(Denver suburb) Aurora fifth-grader suspended for Obama 'terrorist' T-shirt

[sabra]

Source: Rocky Mountain News

A fifth-grader in the Denver suburb of Aurora says he's been suspended from school for wearing a homemade T-shirt that said "Obama is a terrorist's best friend."

Eleven-year-old Daxx Dalton and his father, Dann Dalton, say his First Amendment rights were violated.

Aurora Public Schools officials say they respect students' free speech rights but also watch for things that might interrupt the learning environment. They say they can't discuss the specifics of Daxx's case.

Daxx says he was given a choice of changing his shirt, turning it inside-out or being suspended, and he chose suspension.

Dann Dalton told Fox 31 News he's considering a lawsuit.

Read more: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/sep/22/auror... /

[zanne]

1. Does stupidity grow on trees these days?

There's so much of it going around. Let the little shit wear his shirt, for pete's sake.

[Extend a Hand]

24. yes, stupidity seems to grow on some family tress

[The Croquist]

31. I don't think the First Amendment includes 5th graders.

If he was an adult I would say he has the right to wear it but he's not an adult.

[bad_robbie]

35. Tinker v Des Moines

From Justice Fortas' writing of the majority opinion:

First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. This has been the unmistakable holding of this Court for almost 50 years.

I think the kid's message is stupid and ignorant, but we don't have laws against that.

[depakid]

50. Is Tinker still good law?

Interesting question- since it should have controlled the decision in Morse v. Frederick (the bong hits for jesus case).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_v._Frederick

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=...

Even more so- since Frederick was 18 and not on school property.

Seems to me there's a pretty good argument that Tinker is dead on the federal level.

[bad_robbie]

54. I guess you're right . . .

I used to love this country. Now I must be "unpatriotic", in the sense that the guy whose house is burned down by arsonists is "ungrateful".

[depakid]

59. I don't know

The question's in flux.

It's just one of myriad ways that the sorts of people who are nominated and confirmed to lifetime positions on the US Supreme Court make a difference.

[krkaufman]

65. Have they ruled on the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" issue?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/12/01/scotus.bonghits

[depakid]

49. Once upon a time the Supreme court disagreed

Now it's hard to tell where they are on the point.

Bottom line was- once upon a time, the principles behind the 1st Amendment weren't barred by the schoolhouse door.

[Buenaventura]

48. too true - and when shirts are outlawed, only outlaws ...

[firedupdem]

2. Horrible parents need to be jailed! What is wrong with people?

What are they trying to prove by sending the kid to school with that crap on? Why doesn't the father wear it and walk around the state in it? Fucking coward!

[Vanje]

11. Maybe the kid made it himself

When I was in 5th grade, my parents no longer dressed me.

[firedupdem]

27. I highly doubt that a 10 year old came up with this idea himself...

and even if he did who bought the shirt and paint or whatever he used to make his home made shirt? Let's not give the kid too much credit here. Dad is a pussy and wouldn't wear that shirt to anything other than his kkk meetings. He used the kid. Haters teach hate.

[EnviroBat]

16. Exactly.

Big bad republican bad-ass has to use his kid to spread his fucked up political message. This guy should have his ass kicked.

What a fucking waste of skin. I feel sorry for the kid. Probably going to grow up to be a closet racist, mouth-breather just like dear old dad...

[The Croquist]

32. What should the parents be jailed for?

Freedom to show poor taste?

[kirby]

43. For naming their son Daxx!!! n/t

[Wetzelbill]

91. You just know that's going to be a Palin kid name in the future nt

[rfranklin]

44. Dumb-assed-ness!

I would not let my 10 year-old kid go to school with a "Cheney is a War Criminal" shirt even though I believe it with all my heart.

[AlphaCentauri]

58. Exploding kids as billboards n/t

[Terry in Austin]

88. The terrorists are using exploding kids now?

[AlphaCentauri]

94. Not much difference from the The Exploding Vest and The Exploding Propaganda Teeshirt

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

73. Jail for different political views?

You may want to learn to use the sarcasm tag, if you aren't serious.

