"One of them said 'I'm so glad Ms. Crain did this, because a Goth sat behind me last year and every single day he'd hiss at me like a snake.' And that impeded his learning."
<LJ-CUT text=" --More--(14%) ">
A dozen students at Wilbur Middle School in Wichita, Kansas, were threatened with suspension for dressing in black clothing, dying their hair, and wearing black lipstick or eye shadow after the school's principal cracked down on the "Goth" look last week.
"There's always been a policy in our dress code against gang or group-related clothing," Principal Cherie Crain said. "Because there's power in numbers. When a group looks alike, they terrorize other kids or intimidate them. Sixth graders in particular were very intimidated by the cultist look. "
Wilbur's dress code forbids students from wearing clothing that "create[s] a 'gang' or clique appearance," as well as accessories like "nose, eyebrow, lip or tongue rings, chains, dog collars, safety pins [and] studded clothing." According to the dress code, these items are all banned because "they disrupt the school environment or impede learning in the classroom."
"Last week, a parent told me her two kids were talking about this at dinner," Crain said. "And one of them said 'I'm so glad Ms. Crain did this, because a Goth sat behind me last year and every single day he'd hiss at me like a snake.' And that impeded his learning."
According to Crain, in previous school sessions, "no more than three students" wore Gothic-inspired clothing. But when the school year began last week, she noticed a group of 10 to 12 students dressed in black, wearing lipstick and makeup. She immediately called the students into her office to let them know their look violated the school's dress code.
Thus far, the students have complied.
"I'll send students home until they want to come back to school dressed in clothes that do not violate the dress code," Crain said. "That's not the wholesome look that's conducive to students performing to excellence. I've got 1,050 kids here, and basically it's a clean-cut, good-looking group."
Crain said she doesn't have a problem with students wearing black -- after all, Wilbur Middle School's colors are red and black. But when black clothing is combined with dyed hair, make-up and painted nails, it becomes a concern.
"The problem is when kids go whole-hog with the look, then it takes on a sort of dark-side symbolism," she said. "And it upsets parents, it upsets kids and it upsets teachers. This is a place to go to school, and to be a kid. And I don't want kids being afraid or nervous. It's a wholesome environment."
--James Montgomery
Welcome to Kansas: please set your watches back to 1982
Wichita Middle School Cracks Down On Goths
Tags: big brother, doomed, perversions
Current Music: The Cure -- Siamese Twins ♬
40 Responses:
finally, someone's afraid of goths.
we finally succeeded. give yourself a pat on the back everyone.
isn't kansas the same place where they got money to fight goths?
Close. That was Blue Springs, Missouri. About 20 minutes from the Kansas border.
I agree that school is a learning environment, and learning to intimidate others - aka "social skills" - is part of that. I went to a prep school and was nicknamed "Satan" for my music tastes and footwear (the one non-uniform part of the tie and jacket outfits). I dubbed my good friend "Beeze", for Belezebub. He's now a minister after serving for several years as the head of a very high profile gay rights group in Boston. I own my own media company and fly between California and the Caribbean on a fairly regular basis. I credit our daily battles (which seemed so significant at the time) for our success.
Adversity in school is important... if it is the flexible adversity that other students provide. When it is the inflexible administra-theology, handed down and expected to be meekly followed on faith, it teaches a dangerous lesson about not exploring and advancing your own views and ideas.
I was slapped down by administrators who were doing their job. They explained their position and I occasionally even understood them. Now, with the benefit of many years, I see that they were generally correct. But they explained each ruling and treated each and every student as an individual.
If this is impossible in the current school system, I do not think it is the fault of the "goths", but rather the fault of the greater educational system.
Adversity in school is important... if it is the flexible adversity that other students provide. When it is the inflexible administra-theology, handed down and expected to be meekly followed on faith, it teaches a dangerous lesson about not exploring and advancing your own views and ideas.
Yes! I 100% agree with that. It takes a challenge to learn initiative. I was such a square peg at school - I was one of only a few Anglos at a mostly Mexican-American school district. I always resisted anything conformist. I often wonder what that made others think.
There's always been a policy in our dress code against gang or group-related clothing," Principal Cherie Crain said. "Because there's power in numbers. When a group looks alike, they terrorize other kids or intimidate them.
