[Chefelf]

Gay teen in lawsuit drops out of school
by Christopher Curtis
PlanetOut Network

After filing a lawsuit for being forbidden to wear a Gay Pride T-shirt to his Missouri high school, Brad Mathewson has dropped out of school, according to a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Matthewson's mother, Marion, told the Associated Press (AP) that her son decided to leave Thursday because his grades had dropped from missing too many classes.

"I think he's a little discouraged," she told reporters.

She said Randy Richardson, the assistant high school principal, said Mathewson could come back after the Christmas break. "But I think Brad is going to go after his GED," she said.

Mathewson's troubles began on Oct. 20, when he was sent home to the principal's office for wearing a shirt with the name of the gay-straight alliance at his old high school in Fayetteville, Ark. The shirt sported interlocking male and female signs with the slogan, "Make a Difference!"

According to the ACLU, Assistant Principal Jeff Thornsberry told him the shirt was offensive to other students.

However, Thornsberry could not explain why stickers supporting Missouri's anti-gay marriage amendment, which were reportedly all over the school, were allowed.

Mathewson traded shirts with a classmate, but on Oct. 28 he was sent home for wearing a different shirt that had the slogan, "I'm gay and I'm proud."

The ACLU sued on Mathewson's behalf, claiming school administrators violated his constitutional rights of freedom of exp​ression.

However, the lawsuit could be in jeopardy, according to Tom Mickes, an attorney for the Webb City school district. Mickes believes that because Mathewson did not seek damages from the district, he may have lost his legal standing when he dropped out.

But Chris Hampton, a spokeswoman for the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri, told the AP the lawsuit was still on track. On Nov. 30, seven other high school students were sent home for refusing to change homemade T-shirts supporting Mathewson.

The shirts sported such slogans such as, "If this shirt offends you, look the other way" and "We support gay rights."

"Brad's not the only student who has been censored," Hampton said.

The ACLU believes it will win, citing the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines that schools cannot abrogate students' right to freedom of exp​ression.

http://www.gay.com/n...ml?2004/12/10/2

Wait, don't Christian schools usually have some dress code? Maybe they should have played up that point rather than taking the "We don't like gay people" route.

Thanks to Laura for this one!

[Chyld]

Oh great, another reason to deplore mankind, just what I wanted for Christmas...

[Jen]

I think the large problem here is that this wasn't a Christian school -- it's a public school.

[J m HofMarN]

You know I did the same thing in high school (wearinga t shirt supporting gay rights, not wearing a t shirt saying I was gay) and all I got was a lousy day of detention. The ACLU only seems to help people who get suspended for some reason. I did contact them once when I was about to be expelled but the school board dropped the case.

[barend]

what really offends me is that those stickers are allowed, everywhere slapping him in the face everyday and everywhere...

and his T-shirt that, from the description, i would not have even picked as a gay shirt... but it sounds amusing...

crap, i mean these people aren't very subtle when i comes to hating people...

even then i think the biggest problem this kid faces was:

Mathewson's troubles began on Oct. 20, when he was sent home to the principal's office

what's it doing THERE ?!?

no escape

[Laura]

Good eye, barend.

That kid is pretty friggin brave to wear a Gay and Proud shirt at that school. He's better off getting his GED.

[Icey]

That's bloody outrageous! What kind of a school system allows crap like this to happen? No one would even comment on it here if I wore a "What About All the Good Things Hitler Did?" t-shirt.

[Jordan]

Why does this shock people? Back in grade 3 my friend was suspended for 1 week for wearing a bart simpson "don't have a cow man" t-shirt.

Oh no, they have rules in school. God forbid the little fucking brats to abide by them.

I'm gay, I'm a muslim, I'm a catholic, I'm greek kiss me t-shirts are lame to begin with and should be ban.

[barend]

1. being sent home for a 'don't have cow' shirt is lame...

2. "i'm gay" isn't that offensive...

3. if that school actually has a 'don't be gay rule' they should not have addmitted the kid in the first place...

4. yes, a 'i'm whatever' shirt is lame... but kids ARE lame... so my message to the school and it's stance on being offended by non-offensive shirts is: "GET UNIFORMS OR GET FUCKED!"
selective freedom is BULLSHIT!

[SimeSublime]

I agree with Barend. If the school doesn't stipulate a uniform, then they can't complain. Especially if it's a government school.

[Kevin]

Does anyone know where in Missouri this took place?

If the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri is involved, then (i) this has obviously landed on the ACLU's national radar, (ii) against all odds such an organization exists, (iii) Fred Phelps will trail his fingers through this pie sooner or later, and (iv) I need to re-pack for my looming trip back to Kansas City.

Finally, I must say that both Jen and Nate rock. They should move to Washington, so I can see them more often.

