Remember the teacher who made a kid take off his halloween costume?

[Catch22Dem]

There was a story posted here on DU about a Tulsa, OK teacher at Disney Elementary School who diciplined a kid by making him remove his halloween costume and walking around the rest of the day in his underwear.

Some DUers were even calling this teacher a rapist, among other things. A few, more thoughtful DUers suspected there was more to the story. Well, for those of you who wanted more before rushing to judgement (proud2blib) here's some additional info.

http://www.tulsaschools.org/

An erroneous report has been posted on its website by KJRH. The story says that a Tulsa Public Schools teacher “disciplined” a 5-year-old student by forcing him to take off his Halloween costume “and go through the entire school day with only his underwear on.”

When he took off the costume he was wearing a tee-shirt that went below his waist and blue patterned pants that appeared to be jogging pants. He went through the school day without incident.

The implication from the KJRH story is that he was wearing brief or jockey-short-style underwear that should have been recognized as underwear. That is not the case.

Of more than 800 students at Disney Elementary, this was the only child who showed up for classes on Monday wearing a costume.

Rapist? Hardly.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. AHA!

I am currently jumping up and down (as I type this)!!

THANK YOU!

Now I will repeat my initial comment on this story - I am willing to bet my meager teacher's paycheck that this mother will read ALL the notes in her baby's backpack from now on. :)

[tularetom]

2. There is a school called Disney Elementary?

Like as in Walt Disney? LOLOLOL Who's their mascot? Mickey fuckin Mouse? Seriously OK the kid wasn't forced to walk around in his underwear but still it was Halloween, what was the point of making him take off the costume anyway? Maybe the teacher was a xtian freak and objected to the celebaration of a pagan holiday?

[Catch22Dem]

4. I don't think so...

They had a rule. No costumes. Now, THAT may be a result of the rampant conservatism around here, but I think the teacher just sent the kid to the office to get his parents to bring some new clothes. He was the only kid in a school of 800 who wore a costume. He's a dipshit and his mom is a dipshit...unless this was planned.

Yes, Walt Disney. Not sure what the mascot is. Maybe it's a frozen Walt himself. A Waltsicle if you will.

[tularetom]

6. My bad.

Didn't realize it was a school district policy. However as you point out it could still be a religious reaction to Halloween. Around here they had a similar policy which they couched in terms of "some families can't afford a costume for their kids" but some of the more paranoid among us (like me) read as a capitulation to the religious wacko set.

[Catch22Dem]

8. Oh I'm sure you're right

Oklahoma is VERY religious and VERY red. I'm sure the local mood sets the school policy.

[tularetom]

14. Tell me about it

My dad died in Enid OK in '03 and we spent a month there settling the estate, selling property etc. After a lifetime spent mostly in CA it was an experience. Very nice folks but they didn't think like me for sure.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. You are most likely right

My district has also banned costumes. Too many parents objected - on religious grounds.

[LWolf]

26. Here's the issue from the teacher's pov:

Not doing halloween in class has nothing to do with christian pressure. It has everything to do with the purpose of public education: to educate.

I have worked at schools where we had to allow costumes, where we would be pilloried by the community if we didn't have a "party" (for every damned holiday on the calendar), and the day was spent coloring, crafting, eating candy, and marching in parades. That's fine, but they don't need me to do that. I don't need to spend 6 or 7 hours with 30+ sugared up, over-hyped kids to give them a "party." That's not "fun," and it's not a productive use of public dollars. I think that's the parents' job. I'm not a baby-sitter or a paid party manager. I'm paid to teach them, and I can't do that in that setting. If I wasn't afraid their "party" would trash the classroom, I'd just stay home.

Then there are those children who, for religious reasons, are not allowed to celebrate halloween (or thanksgiving, christmas, easter, valentines day, st patricks day, etc.). They get shunted aside. Either their parents keep them home, and they are denied the opportunity for education that day, or one teacher doesn't "do halloween" and takes all the "orphans" into her room so everyone else can party. The fact that these kids feel dumped on matters not, as long as everyone gets their party. Of course, many places call it a "harvest festival." I've done those; seasonal festivals can be made accessible to all, and can include plenty of opportunities for learning. They're fun, until the halloween-obsessed insist on sneaking halloween back into the harvest, and the whole mess starts all over again. We are not supposed to be singling out any particular religious practice for exclusion from the public school instructional day.