I really feel sorry for their football team. How the heck could they all wear their team uniform without receiving a ban?
yeah, I was thinking similar things about the more clean-cut look-alike groups who terrorized kids and disrupted learning experiences.
The policy does seem to indicate mandatory individualism.
I don't think I've ever seen the concept of being forced to be unique put into writing.
$
"Sorry, someone else already has the monopoly on being male, middle class and white. You'll need a new look"
Eh, when I was in school they were mostly concerned about Vandals.
I imagine the next generation will enforce strict policies against Gauls.
asterix 4 evarz
Kinda like when kids go whole-hog and all where the exact same clothing... like a uniform. Very disturbing.
Yeah, but nobody likes a goddamned gothic.
Call them up and tell them what you think.
Be nice.
Okay, you don't live there (I assume), you don't have kids that go to school there, you can't vote people on/off the school board, you probably have no intention of moving there. Why would they listen to you.
Seriosly. Schools have local control for a reason.. Worry about your own back yard before pushing your views on a place that's probably more then a state away.
Students don't have much of a voice in that local control. If students have to reach out and form a national solidarity movement to fight unjust policies like this one, that's what they'll do. Sometimes, enough voices can make a difference.
Agreed.
School rules like this are blatant harassment. They are based on fallacies and cause trouble. I mean they actually cited "a goth hissed at me last year" as a reason for banning the "goth look."
I could be wrong but last time I checked, a school cannot make up rules willy-nilly and make them enforceable. At least in America anyway.
I would advocate calling them and letting them know that you don't support calling them a bunch of cultists. Unless they are a member of a cult, in which case, they better back off. Because if it's even mildly a religious persecution case, well you see where I am going with this right?
I would say that this is bullshit regardless if it's goth, hindi, andy warhol pop art fans or what have you. I highly doubt these kids got together and conspired to "be goth together."
Because unless I am wrong, they are entirely alright with people not wearing makeup, not dying their hair and wearing blue jeans. IE: Perceived normality. It's just a matter of preference and I think it's pretty obvious which side the school favors.
I had the pleasure of some halfwit trying to tell me what I could dress like when I was at a similar age.
The principle had an issue with my "I <3 Satan" T-shirt. I was told I would be expelled if I didn't take it off right that instant. Apparently, people were bothered by it. It stopped them from learning or some such nonsense.
So I said, "Sure, No problem. Just make sure that you tell all the other religious people in the school to take off their crosses, their stars of david or other religious related jewelry. To take off their jesus related t-shirts. I also imagine they need scrub their backpacks down. What with all that nonsense propaganda about praising god."
The principle said something to the effect of: "What? That's different! They believe in jesus!"
That just about ended it there. When he realized what he had said, it was all over.
But I didn't stop, I finished it up: "All of that offends me and I feel oppressed. Every time I see jesus on a t-shirt, I am reminded by those people that I am going to go to hell. They tell me this all the time. So much so that I can't think or work in school, I mean look, their christianity is oppressing me so much, I am here right now. After all, I am a Satanist and you have a problem with me for my beliefs. Also, won't this make for a fun lawsuit if you try to take away my shirt?"
Needless to say, the principle said I could wear the shirt. He even said something to the effect of having a great future as a lawyer or ending up dead in a gutter. That has to be my favorite quote by any authority figure regarding my future.
So in closing, call the school and let them know you're willing to fund some lawyers. That what they are doing only causes problems. That you don't approve. Hell, I would throw a grand those kids way for that if they were seriously being bothered for being themselves.
"He even said something to the effect of having a great future as a lawyer or ending up dead in a gutter. "
That's actually a very kind thing to say to someone :)
Please delete your livejournal account immediately and refrain from posting for the next six(6) months. At the end of this period you will be required to write a five(5) paragraph essay, titled "Why I had to Leave" and submit it as a post. Please limit your use of the internet to ninety(90) minutes for each fourteen(14) day period during this probationary period.
totally gonna use a voice modulator for the Demon Vocal effect tell them I keep jesus locked up in a box wearing a leather hood and demand that they stop harrasing my eeevil gothic minions.
Please pay respects to our brain eating brothers who aren't with us anymore!
