Student with #Black Lives Matter shirt sent home from school

[gollygee]

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/student-sent-home-for-wearing-blacklivesmatter-shirt-with-list-of-people-killed-by-police-7747458

Harmony School for Advancement senior Fatimah Bouderdaben wanted to participate with the city-wide tribute to the recently murdered Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth by wearing a blue shirt to school last Friday, but she also wanted to remind people that the issue of police brutality was still under debate. So she inscribed her blue shirt with “Black Lives Matter” as well as the names and ages of victims like Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Bouderbaden says she was sent home from school for refusing to change out of her shirt or turn it inside out.

“Many of my friends were upset about the implications of wearing blue so I made t shirts with the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the front and the names and ages of 26 victims of police brutality on the back,” says Bouderdaben. “We were told by the administration to either cover it up / take it off or be pulled from class and sent home. My friends chose to change but I refused to because I was not breaking dress code.”

Bouderdaben, 17, said she and three other students were addressed in their first period class by Dean of Students Meredith Millspaugh about how their shirts were disrupting the school environment. According to Bouderdaben the phrase “all lives matter” was also used, a phrase frequently seen by supporters of the BLM movement as an attempt to shut down conversations about the disproportionate number of blacks that have fatal encounters with the police. A recent investigation by The Guardian showed that blacks make up 29 percent of people killed by police despite being only 13 percent of the general population. Of those killed 32 percent were unarmed.

[HassleCat]

1. She's absolutely correct

Her shirt was political speech, protected under the First Amendment. Since the school encouraged students to wear blue shirts to commemorate the deputy, the school was encouraging political speech. Once they open that door, they cannot close it arbitrarily.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

2. Hmmm...nothing new here. Another day in White supremacist America

[leftofcool]

3. Yep.

[msanthrope]

4. School encourages political speech, but only of a certain kind. nt

[Solly Mack]

5. I would have done the same thing as the young woman.

You can feel bad a cop was murdered without being encouraged to wear blue, the color of the police - not just an individual cop - but all police everywhere. That would have made me uncomfortable as well. Especially considering police brutality, the widespread racism in police forces around the country, and the many deaths of black people by cops.

The school chose to make a political statement with the wearing of the color blue. No one need kid themselves. It was a political statement.

Just consider, had a child of someone murdered by the police attended the school. Would that child be expected to wear blue as well? What kind of hostile environment would have been created for that child?

Would the school be having a day for the child's parent? I'd wager the school would say that was too controversial.

But it's OK to tell the school population to wear the color of the police to honor a dead policeman? As a show of support - not just for the dead officer but for the police as a whole. Because that is what the blue represents - all the police.

Just because it was city wide doesn't mean the school had to participate.

Once they opted to participate, they presented a choice to their students and Ms. Bouderdeban made hers. To honor, but remind.

Not all students are mindless drones who never question the world around them.

For that we should be glad.

[Glassunion]

6. Good for her. K&R