David

[Ian David]

3. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Bluzmann57]

4. Free speech is an inherent right

But telling the truth is a responsibility. The kid and his old man are liars. So the hell with the kid and his dad. Suspension should stand. If someone was to wear a McCain shirt which said something blatantly untrue about him, I'd feel the same way.

[KittyWampus]

66. free speech is NOT an inherent right. Inflammatory speech isn't acceptable in public schools

Schools are required to provide safe, learning-friendly environments for ALL kids to learn in.

[BlooInBloo]

5. To the best of my extremely limited knowledge, it isn't actually clear....

exactly what 1st Amendment rights kids have.

[Iris]

7. depends on whether they are born or unborn.

[Buzz Clik]

62. Not sure what the hell that has to do with anything.

Unborn babies don't wear t-shirts.

[Iris]

68. well, if you're asking Republicans, they believe that an embryo is a person with full rights

so it only seems right that they would have all those rights when they are 11 or 12 years old.

[peace13]

9. Schools have dress codes for many reasons.

The kids know when a line is crossed. This is garnering the attention that it was intended for.

[wtmusic]

21. At my daughter's middle school you can't wear clothes with some team logos

Crazy, but true. Chicago Bulls is considered gang apparel; Utah Jazz is not.

[bluestateguy]

18. Tinker vs. Des Moines is the controlling case here

nt

[appleannie1]

42. Our schools do not allow writing of any kind on clothing. NOTHING. Not even Winnie the Pooh.

[BlooInBloo]

64. Despite what the previous poster says, there's substantially more than 1 case that's relevant.

[Vanje]

6. Let the lad wear his shirt!

Jeez! You'd think the school administrators are afraid to have children interested and talking about elections, candidates, and current events.

Scaredy cats!

And now the kid with the homemade T-shirt is a celebrity. Great.

[northernsoul]

8. Stupid authoritarian shirt, stupid authoritarian reaction

n/t

[billyoc]

10. Let the kid wear his shirt. It's better to identify these date-rapists early in life.

[The Croquist]

33. Calling this kid a future date-rapist

Is in worse taste then what the kid did. You are an adult. You should know better.

[Cronus Protagonist]

57. Project much?

lol

[Buzz Clik]

12. Even little kids have the right to be ignorant, fucking morons.

Give the idiot his shirt and let him go to school.

[pleah]

19. Sad, but true.

[wtmusic]

20. The product of his environment no doubt

Hate like that takes home schoolin'.

[The Croquist]

34. Please provide evidence

that this kid was home schooled. Since he was in public school at the time we do know that he was at least partially educated by public schools.

[wtmusic]

38. Rhetorically speaking

This fifth grader is obviously ignorant of the issues and is parroting his parents' POV.

[Buzz Clik]

63. that was pretty clear to me. (why the paranoia about home schooling?)

[tandot]

13. They should investigate dad for child abuse

An 11-year-old doesn't come up with such vile and moronic bullshit on his own. His dad apparently brainwashed him pretty good with his racist ideology. Dad doesn't have the right to free speech in his kids classroom.

Incendiary political statements (no matter the political party) do not have a place in a classroom.

[Lautremont]

14. Thatt dadd has been poisoningg his sonn's mindd.

Andd itt begann earlyy!

[Doremus]

15. Back in the old days when kids and teachers didn't have to spend all their time

dumbing down for "the test," his teacher could have used the message on the shirt as a civics lesson.

Divide the kids into two groups and have them research a candidate -- the issues, platforms, biographies, etc. It would have become apparent very soon that the message on the shirt was a lie and the kids would have learned a valuable lesson about thinking for themselves.

Instead they've learned there's a kid in school who wears weird shirts. Now back to the test ....

[bluestateguy]

17. Probably an excessive punishment

but I have more important things to do than get worked up over it. I'm sure the other side will do what has to be done to get the suspension lifted.