Eh, good. I mean, some of their wording isn't the best, but the meaning of the rule does have a place, and was already on the books, so it's not a new rule. In previous schools, I've been barred from wearing ballcaps unless they were school-related, jerseys of the White Sox or the Raiders only, a sweatshirt that said 'Corona Volleyball', and snakeskin belts. Yes, snakeskin belts were singled out.
One could argue about preppy kids being too uniform only if they all chose the same color Ralph Lauren polos with their khaki chinos. Those grousing about uniforms are irrelevant, since this school doesn't have uniforms.
In comicly-related news, a friend was recently let-go for hopping his desk and, er, protesting vehemently, when a co-worker called him a goth repeatedly. You see, he's Industrial - distinctive for their lack of queer makeup (define queer to taste) - not Goth.
-bZj
"One of them said 'I'm so glad Ms. Crain did this, because somebody with a snakeskin belt sat behind me last year and every single day the belt would hiss at me like a snake.' And that impeded his learning."
New scenesters sometimes forget to kill the snake first.
geeze, i wonder how they would have reacted the day after the U2 Joshua Tree tour went through DC. Probably 10% of the senior class (of 1000 kids, 4500 kid school) were all wearing U2 t-shirts.
What school?
I'm from DC.
Robinson Secondary, Fairfax, VA. my class of '88 was 973 graduates.
With the construction of Chantilly and Centerville, plus bussing kids to Fairfax, its only got half the students it used to these days.
no it was much worse than that in 1982 I assure you!
I think any group that is dressed similarly IS VERY THREATENING. I just hope they stay consistent, and go after those GAP bastards next. They creep me out.
/sarcasm
what about the clean-cut ambercrombie & fitch clique? The sad part is there is little to nothing that can be done about this- as a juvenile you do not have access to a full bill of rights (whether any of us do is argueable), and this holds even more true in a school setting. And no matter how many of us would like to argue that having a school full of children that look like they came straight from village of the damned disrupts our education experience, it would fall on deaf ears. c'est la vie, at least now they have another reason to be depressed and hopeless.
The older I get, the more that I think that school uniforms are a good idea.
And no jewelry.
Oh, and girls have to wear pants. Skirts are just torture on pubescent boys.
Yes, my leisure-suit academy will be entirely sans-a-belt.
Kansas
delenda est.
According to Crain, in previous school sessions, "no more than three students" wore Gothic-inspired clothing. But when the school year began last week, she noticed a group of 10 to 12 students dressed in black, wearing lipstick and makeup. She immediately called the students into her office to let them know their look violated the school's dress code.
This is a curious problem. Kids can't know how many people will dress in any particular way until they get to school. It's OK for one of them to do it, it's OK for three of them to do it, but it's not OK for twelve. The real message from the administration is "goth kids, use your power of the occult to foresee how many people will be goth tomorrow so you know if we're already at quota."
You can't dress up like other people in your subculture do! You have to look plain like everyone else. Oh wait...
*scratches head*
But Ms. Crain, those other kids are goth. I'm rivet!
What was so wrong with school uniforms anyway? The evil little b4st4rds are there to learn, not express their mythical individuality. Make 'em all dress like identical clones and whack the hell out of any that complain until they pass their exams. Then let 'em out and they can dress how they like.
MTV, THE source for worthwhile news.
I must say I find it odd that they've chosen goths specifically as opposed to anyone who violates the "clean-cut, wholesome look". I mean, does this mean kids with beards (especially crappy high school face pubes) will be forced to shave? How about kids with long hair or any of the many other methods of dressing that would easily fail to conform to the desired look?
Now as for Wichita itself... well, I live pretty close to there. Technically I'm in Manhattan, a college town (though a crappy one compared to Lawrence,KS or Columbia, MO) about 2 hours away. Wichita is pretty far West, but then again I come from the Kansas City area, so anything more than 45 minutes away from Missouri (and thus, the city) is pretty much complete hickish farmland in my view. Despite this, it's not really "Western Kansas" it's technically the largest city in the state and the kind of place where this sort of thing shouldn't be any more normal than any other suburban community. Then again to get the real reactionary, hick towns you probably have to go out to one of the places people in Kansas have never even heard of with a population around 1,000.
They banned black lipstick? That's RAD. I wish the entire country would ban black lipstick; that shit is ugly.