Let’s be real here, schools are great examples of a totalitarian state in many ways. There are the authorities you’re not allowed to question, your rights are generally treated like privileges, and any say you get in how you do thing is generally a privilege and nothing else.
But there are places where the courts have told schools to back off, such as free speech issues. You can’t disrupt classes or school activities, which is often twisted to mean whatever administrators want it to mean, but you can still exercise freedom of speech.
In theory.
However, a New Hampshire school administrator figured out an interesting way to get her school sued over the issue of free speech.
When their daughters’ soccer team was forced to compete against a team with a biological male on the roster, some Bow High School parents were unhappy about it. They complained to the school’s athletic director, Mike Desilets, but were told there was nothing that could be done in the wake of a federal judge’s ruling that the term “girl” includes males who identify as female.
The school and the team could not act, school officials said.
But when several parents showed up to watch Tuesday night’s soccer game between Bow and Plymouth Regional High School wearing pink armbands as symbols of support for girls-only sports, those same officials sprang into action. They stopped the game, demanded the pink armbands be removed, and issued police-enforced “No Trespassing” orders against at least two parents.
“My daughter’s playing in the homecoming game this weekend, and I’m banned until the 23rd,” said Anthony Foote of Bow, N.H. “I can’t watch her play in homecoming — which is ridiculous.”
Foote forwarded a copy of the order to NHJournal.
“You are hereby prohibited from entering the buildings, grounds and property of the Bow School District,” the No Trespass order reads. “You are also prohibited from attending any Bow School District athletic or extra-curricular [sic] event, on or off school grounds.”
Why?
According to the order, it’s because “prior to and during the soccer game [Foote] brought and distributed pink armbands … to protest the participation of a transgender female student on the other team.”
The order, signed by Superintendent of Schools Marcy Kelley, says wearing the pink armbands violates school policy against “threatening, harassing, or intimidating…any person.” Kelley also claims the armbands violate its policy “that no person shall ‘impede, delay, disrupt or otherwise interfere with any school activity.’
Except that armbands don’t do any such thing.
If they had messages on them that were threatening, sure, but these were just pink armbands. There’s nothing threatening, harassing, or intimidating about them unless you think disagreement is threatening, harassing, or intimidating.
Which, it seems Kelley does.
So what she’s done is violated Foote’s free speech rights by punishing him for a non-disruptive protest. And let’s remember that he’s a freaking adult, which makes it even dumber.
After all, a kid might take the punishment. His parents might accept it so they learn to respect authority—no one should blindly accept authority, but some don’t understand that. Yet a parent is kind of used to being the authority in a lot of ways. They’re far less likely to roll over.
And Foote shouldn’t.
As protests go, this was benign. It was low-key. It was as unobtrusive as it could be. In short, if someone is going to have a protest at a sporting event, you would pray that it’s something like this, something that doesn’t disrupt the game or most people’s enjoyment of it.
It gets the message across but doesn’t rub your face in it.
Kelley should have been thrilled that the protest took that form.
Instead, she’s giving people an even bigger reason to be angry.
Yet this is what we see from the left, which is the side most school administrators in this country align with. It’s not enough to get their way, they have to bully you into not just accepting it, but applauding it.
Tolerance is the byword, but they mean celebrate. You can’t protest boys playing girl’s sports. You can’t challenge the idea that maybe a biological male shouldn’t be playing against girls, even if he puts his hair in pigtails and starts calling himself “Susan.”
Even if you’re willing to tolerate it to some degree, but still want to express your displeasure with it by wearing a pink armband, you can’t.
And the kick in the ass here is that the Supreme Court has already ruled on this sort of thing before. About 50 years ago, actually, regarding armbands to protest the Vietnam War. It’s acceptable and it’s non-disruptive.
Kelley is going to get her school system sued and it’s all her fault. What’s more, they’re going to lose. The only question is whether their attorneys tell them to settle to make it go away or if they’re stupid enough to try and take this to court.
Foote is going to get paid over this. Kelley may well find herself seeing new and exciting opportunities in the fast food industry, though I’m pretty sure some other school out there will hire her because her cause was pure or something. Either way, this is bad, wrong, and will not work out well for anyone except Foote.
But it’s also telling in a way. If you want to know who has power, look at who you’re not allowed to criticize.
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I saw a picture. The wristbands also featured an "XX" on them to signify female chromosomes.