[IndianaGreen]

22. Freepers and fundies multiple like rabbits

Time to thin out the herd!

[frylock]

23. cowardly old man was too much of a puss to wear that garbage to work himself..

nice job of exploiting your kid, fignuts.

[Hawkeye-X]

25. I think he doesn't deserve suspension - he deserves explusion and go to some Fundie school

[MessiahRp]

26. My school would have just made him turn the shirt inside out.

Then he's still wearing it and nobody's been suspended.

Rp

[The Croquist]

37. He was given the option of turning the shirt inside out,

wearing a different shirt or suspension. He chose suspension.

[MessiahRp]

40. The kid wanted off of school then

Clearly the decision to wear it to school was antagonistic so he was looking for trouble.

Rp

[azurnoir]

53. To me proof positive

that the parents knew what they doing when they sent the kid to school in the shirt and instructed the kid to choose suspension more manufactured faux RW outrage, it should blow up in the parents faces.

[Demeter]

76. I Think Daddy Wanted a Lawsuit

Told the kid to opt for suspension so Daddy can file a Civil Rights case and get lots of bad press for civil rights.

Daddy's dreaming of a green Chri$tma$.

[LynnTheDem]

28. GEORGE W. BUSH has allowed Osama bin Laden to remain FREE for 7 years.

GEORGE W. BUSH IGNORED the pre-911 warnings.

GEORGE W. BUSH went on a month-long vacation instead.


Common fucking sense would indicate that in fact George W. Bush, REPUBLICAN, is a terrorist's very very very bestest friend.

[firedupdem]

29. You got it! n/t

[bad_robbie]

55. It's symboitic

George W. Bush, REPUBLICAN, is a terrorist's very very very bestest friend.

I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual -- The "terrorists" gave Dubya the bestest gift a president could ask for: a blank check.

[Festivito]

30. I'm with those who posted to the OP 6 minutes and after.

Mostly.

Let's teach free speech by having free speech, not hiding free speech.

Let them fight with handmade T-shirts.

I wonder if this right-wing inculcated kid would call the ACLU for his lawsuit and not realize on how foolishly ignorant he'd look for doing so.

They'd help him though.

[RoadRage]

36. It should be legal to bitch-slap stupid parents - NT

[harmonicon]

39. Is this a Palin relative? What is with these fucked up names?

You can get your own here, with the Palin baby-name generator!!!

http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

My name is Jeep Pike Palin.

[bad_robbie]

56. Is that how they do it?

I assumed parents like her used a Ouija board or a Scrabble set.

edited to tell everybody that I'm now: Thump Hummer Palin

[GinaMaria]

60. Trowel Ogre Palin

I might have to change my DU Login name. That is too funny

[Are we there yet]

70. Blaster Commando Palin...

aha, the perfect Palin name! Maybe she'll name her first grandchild after me?

After all these years, this turns out to be my first post... now that's funny & sad all at once.

Love this place, love all the viewpoints, love having a place to go where someone else is as infuriated and fed up as I am. Many thanks to the gang who created DU and the many mods who keep it running; I don't think I could have survived the last four years without it and you.

[Hugin]

41. This election has entered it's 'Silly Season', I see.

As far back as I can remember there's some ginned up reason for righteous indignation.

If you look into the Dalton family, I imagine you'll find this is exactly the result and coverage they wanted.

Four years ago somebody tore up a little girl's anti-Kerry sign at a Kerry rally. Her father was outraged and
a story very similar to this one was posted.

[HopeHoops]

45. Reminds me of the "Bong Hits for Jesus" incident

[An Intellectual]

46. We need to sic CPS on his fascist parents.

Let's hope they get hauled off to jail.

[Stuckinthebush]

47. That would have been a great educative moment

Allow the kid to express his opinion, but then have the child discuss his thoughts to kids in class or to teachers. Then have a debate that allows other children to refute his ridiculous claims. That way, the child is not turned into a celebrity but is given the opportunity to work through the confusion.

