acceptable to wear whatever they wanted, (aside from showing illegal nudity) the kids would have been used to seeing all types of weird, flashy, stupid, ugly, and more importantly, diverse clothing in the classroom, so that a simple pair of shoes being odd would have at most been a joke, but not so shocking as to incite violence.

The only "liberalism" problem here is the "liberal"  over-simplification of child psychology  enforced by student uniform dress codes.




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Edited by logik - Apr 22 2008 at 5:31am