PATSYLICIOUS

Do I think he should have been punished? Yes, unless I'm reading the article wrong. The school has a uniform policy and loosened it for a 'black and gold' day. The kid wore blue, that's against policy. A few days before this happened, a teacher warned him he would get in trouble for wearing blue, and the kid was still defiant.

It's not comparable to the situation you brought up with your son, who has a casual Friday where having the Brady jersey is all within the rules.

PatsFanSince74

I think the kid was acting in the great American tradition of defending his right not to go along with the majority by exercising his right to freedom of expression.

In this case, he was presented with two options: wear his regular uniform or wear "Black and Gold." He felt that these options limited him in an unfair fashion by forcing him not to express strongly held sentiments in support of the Colts Franchise.

Brandon Frost chose the path of civil disobedience, bearing the full brunt of authority's crackdown (a little humorous overstatement before someone cites it), in this case a dreaded call out by the Principal.

Frost apparently complied under duress and is now seeking remedies to his standing and reputation. The scenario would only have been better if he had seated himself in the Principal's office and refused to remove the Jersey! What would they have done then? Had the local police evict him? Strip him? Oh man, what a story that would have been!

How can people in New England, the hotbed of a revolution that was fought for those very rights, not understand and support that.

You rock, Brandon Frost!

The next time your idiot principal declares "Black and Gold" day, fashion a Colts insignia out of Black and Gold and wear it to school; let's see what happens then.

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It is what it is. It wasn't what it wasn't.

PatsFanSince74

See my post above (#12 in this thread). It's a little tongue in cheek, but I stand by the principle on the principal.

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It is what it is. It wasn't what it wasn't.

PATSYLICIOUS

I definitely see where you're coming from as far as taking a stand. But at the same time, you do the crime you pay the time, he knew there will be consequences for what he did.

PatsFanSince74

"special-needs"...can you be more specific? Are you implying some sort of mental impairment? Or perhaps you are suggesting he is color-blind? What exactly are you suggesting? Be specific.

Have we come to this? When someone who dares to differ from the herd has his mental or physical capacities questioned by someone who has never met him and knows nothing about him beyond a few words in an article?

As for his parents appealing to a "higher authority," I'm not sure what you mean. They have every right to defend their son's right to express himself without undue consequences to himself. He apparently obeyed when asked to remove the jersey, now they are exploring whether his standing in the school or on his transcript will somehow be damaged by this. I'd do that for my kid.

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It is what it is. It wasn't what it wasn't.

PatsFanSince74

I'm no flaming liberal, but after reading a few comments in this thread, unless they receive an apology, I hope his parents team up with the ACLU, get Amici briefs from people as diverse as Floyd Abrams and Ted Olson and places like CATO and the Tea Party, and sue the school for impairing speech, humiliating their son and whatever else a bunch of very liberal and very conservative lawyers (who tend to see issues like this in the same way) can conceive on a pro-bono basis. The school is probably strapped for money, so they should sue for $1.00, just to make their point.

[Ian, this is probably now more a political thread than anything else, so you should probably move it.]

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It is what it is. It wasn't what it wasn't.

BostonPatriot

This post sums up the caliber of homers that have taken over this board.

FloridaHerb

As an adult living in "enemy territory" sometimes I get crap about wearing Pats gear in public but I laugh it off and deal with it...I look at it as showing support for my team and representing my region.

I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to be a kid being the only Colts fan in a sea of Saints supporters, if anything it displayed a poor lack of judgement among the staff of the High School...they should have either let everyone wear whatever NFL gear they wanted that day (most would have been Saints for obvious reasons) or just put a "Go Saints" banner in front of the school to show support, I passed by a couple thousand "Go Colts" signs yesterday (Ugh!) and while I understand the excitement of this region as well as that region in this day and age of supposed equality the school made a mistake.

It had nothing to do with black and gold vs. blue as accepted dress codes and EVERYTHING to do with supporting the Saints in their hopeful defeat of the Colts.

Anyone here saying that the kid got what he deserved would be singing another tune if a kid who moved from Brockton was wearing his Welker jersey in a Pats/Saints Superbowl and frankly speaking on behalf of all of us who show our team support OUTSIDE of the region it takes a lot more guts when you're not in the majority!

Still...Go Saints!!! I would dearly love to see how fast the local Colts signs go down this year!

upstater1

A. The Principal copped to the quote.

B. A rule? A rule that you can wear Saints clothing? Come on!!!

upstater1

This is patently unAmerican.

If you're going to go corporate (and that's what the NFL is, a corporation) by allowing people to show their support of one entity of this monopolistic corporation, then you have opened the doors to support of other teams.

The principal--based on his own quotes and his bias--has a brain that is incapable of grasping such nuances, and I would be far more concerned about the quality of education at that school if I were a parent, than I would be with dress codes.