[Twinguard]

51. Those are the same options given to me...

When I was in junior high, Bart Simpson shirts were hugely popular. The one that showed Bart saying "I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?" got the administration of my school's collective underwear in bunches. We were given the option of turning the shirt inside-out, covering it up with another shirt or jacket, or going home for the rest of the day.

I didn't agree with it then, and i don't agree with it now.

Does anyone thing that an ignorant 11 year old is going to be taken seriously with a shirt like that? It may cause a disruption, but no more so than a loud fart, a paper airplane, or snapping a rubber band at the teacher when he/she is writing on the blackboard. Also, instead of making it big news, ignore the kids shirt in front of the students and have the dean/principal/teacher/whoever call the parents and let them know that that is inappropriate attire for a fifth grader, and it will not be tolerated again. Take up the fight with the parents, not with the kid, and don't let the school staff be the cause for the disruption.

[apnu]

52. He can sue, but he will fail.

The Supreme Court removed 1st amendment rights from student in elementary, junior high, and high school levels in the 1980s. The school, for better or worse, is in the right legally. If the school feels the shirt is "disruptive" then they can have it and the student removed at any time.

I saw this happen over and over when I was in high school. I worked on the school news paper and we were well aware that that anything we printed could be pulled by the school at any time for any reason. More than one expose on the doings of the superintendent and the school board was censored while I was there. Turns out the super did, finally, get fired for skimming the school's books and brought up on charges. Would have happened sooner if we were allowed a voice. We weren't, so nobody knew about it.

In another case a female student had a shirt that said "WOSS -- Its a white thing, you wouldn't understand." It was a direct attempt of satire against the school sponsored BOSS group. An African American student organization focusing on African American issues and pride. They had tee-shirts that said "BOSS -- Its a black thing, you wouldn't understand." Well when the teacher who sponsored BOSS saw it, he tried to have her remove her shit. There in the hallway! That ended badly, both for the student and the school. He got nailed with a sexual harassment suit, and lost. But the student's suit against the school on free speech failed.

A few years ago there was an article here on DU about a 10 year-old kid being suspended because of a mohawk. Parents had to remove him from the school and send him elsewhere because the school said he couldn't come back unless the offending hair-cut was gone. Heaps of shame were piled on the school, but nothing came of it. The school, was in their rights.

In this case, legally the school is in the right. Personally, I think students should have 1st amendment rights, so I disagree with all of this, even though I think the anti-Obama tee-shirt is obnoxious, I would like to see the student have that basic right and be able to exercise it.

[uppityperson]

61. My kid had same choice when had a questionable shirt on, schools can do this.

It is usually part of their dress code to do this. My kid didn't think it necessary but did it. The shirt was made by an adult friend of the family, had artwork on it dealing with his working through his catholic upbringing. Kid said he didn't even think about what was on it, was just wearing art.

Takes me back to when we broke the dress code, allowing we girls to wear pants to school. Had an archaic biology teacher who first sent girls home, then was told he couldn't so made us roll our pants up past our knees to get into his class. Eventually we got that stopped also.

[Doodler71]

67. ROFL... the kid thinks he still has constitutional rights

LOL!

Someone needs to pass his parents the news flash that our constitutional rights have been gutted by their beloved Republican Administration and henchmen.

[BreweryYardRat]

69. It's a DISGUSTING shirt, but he has a right to wear it.

This whole "1st amendment doesn't apply in school" thing is bullshit. Keep hate speech out of schools and that's it as far as restriction goes. I may despise the kid's message, but so long as he's not wearing a hate-speech shirt he has a right to wear whatever he pleases. No matter how ignorant and blatantly false it is.

I'm kind of surprised to see the amount of posts calling for his expulsion, destruction of the shirt, etc... Are the agent provocateurs crawling out of the woodwork, or is it just Idiot Post Day?

