At Hastings High School (NY), students have been celebrating Spirit Week by dressing silly - Pajama Day, Dress to Impress Day, '80s Day (oh God, the clothing from my high school years is now officially considered bizarre.) But then school officials noticed yesterday was supposed to be "Cross-Dressing Day."
The officials said no. Not because, as you might think, that men in short skirts and bras would offend straightlaced sensibilities, or that they'd be acting too silly to focus on lessons. No, it's because they're worried about the feelings of the transgender communities:
As part of Spirit Week, students had already celebrated Pajama Day, '80s Day and Dress to Impress Day. Then educators saw yesterday's provocative theme promoted in posters around the school and asked student government leaders to announce an alternative: "New York Pride Day." About two dozen high-schoolers refused to wear Yankees shirts, however, instead borrowing each other's clothing and going to class.
As they spotted them, administrators asked students to change. An assistant principal even drove one boy home so he could put on a different attire. The students' garb was distracting to education and disrespectful to transgender people, school officials said.
Cross-dressing students said their freedom of expression was violated and that the prohibition sent the wrong message to transgender students who may want to cross-dress regularly.
What about students who regularly dress to impress? Or students who like 80's clothing? Weren't the earlier silly-clothing days disrespectful to them?
A liaison to the gay and transgender community said there is "a fine line" between personal expression and parody.
Yes, and the last I checked, both are protected by the First Amendment.
Some students pointed out that their garb was protected by the school's dress code as well:
A few students said they were following the school's Code of Conduct by respecting differences and rules on hemlines.
"I think it's ridiculous," said sophomore Malcolm Sanborn-Hum, 15, whose blue chiffon skirt grazed his knees as he walked on the school lawn. "They tell us it's distracting students, when we have '80s day, and people come out in costumes and everything else."
Laura Newman, the Westchester County liaison to the gay and transgender community, said she "could see both sides of the story. In some ways it could be seen as almost a parody, if girls are putting on charcoal mustaches and boys are wearing balloons under their (tops), are they doing it to poke fun, or are they doing it to express themselves really? It's kind of a fine line."
They're just doing it to be silly. They're teenagers. Just because they realize they look ridiculous in skirts doesn't mean they assume any person would. Trust me, they're not putting that much thought into the whole thing. They consider it to be a costume.
I'm a bit hesitant to post on this, because I got a snitty, hateful comment the last time I tried to post saying schools should spend less time focusing on the feelings of special-interest groups and more time insisting that all students treat each other with respect, no matter what. And to head off the heated comments about how I must not know any transgendered individuals - I know two of them. My guess is that kids cross-dressing as a way to be goofy and have fun is pretty far down in the list of things they consider to be offensive or insulting.
Posted by kswygert at October 8, 2004 05:06 PM