Is it innocent or something else?
Quick, look at this girls shirt and tell me what you think it means:
If you are like me, the numerals have a very specific connotation however according to Christina Morrison, 14, of Billerica who is pictured wearing the T-shirt that got her suspended last week that "It was just a new T-shirt from Urban Behavior that I really liked. It's only supposed to mean sophomore year 1969."
I couldn't find this shirt on the Urban Behavior website so there is no information on the intent of the so-called Sophomore 69 shirt. As for the company, the first Urban Behavior store opened in Toronto 1989. I could almost give Ms. Morrison a pass if she was wearing a GAP shirt, which was founded in 1969 but she was not.
As for her mother, Kimberly Cifelli she had this to say [via email to the Lowell Sum Times] on the subject:
"How could a school official look at a T-shirt with 'SOPHMORE 69' on it and think that it's sexually explicit?" Cifelli asked. "They have athletes with 69 on their jerseys. Do they get suspended? This shirt wasn't too tight or too low-cut. She wasn't wearing a micro-mini. The comment was totally unrealistic."
According to the paper, Cifelli thinks the teacher may also have confused Christina with her twin sister, Crystal, who had been verbally reprimanded when she wore the same T-shirt to school a week and a half ago. She was aware of that incident, but still felt comfortable giving Christina the go-ahead to wear the shirt.
If I understand this correctly, one of her twin daughters wore this potentially suggestive shirt to school and was verbally reprimanded for it, mom was well aware of the situation and still thinks it's ok for her other daughter to go ahead and wear it? Did she think the school would be more tolerant the second time around? Or was she just looking for a reason to get on her soapbox about freedom of speech?
I say draw your own conclusions. For me, I have a 16 year old niece and I am well aware of how the mind's of the youth works and I'm not buying the whole innocent/freedom of expression argument.
Now if I can just find my GAP 69 t-shirt for work...
Labels: Op-Ed
posted by TheWino @ 8:39 AM
2 Comments:
The mother is an enabling moron. How about applying some discipline or decorum?
Unless you want your daughter sixty-nining half the football team on the back of the bus after the big game, you might want to suggest a different shirt for school. Racy graphic T-shirts are the on-ramp to the fast lane, the highway of life where you want to get off on the exit before "heroin-craving porn slut". OK, maybe that is a bit of an overstatement!
Actually, this has me wondering, if this girl is 14 years old and this is what she wears to school, what does she wear at home? On Saturday nights does she put on her favorite "I like balls on my face" Hoodie pullover before watching a DVD?
Haven't seen the balls-in-my-face t-shirt yet, but it can't be far behind!
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