Utah school forces student to change out of kilt

**Colonel MacNeal** · 17th May 09, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by Roderick

Silly.

Kilts are a very male piece of attire. I realise I'm preaching to the choir here, but I mean that they have always struck me as necessarily masculine. Yes, there are similarities to skirts worn by women, but any time I have seen a lady in a kilt my instinctive reaction is to think that she's in drag. It reminds me of when Eric Idle and Michael Palin would dress up as women for Monty Python sketches.

I agree with you. Aside from members of pipe & drum bands, women in knee length kilts look very odd to me. Women look better in kilted skirts, whether they are long, or short.

**Roderick** · 17th May 09, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by Phogfan86

When I was in high school, overalls were expressly prohibited in our school dress code because, administrators said, it could be misconstrued that we were making fun of farmers. I am not making that up.

Ever since I was 14, anytime educators do something that really seems uneducated, I'm no longer surprised.

Had to laugh at the overall bit. That's awesome. Some people are just dumber 'n a sack of hammers, that's for sure.

As a teacher, though, I can tell you that most educators are cool. It's the administrators -- former educators -- that you got to watch out for.

Originally Posted by Colonel MacNeal

I agree with you. Aside from members of pipe & drum bands, women in knee length kilts look very odd to me. Women look better in kilted skirts, whether they are long, or short.

I myself always thought women looked better in a pair of hip-hugging jeans and a crop top, but I'm likely sexist or something.

One of the things I really like about teaching is getting to watch the kids develop their own sense of style and their own identities over the four or five years I may know them. When a kid shows up suddenly one day with dreadlocks, or when they wear a kilt (as one of my students did after I wore my UK to class a couple of times -- a heavyweight SWK belonging to his dad), or when they get excited about some odd music that none of their friends knew about, that's the stuff I love. I actually had to go head-to-head with our admin last year when they wanted to suspend a student who came to school barefoot.

**sathor** · 18th May 09, 07:08 AM

Originally Posted by Roderick

I actually had to go head-to-head with our admin last year when they wanted to suspend a student who came to school barefoot.

I remember such a hippie in college one year. The only logical argument I could come up with was a religious belief one, beyond that, I would think the health codes would be of issue. I'm curious how your incident played out.

**Roderick** · 18th May 09, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by sathor

I remember such a hippie in college one year. The only logical argument I could come up with was a religious belief one, beyond that, I would think the health codes would be of issue. I'm curious how your incident played out.

The young lady in question is an artist and a musician, and her style of dress and general political attitude are those that might have earned her the label "hippie" from more than a few folks. She had a pair of sandals that she would bring with her, and if she needed to use the washroom she would slip them on. Otherwise, she was barefoot all the time! On her way to school, in school...

Our administrator tried various things to tell her that being barefoot was somehow against the rules (NOTE: not merely "unacceptable" or "dangerous", but "against the rules"), yet could never provide her with a consistant argument, nor show her where in the school code or code of conduct such a rule was laid out. So she at first tried to give her detentions, but the young lady would not show up for them. When threatened with suspension for not making her detentions, she finally came. Admin then gave her the standard detention punishment of cleaning up garbage around the school, but she refused when they added "and you can't do it barefoot!" So her friends finally packed her into a shopping cart and they wheeled her around the school grounds and picked up garbage on her behalf.

The administrator in question then threatened those students with detention and suspension!

In the end, the young barefooted lady figured she was better off going to a different school rather than continue to pursue this, as she was afraid she would end up doing something that really would warrant her suspension. She now attends a local Waldorf school where they are quite happy to have a bright and talented young woman going barefoot in their classrooms.

But none of this is about kilts.

Originally Posted by sathor

Not all. The young ones perhaps. Some actually go into admin to try to fix problems they see with it, other tire of teaching, and going into admin is far easier than starting all over again with college. Some are just power hungry. My wife says she would never want to go into administration. She has had to deal with a few too many idiots in admin to want to join them I think. Like the one that said a poem her class read was overtly sexual and suspended her for just over 2 months. (He said that when it mentioned the flowers in the garden, they were really vaginas, and the persons weeping over their dead husband was really an orgasm. I think he liked Georgia O-Keef (sp?) a bit too much.)

I'm the kind of teacher likely to point out to my students that the poem was actually about vaginas and orgasms.

If in fact it was.

Love the Georgia O'Keefe line.

Too many people in administration spend too much time worrying about perceptions -- how the school might be seen by the community, how the school might be seen by parents -- and not enough time dealing in reality -- how the school is seen by the community, how the school is seen by parents. My own school used to have a really great reputation among parents and in the district for being open to differences, for creating a unique environment that was good for kids in our community, for including parents and the community in the decision making processes that determined how the school would be run... Now we are the same as any other in the district. McSchool. Closed-minded administration -- both at the district level and the school level -- is to blame.

And all of this kind of thing is why I, as a teacher -- an educator -- get frustrated when administrators do silly things and educators take the blame. Seriously: administrators administrate; educators educate. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I can tell you that where I live (my time is divided between BC and Wisconsin) most principals and vice-principals have not been in a classroom for years.

Okay, end rant.

And back on topic...

I think this guy, the principal, made a boneheaded move, but it sounds to me like it's all coming out well in the end. So I can't hate on him too much. I will stand by my initial response to his reaction, however, and say that the guy is silly.

**SteveB** · 17th May 09, 05:48 PM

I think that Principal Jessup is due a visit from Mr. Preston McFarland (the lad's father, who runs the MacFarlane tent at the Highland Games) dressed in Highland attire along with a contingent of the McFarlane Clan Society. Mr. Jessup should be made aware of the consequences of declaring war on the Scottish diaspora. A special Tartan day at Rocky mountain Junior High School with some help from the neighbouring High School Pipe Band.

**JolyStNicholas** · 18th May 09, 02:45 AM

That educator should of done more that appologize, I feel more training is needed for that person on dealing with young people. I'm sure they have seen far more distracting dress such as black/blue hair with multi body piercings, and black attire and chains, etc,etc.