In this case, it is easy to see why a school would say "no costumes." Halloween happens that evening, when kids dress up and go trick-or-treating. It doesn't have to be an all-day event. If the majority of America wants an all-day Halloween, they need to schedule it for the Saturday closest to the real day, so that parents can do all day celebrations with their kids, and the kids have Sunday to rest up and recover before showing up to learn on Monday. Or make it a national holiday, with schools closed.

As a pretty good compromise, my parent/teacher organization organized a hybrid autumn/halloween festival for our school this year. It happened on Saturday, outside of the regular school day. Those interested could attend, those not did not have to. There were booths, treats, activities, costumes. Plenty of fun for all, without intruding on the instructional day. If we could move Halloween to the last Saturday in October, or the first in November, all kinds of larger community happenings could happen.

[400Years]

27. THE RULES!!! THE ROOOOUULLLES!!!!!!!

can't have any unscripted fun, now can we?

[Journeyman]

7. All costumes are forbidden for safety reasons. . .

and to cut down on classroom distractions. Every student was informed of this and the boy in question was "disciplined" because he wore a costume in violation of a well-posted, well-established rule.

But it's easier to bandy about prejudices and push your own agenda, rather than read the link. . .

[dogfacedboy]

39. There's a school by that name in Chicago.

It's a magnet school that opened in 1974, if I remember correctly.
My brother was one of the first students there.

[feelthebreeze]

3. The psychic damage was done, regardless of how his clothes ...

appeared after being forced to walk the halls of the school in his clothes that were under his costume Unbelievable! This is clearly an example of abuse and you can't see it any other way. WTF is wrong with the school staff to be so ideological that they will risk scarring a 5 year old with such shame and abuse.
I am sorry but it still is shocking and sickens me.

[Catch22Dem]

5. Seriously?

I mean, seriously? A t-shirt and pants is humiliating? On what planet? Here I've been humiliating myself every day and didn't realize it.

[papau]

9. Maybe it was the leaving the jogging pants on that was humiliating?

skivvies and a t-shirt are more "with the age group"

[A Simple Game]

10. Did you ever think that the kid didn't want to be the only

student wearing a costume? It may have been his idea to shed the costume.

[Codeine]

11. Scarring?

What kind of weak-kneed nonsense is that? He had a shirt and jogging pants on! How delicate is this beautiful and unique little flower that he'll be damaged for life because he had to wear a t-shirt and jogging pants at school?

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Oh come on!

If anyone is guilty of scarring a child, it is the parent who subjected the kid to public humiliation by sending him to school where he was the ONLY ONE OUT OF 800 KIDS to be wearing a costume. Then to further the humiliation, the mother called the media and misrepresented the facts. That's setting a fine example for a 5 year old, don't ya think? Make a mistake and instead of owning up to it, point your finger at the teacher, who was only FOLLOWING THE RULES. And if the parent had followed the rules in the first place, none of this would have happened.

But no, it's the evil teacher and the school's fault. :sarcasm:

[seabeyond]

15. no way. youa rent serious. more damage him being the only kid

in a costume and all other kids in regular school clothes. he had to feel out of place. i would NEVER do that to my child. never. and i would expect them to take off the costume and let him be in sweat pants and tshirt.

wow to you

you are so far off the mark. truly

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Maybe I have been teaching too long, but I am

so tired of parents who refuse to take responsibility and/or refuse to hold their kids accountable and then blame the school when something goes wrong.

I am also up to here with these one-sided stories in the media. They have become a trend. Baby gets in trouble at school and Mommy calls the TV station. Mommy leaves out many important details and we are presented with one more story that PROVES our schools are horrible and the teachers are evil. When I posted this story the other day, there were DUers who said this teacher was guilty of rape!!

I posted this just a few hours ago on the education board:

here was a story here in my area last year - 'Kid is Suspended for Bringing Toy Gun to School'. His mom was on every local channel. Her story was that her little cherub had found the gun on his way to school and took it to the principal as soon as he got to school. And that evil principal had suspended him.

There were a few details left out. I have a friend who works at the school and she filled me in. Turns out the kid found the gun at the bus stop and took it on the bus. Did the little darling tell the bus driver he had found a gun or even show it to her? No, he pointed it at several kids on the bus and threatened to shoot them. They told the bus driver who stopped the bus, took the gun away and called the school. The principal arrived, put the little angel in her car and took him home. So he never even made it to school. And he was not the one who gave the gun to the principal. He also claimed he didn't know it was a toy gun. When Mom found out it wasn't real, she got mad and demanded that he not be suspended. When the principal refused to let him come back to school (and the superintendent backed the principal), Mom called the media.

