<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">2 Winona High students put free speech to the test
James Walsh, Star Tribune
April 21, 2005 VAGIN0421
Two Winona High School students have found themselves in hot water with school officials.
Why? Because after Carrie Rethlefsen attended a performance of the play "The Vagina Monologues" last month, she and Emily Nixon wore buttons to school that read: "I [heart] My Vagina."
School leaders said that the pin is inappropriate and that the discomfort it causes trumps the girls' right to free speech. The girls disagree. And despite repeated threats of suspension and expulsion, Rethlefsen has continued to wear her button.
The girls have won support from other students and community members.
More than 100 students have ordered T-shirts bearing "I [heart] My Vagina" for girls and "I Support Your Vagina" for boys.
"We can't really find out what is inappropriate about it," Rethlefsen, 18, said of the button she wears to raise awareness about women's issues. "I don't think banning things like that is appropriate."
Carrie RethlefsenRenee JonesStar TribuneTheir case could become another test of whether high school students have the right to express their views in school. Charles Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, has offered to help the girls.
"It's political speech," he said.
Samuelson acknowledged that school officials can limit speech considered detrimental or dangerous. But he said this case is similar to Tinker v. Des Moines, a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case where students were forbidden to wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The court ruled that First Amendment rights are available to teachers and students and that administrators' fear about how others might react is not enough to squelch those rights.
"Free speech is a messy thing," Samuelson said. "People need to understand that opinions that they are not comfortable with, or even opinions they disagree with, need to be allowed."
Good students
To say the girls have never been in trouble at school before is an understatement. They are top students. Rethlefsen was in Minneapolis on Tuesday, presenting her science project on organic farming at General Mills. She has been invited to a prestigious international science and engineering fair for the fourth year in a row.
Nixon, 17, joked that when she was called into the assistant principal's office about the button issue, he told her: "I don't think we've ever met."
But they're in trouble now. And it could get worse.
Rethlefsen said school officials first told her the button was inappropriate in mid-March when a school secretary spotted it. That started a string of visits -- and debates -- with teachers, counselors, an assistant principal and the principal. A teacher barred Rethlefsen from her classroom as long as she wore her button.
"The principal said that by wearing the pin, I was giving people wrong ideas," Rethlefsen said. "That I was giving an open invitation [to guys]."
The girls said they tried to explain that the buttons are meant to spark discussion about violence against women, about women's rights. But Principal Nancy Wondrasch said others find the buttons offensive.
"We support free speech," she said. "But when it does infringe on other people's rights and our school policies, then we need to take a look at that."
Wondrasch said she thought they had worked out a compromise with the girls, allowing them to set up a table in the school to discuss women's issues. But Rethlefsen said school officials are insisting that they review and approve any information the girls want to present.
So they're turning to the T-shirts, paid for with money collected from friends and supporters. "And we're going to wear them sometime next week," Rethlefsen said.
Nixon said more than 100 students are expected to wear the shirts. She added that officials have threatened real consequences if that happens.
"They told us that if a single person showed up wearing them, we're going to get expelled," she said. "People are going to wear them anyway."
Wondrasch wouldn't comment on what sort of discipline the students might face. But the prospect of expulsion worries Rethlefsen's mother, Ann.
"She's a very independent young lady," Ann Rethlefsen said, adding that she understands the school's point. "We just want to make sure she graduates."
Her daughter has gained "a lot of support around town," she said. She's even received encouraging e-mails from noted feminist author Susan Faludi.
Nixon is nervous about what could happen next. But the girls say they are taking a stand.
"We're not trying to offend anyone," Nixon said. "But I want people to think for themselves and come up with their own conclusions."
Well, point number one: you do not have the right to not be offended.
Point number two: schools are not democracies. They have the right to dress codes, and if that includes exclusions of things that they consider distracting to the educational process, they have that right (and in my opinion, the obligation).
What is offensive about raising awareness to womens issues? The girls are not advocating hate or violence or bigotry even sex for that matter. I don't see what the big deal about trying to bring attention to the lack of attention some womens issues get.
Seems to me that the principal is a stuck up prude who has a problem with the word vagina.
Oh, and before anyone asks me: Yes, I would support my kid if she chose to do something like this.
If the performance had been done at the school then I think they would have more of a right to wear the buttons/t-shirts. But to just have carte blanche rights to wear anything they want to school has never been a standard practice. I know when I went to school we were not allwed to wear certain things, drug paraphanelia was one. Sexually explicit or even suggestive was not allowed either. I think this is a case of some kids (or their parents) wanting to make an issue out of it just to get attention. If they win, what does that do to the school's authority and ability to enforce other rules? I see this as nothing but grandstanding on the part of the students involved.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">They didn't do anything offensive. If you loved your vagina, I'm sure you'd be wearing flair from head to toe.Originally posted by G L:
If the performance had been done at the school then I think they would have more of a right to wear the buttons/t-shirts. But to just have carte blanche rights to wear anything they want to school has never been a standard practice. I know when I went to school we were not allwed to wear certain things, drug paraphanelia was one. Sexually explicit or even suggestive was not allowed either. I think this is a case of some kids (or their parents) wanting to make an issue out of it just to get attention. If they win, what does that do to the school's authority and ability to enforce other rules? I see this as nothing but grandstanding on the part of the students involved.
I didn't say what they were doing was "offensive". Idiot. I made no value judgment on their buttons at all, I merely made reference to what we were not allowed to wear when I was in school. It's a judgment call for school officials.
And there would be an even bigger stink made if a guy wore a button that said I Love your vagina too.
AL is right, the school does have a right to set it's own dress codes and codes of conduct.
Even back when I was in school, we couldnt wear shirts that had certain sayings on them.
I never went to catholic school, but I imagine these kind of issues dont happen as much because of the uniforms. That may be the one upside to the uniform thing.
First let me say I do not know the ins and outs of Minnesota civil rights laws. Nor the inner workings of this particular school distict. I do know that Winona Ryder was born there, and named after the town. As far as I'm concerned, she's lucky she wasn't born in Gooseberry Falls.
That said...
The Supreme Court has said time and time again that students (high school or lower) do NOT have the same rights as adults. School newspapers do not have the same 1st amendment rights as, say, the Enquirer. And students do not have the same free speech rights as adults (or college students). That's not to say they have no free speech rights, but the school can restrict them.
And yes, they should. You know, it's one thing to make a political statement, it's another thing to make a plea for attention. I favor school uniforms, and I favor anything that makes students live in fear and terror. Well, I feel that way about adults, too, but it's a lot harder in that level.
Bottom line- lose the button, sit down, shut your mouth, do as your told. If anything, you should be more worried about making sure your car starts in the subzero temperatures than anyone's vagina....
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I notice that the palm trees in your avatar are not indigeneous to your area. Why do you pass off Tampa for more exotic locales?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Because all he can afford is a warmer version of that clapboard shack he lived in here.Originally posted by craig.:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by G L:
I didn't say what they were doing was "offensive". Idiot. I made no value judgment on their buttons at all, I merely made reference to what we were not allowed to wear when I was in school. It's a judgment call for school officials.
As opposed to your "mansion" in Northside? I have seen nicer looking crack houses on COPS. At least my neighbors don't lodge complaints against me with the police like yours do.
What surprises me most is why a racist white supremacist asshole like you would want to live in such a predominantly African American neighborhood. Is it so all you have to do is look out the window and find people to spew hatred about? Or is it because no nice neighborhood would tolerate a freak like you for long? Combination I guess. Loser.
<font color="#FFFFAA" size="1">[ April 21, 2005 03:48 PM: Message edited by: G L ]</font>
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