[mitchum]

71. kooky kid kouture

[Crowman1979]

72. If this little twerp did this in an urban city (i.e. Jackson, Mich. my hometown).

He would have gotten his ass kicked!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

74. Jail and beatings for different viewpoints, aren't we a progressive lot?

[Crowman1979]

87. You see some people have less tolerance for intolerance.

Some parts of the country have a civil disobedience approach to it. And some have a more reactionary approach.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

92. So it's ok to be intolerant?

[crossroads]

75. Well... the nut doesn't fall far from the tree...

Betcha the dad is a McSame follower! This kid got his bias from his dad imo!

CR

[JonLP24]

77. Aurora school defends censure of student's T-shirt

Source: Rocky Mountain News

School officials said Tuesday that it was the disruption that an 11-year- old's anti-Barack Obama T-shirt sparked - not its political content - that got him suspended from school last week.

But the boy and his father, who designed a shirt that read "Obama - A terrorist's best friend," said the youngster's free speech rights were violated when Aurora school officials suspended him for three days. The father said he's considering a lawsuit.

Daxx Dalton was sent home from his sixth-grade classes at Aurora's Frontier School after he refused to either turn the shirt inside out or wear another shirt.

The student and his dad, Dann Dalton, contend school officials would not have disciplined the youngster if the T-shirt had skewered Obama's opponent, Republican John McCain.

"If I said 'McCain is a terrorist's best friend' it wouldn't have gotten me into trouble," the boy said outside the school Tuesday afternoon as he and his father waited to pick up his 10-year-old sister. Dalton returns to school today.



Read more: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/sep/24/auror... /

---

I recommend reading the whole article, lots of good stuff.

But the younger Dalton also said an African-American classmate shouted that he was a racist on the playground.

"He said: 'You just don't want a black president,' " Dalton recounted.

"I agreed with that because that would be the only thing that made him shut up," Dalton said. "But I'm not racist.

[Lakerstan]

78. Daxx and Dann are Dumm

[EFerrari]

79. If the shirt said that about McMore, at least it would have been true.

[importDavid]

80. The school has the right...

Good old Tinker vs. Des Moines... classic case!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_v._Des_Moines_Indep...

Nuff said.

[Wetzelbill]

81. I see McCain still has the edge in the Moron vote

kind of tough for Obama to make inroads with that group.

[Bake]

89. Don't you mean the "MORAN" vote?

Bake

[Wetzelbill]

90. I have to bow down to you on that one

[nachoproblem]

82. Minors have never had free speech in public school

Why should they start now?

Edit: Oh, they were supposed to? Well, they still haven't.

[1Hippiechick]

83. This is exactly why school uniforms are needed - not uniforms, per se, but uniform dress, e.g.,

polo-type shirt, khaki pants, etc. It solves a lot of problems in school, and levels the playing field if everyone is dressed in the same manner. I worked in an alternative school for a while (where the kids go who get suspended/expelled from school) - the alternative school keeps the kids in school and learning rather than at home, on the streets, etc., while suspended/expelled. The clothes those kids would come in wearing! And, don't think that they won't test those limits! One young teen came in in daisy dukes, fishnt hose, and a skimpy top with spaghetti straps.

It was really simple: the school provided oversized large, ugly tee-shirts or the student's parent/guardian was called to bring acceptable clothing to school.

It's a shame that this particular student in this article is being so shaped and influenced by a redneck, racist parent who would USE his child in such a way! That's child abuse, IMO. I say, bring charges against the slimeball who is passing himself as a parent!

[angrycarpenter]

84. I think he wanted him to get beat up

And then sue, sue, sue.

[Democat]

85. He admitted he is a racist?

Is that what the article said? This kid admitted that he didn't want Obama because Obama is black, and then later he said he didn't really mean it?

If that's true, you can guess where this kid probably got his racist world view.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

93. Several people have said they are voting for Obama because he's black.

Is that racist?

David

[Thor_MN]

86. Hey Daxx, go double or nothing and try to prove your point.

Wear a 'McCain is a terrorist's best friend' shirt to school. Enjoy your extra three days off.