Kids paint flag on chests, one is suspended for not wearing shirt

[proud2BlibKansan]

Bare chest leads to suspension for Kearney High student

The way Dylan Eckstein and his buddies figured it, painting their bare chests into a collective American flag for a school-approved video was patriotic.

But now the three Kearney High School seniors are in the middle of a flap that got Eckstein — a member of Missouri’s Army National Guard — kicked out of school Thursday.

“I was pretty much the one who was standing up for my rights, you know,” Eckstein said shortly after being suspended for the day. “I was asking, ‘Why can’t we do this? Why can’t I show the American flag?’?”

The school’s principal said the issue wasn’t the flag but the students’ bare chests.

Eckstein and the friends are convinced that it was his open questioning of authority that got him in trouble.


Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/06/3952196/bare-chest-leads-to-suspension.html#storylink=cpy

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. A lot of dumb on all sides here

[msongs]

2. pray the national guard does not give a gun to this child nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I hope he gets kicked out after this.

What a fool.

[sadbear]

3. Tough call.

But as a former teacher, I understand zero tolerance and zero exceptions. Suspended for a day is nothing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Check out the comment the kid posted:

I am Dylan Eckstein. I stood up for what was right, end of story. Yes I do know how many stars and stripes there are on a flag we just didn't have enough canvas and time to make it as extravagant as we could, and I am sorry. We did wear our shirts to school and took them off whenever the event was about to start. We were singled out, and I stood my ground and made a viable defense. I did not "mouth off", I just wanted to know why we couldn't show the flag. Watch the ch 41 tonight and you can see me explain it. It was a screw-up by the administrators and I did accept the consequences, but now the school has to face theirs. Problem?

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/06/3952196/bare-chest-leads-to-suspension.html#comment-729820610#storylink=cpy

Consequences for the school? Really, Dylan? You want to go there? LOL

[sadbear]

6. I'm guessing he'll be on fox news either tonight or tomorrow night.

Lots of right-wing attention.

[Logical]

9. Zero tolerance for non-team members you mean.

[sadbear]

10. They were told to put their shirts back on.

The one that didn't comply with that directive was punished.

The swim team had permission. He did not.

[Logical]

12. It was stupid to tell him to and not the swim team. And the admins knew it! n-t

[sadbear]

13. I didn't get to go on the gym floor and spew undiscernable non-sense

over an over-modulated PA system during high school pep rallies. No, that was reserved for the football players. And if I had tried, especially after a teacher had told me not to, they would have probably suspended me for the day as well. What's the difference?

[Logical]

14. LOL, the pep rally is a little bigger! How about comparing the football...

Players jerseys on game day and telling other students they can't!

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. The swim team had been told they could wear their uniforms

And those uniforms happen to be speedos.

And this kid didn't get suspended for not wearing a shirt. He got suspended for mouthing off to the principal when he was asked to put a shirt on. That's a pretty important detail.

[Earth_First]

7. :facepalm:

[Logical]

8. WTF, so the "team" can wear Speedos but these boys can't go bare chested? Idiot Principal was just..

pissed they called him out on it.

Typical treating of athletes better than non-athletes.

[Systematic Chaos]

11. Suspend their asses for getting the stripe count wrong.