Because of privacy laws, schools get screwed every time with these stories. Without the parent's permission, they can't tell the media what really happened. So instead of shocking the public with a story of a mother who thinks it is okay for her kid to point a gun he thinks is real at kids on his bus, we get a story shocking the public about a little kid who tried to do the right thing and got suspended.

So I have a funny feeling this little kindergartener in Oklahoma didn't actually spend the entire day sitting in his underwear. But you can call it just a hunch if you prefer

[seabeyond]

22. i didnt even jump into this thread, kid in underwear all day

didnt even think that could be for real. just absurd. i mean we all are sending our kids to school, we know the teachers, we have friends that are teachers, i dont see any evilness.

i sent boys to private school for 6 years because i thought public school was so messed up. had to pull them out of private after election last year, at the end of nov and put them in our public. have i told you how much i LOVED that school and the teacher and their principle.

i have switched them to a final school this year, they will finish up in these schools. again, above and beyond the private school i was paying for.

i dont buy the stories either. and i agree parents dont take responsibility nor have their children taken responsibility. and no way this story was going to fly

good for you

[JVS]

19. Yeah, sure.

Nice reach.

[Richard Steele]

24. Psychic damage? Have Mulder and Sculley been alerted?????

I can never quite tell if you are being sarcastic,
or if you actually see every moment of other
people's lives as some type of high drama.

Either way, I say "pfft".
As usual, your opinion is neither informed nor well-reasoned.

[alphafemale]

37. "Psychic Damage" to a budding egomaniac is not necessarily a bad thing.

Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!

Wait...not like that.

[TlalocW]

16. I'm friends with one of the music teachers at the school

It seems this is a tough year for them and near nudity. Last semester, an older kid (who didn't belong there) was found walking around the halls and had managed to get into the backstage area of one of the music/theater rooms where he had been trying on various costumes (and apparently he had done so in the past as the area had been found untidy a few times before). This time he was seen and chase was given, and he was arrested later that day wearing women's underwear.

TlalocW

[proud2BlibKansan]

Did his mom call the media and report that he had

been forced to wear that women's underwear? :)

[Walt Starr]

18. I stand corrected on my initial response to the story

My take was the kid had to sit in briefs all day.

This is completely different than the impression the original story gave.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. That is so great to read Walt

I was hoping you saw this thread. Big of you to admit you had the wrong impression.

Please remember this the next time you hear one of these 'the school/teacher was mean to my kid' stories. They have become an epidemic.

Peace

[Vektor]

21. One time I tried to go about school in my underwear...

everyone begged me to put my costume back on.

:-)

[karlrschneider]

33. shoulda wore yer birthday suit

:evilgrin:

[Mortos]

23. I covered this on my blog the day it broke.

A conservative whacko website was all up in arms about it and I did some research and in about 5 minutes located the schools side of the story which made much more sense.

We should always be wary of news with only one side presented and should fact check everything.

See my deconstruction of the story here:

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. They are out to destroy our public schools

and these insane stories just feed into that frenzy.

The 'we want vouchers for OUR kids' group is winning this battle and we must fight back with the truth. Thank you for deconstructing the story. Every little bit helps.

[benburch]

28. This story will be the subject of a live interview tonight!

Much more than was reported here!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5290711&mesg_id=5290711

[karlrschneider]

29. I saw it on the local (Tulsa news ...I guess Friday or maybe Saturday)

not sure which TV station but they showed him wearing what looked a bit like pajama bottoms. Nothing revealing or risque by any stretch. Not sure what to make of all this hysteria...
:eyes:

[benburch]

30. Listen to the interview!

It is in about 2.5 hours.

[ComerPerro]

31. Cool. Well done

[Applepie]

32. My thought is a school named Walt Disney-

should let kids come in costume everyday.

[benburch]

34. The mother just was on Bob Kincaid, and he was wearing underwear!

Long thermal underwear.

Hideous.

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. I believe the DUer

who saw the kid on TV. And posted this in this thread:

"saw it on the local (Tulsa news ...I guess Friday or maybe Saturday)

not sure which TV station but they showed him wearing what looked a bit like pajama bottoms. Nothing revealing or risque by any stretch. Not sure what to make of all this hysteria..."

[benburch]

36. That was long, grey, thermal underwear.

Go listen to the interview.

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. I did

The school says they were black. The mom said they were blue with a pattern. Now you say gray.

Ever play telephone?