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Wesson issue about keeping decorum in educational settings
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A high school's purpose is to not only educate its students but to also open their eyes and ears to the world around them, to urge them to reach above and beyond.
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Any teacher worth their salt challenges their students to think outside the box, to question why and ask how. Part of that challenge is to take students through the thought process so they can understand the positive and negative consequences of doing so.
A 17-year-old senior at Wesson Attendance Center has been doing that for the past few weeks.
Ceara Sturgis is questioning why she cannot wear her choice of garments in the school's yearbook. Her desire to wear a tuxedo instead of the traditional drape has met with discomfort with school officials in their desire to maintain decorum, which resulted in a decision to remove the senior's photo from the 2010 yearbook.
To draw attention to her issue, national gay rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union have joined her cause with the ACLU threatening a lawsuit over violation of her First Amendment rights of free speech.
We have to commend Sturgis' desire to question the status quo and ask why. We also have to commend the Wesson administrator's decision to maintain decorum and tradition at the school and say no!
As this issue becomes embroiled on the side issue of gay and lesbian rights - a red herring designed to drive emotional response - the real issue here is the school administration's need and desire to enforce certain rules and policies that administrators believe are in the best interest of the student body as a whole.
One has to question what is the harm of allowing a student to wear a different garment as innocuous as a tuxedo to voice their opinion? It is not a problem until another student chooses to wear some trivial attire or clothing that is clearly racially or religiously insensitive to others. Why are those rights not as absolute as Ceara Sturgis'?
The Wesson situation is not about freedom of expression or the First Amendment, as the ACLU would have observers believe. It is about school tradition and decorum, and officials' ability to govern and maintain both in the best interest of the school system as a whole.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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