You may have seen this news: A student and her mother are threatening to sue Biglerville High School in Pennsylvania over a letter sent home about how to dress at graduation. I love the letter.
“Gentlemen: . . . PULL YOUR PANTS UP! Your underwear choices should be your own private choice and remain private.”
“Ladies: . . . Choose modest attire. No bellies showing . . . Please remember as you select an outfit for the awards assembly that we don’t want to be looking at ‘sausage rolls’ as Mrs. Elliott calls them. As you get dressed remember that you can’t put 10 pounds of mud in a five-pound sack.”
An offended student — the one threatening to sue — said, “You’re supposed to feel safe and comfortable here, and for a letter like that to come from the administration is really appalling.”
Again, I think it’s wonderful. For too long, schools have kissed the butts of students, instead of telling them what’s what — instead of educating them. Schools have walked on eggshells around students — which is nuts.
Biglerville High, of course, has apologized. What weenies. (Sausage rolls?) The school should have stuck to its guns and told whining students to grow up.
Back in countercultural days — before the counterculture became the culture — people talked about “speaking truth to power.” We now have an issue of speaking truth to students. Bless the teachers and administrators who do it.