Really dumb students push the envelope with dumb sweatshirts...

They got what they wanted: a reaction.

Now, it's common teen modus operendi to weasel out of any blame.

Same as it when I was in hich school and we were spray painted dirty words in the alley next to the school.

Same as it was when my father was in high school and they ran the cheerleaders bloomers up the flag pole.

 

Pastor - My kids have made a point of going the opposite way when there's a fight, and they've seen some doozies, like a huge brawl in the cafeteria and another outside the school right after school.

I just want them to be safe, and I'm sure so do many, many other parents.

I'll be interested to see the outcome of a meeting between district officials and parents tonight at the elementary school in the heart of the Arab-American community. I'm not going.

I really, really want cooler heads to prevail.

 

Slogans? Maybe not. But how often do you hear the phrase 'like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic'?

 

Maybe now the community will finally engage in a meaningful dialogue about ethnic tensions. One can only hope, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

It's none of my business, of course, but you express your hopes that that will happen, but you also say 'I'm not going' to the meeting tonight.

If you want something good to come out of this, why not participate in the process? Surely you've got something to contribute to the discussion.

Just my two cents.

 

Actually, I'm going to be home helping my daughter with her homework. And, yes, I have been participating in the process. I have had a running e-mail dialogue with the principal, who is Arab-American. And, after the fighting kids bounced off my car, I CC'd the superintendent, who CC'd the assistant super in charge of the three high schools. It's been a respectful dialogue.

One of my points to the district officials is that there would be fewer tensions if the kids got to know each other on the elementary level, rather than being segregated in grades K-5. I watched how it worked in a neighboring, racially mixed district. The kids grew up side by side - and I never saw a racial issue at the high school when I covered all of its sports for nearly a decade.

 

I can't say I'm offended, but I also can't say I have any clue what the students' motivation for making the shirts was.

I think we're missing a major part to the story, somewhere.

 

Many high school kids are missing a major part of their brain, regardless of ethnicity, race, etc.

 

I get that, Wolv. I just think there had to be a motivation beyond getting attention for making up shirts like that. I could be wrong.

 

I have no doubt they knew what it meant when they made it and when they got in trouble they fell back on the "We didn't know what it meant" defense. I did the same when I got caught writing a dirty message to a girl in Junior High.

But I fail to see where they are making light of 9/11 or celebrating it in any way. I think they were trying to be clever and, in the face of negative reaction, tried to back away from it.

As the gold coins with the Twin Towers show, if these sweatshirts had been marketed on TV - "Show the terrorists they'll never break our spirit!" - I think most people would view it as more of a tribute (albeit a crassly capitalistic one).

 

Pssh. Responsible parenting. What kind of excuse is that?

Good on ya, though. And you're right. And I dunno how big that high school is, but a lot of them out there are just too damn big. Build a few more schools (yeah, I know, easier said than done), and you give a lot more kids a chance of making it.

 

Thanks.

The school has about 1,500 kids, and I'm guessing about 40 percent are Arab-American. There have been racial and ethnic tensions for years, and it's the fault of every group there, not just the Arabs.

With Michigan's economy, you're likely going to see smaller districts and smaller schools forced to merge. Our district is one of the 10 largest in the state, though, with three high schools - one with more than 2,000 kids and the others with about 1,500 each.