[Hannibal]

"Mathewson traded shirts with a classmate, but on Oct. 28 he was sent home for wearing a different shirt that had the slogan, "I'm gay and I'm proud.""


What if a kid wore a shirt that said, "I'm proud I'm not gay."?




"According to the ACLU, Assistant Principal Jeff Thornsberry told him the shirt was offensive to other students."

"However, Thornsberry could not explain why stickers supporting Missouri's anti-gay marriage amendment, which were reportedly all over the school, were allowed."


I think its clear, they didn't like gays--i.e. they were allowed...what is so hard to explain?

you know what...stories like these bore me.


iraqis are being tortured and executed in American custody and it barely gets mentioned on the news. Some fag can't wear a t-shirt to school and its the top of the headlines. sorry for being politically incorrect, but i say fuck Matthewson and his fucking whining. There are real problems and there is real suffering going on in the world and he can shut the fuck up.

*GRAPHIC IMAGE REMOVED*


Hey Matthewson, know what OPPRESSION REALLY IS>
*GRAPHIC IMAGE REMOVED*

Hey Matthewson, you know what intolerance REALLY IS?
*GRAPHIC IMAGE REMOVED*

This post has been edited by Chefelf: 23 December 2004 - 09:22 AM

[Jordan]

Thanks for showing us the pictures that hurt the ENTIRE IMAGE of the US army! They're happy/filled with excitment and as a result did something stupid. It happens all the time I bet.

"all right! we graded, lets drink a keg of beer and go joy riding"

"all right we won the war, lets go drink a keg of beer and tease the shit out of the prisoners"




I disagree, Sime. I think that public schools should enforce strict rules. Why should private schools be the only organizations churning out diciplined (sp?) kids. It's not hindering their freedom or individuality at all. Kids nowadays use that as an excuse to get what they want.

When I was in grade 9, this goth chick came to school physicaly attached by chains to her lesbian (probably did it for image) friend. Chains attached to their ears! My school banned them for that day and told them to come back without the chains. Well, all the stupid females in my grade decided to protest this and the following week they all came to school dressed up as goths with fake peircings and whatnot. Grade 9! What is this teaching them? They can get whatever they want by putting up a fight? It's not like they're being supressed here. Kids are stupid, I was stupid too. I treated my teachers with little to no respect (save one history teacher in grade 12)

Teachers are invaluable. Good teachers are extremely invaluable. They are under paid and over worked. If they decide they want to work in a certian enviroment then let them have that. It seems that students have more power than teachers do. They can protest away or claim harrasement etc...

It's such an easy thing to honor "don't wear that t-shirt". Are they so filled with pride that they can't shut up and swallow it?

It's not like they kicked him out of classes for being gay, just for proclaiming it on a t-shirt. I think the same would happen to anyone trying to wear their lifestyle on a shirt sleeve.

I just think it's really trivial and that in the end the kid should just shut up and listen to the school.

This post has been edited by Jordan: 23 December 2004 - 02:37 AM

[Kevin]

you know what...stories like these bore me.
iraqis are being tortured and executed in American custody and it barely gets mentioned on the news. Some fag can't wear a t-shirt to school and its the top of the headlines. sorry for being politically incorrect, but i say fuck Matthewson and his fucking whining. There are real problems and there is real suffering going on in the world and he can shut the fuck up.

A - This story is not at the top of the headlines. No major news outlet has covered this story, at least with any depth. I can't even find reference to it on the Kansas City Star's webpage, the major daily paper of what is likely the 'major' city in closest proximity to these events. Unless there's been some sea change in news consumption habits for which no evidence exists, the PlanetOut network and gay.com - the sources of the original article - hardly qualify as all over the headlines.

B - The argument that this is somehow a stupid story because there is 'real' suffering in the world is a commonly advanced one for paying little to not attention to situations like this, but it must ultimately be seen as insufficient cause for apathy on an issue like this. You're right that this is a far cry from the heinousness of the prisoner abuse scandal - an issue for which our collective nonchalance borders on the criminal - but that's an illogical non sequitor. You've dismissed any discussion of the issue in favor of only talking about 'real' problems.

What has been overlooked is the likely reality that this student, the principal, the other students and their parents are all well aware of the images of recent, and likely still going on, torture at American detention facilities, but ultimately they see it as either too remote to their everyday lives or too far afield of their ability to influence the situation that they can affect the same result by just not caring about what's going on overseas with foreign prisoners. Is that a good outlook? No, not at all. Is is understandable? Yes. People will generally get worked up only about the parts of their lives that they can actually influence, the parts of the world that are tangible. In that light, this is a very real problem for the people in this Missouri town, and suggesting that they all shut up because it's time to all sit at home and stare ponderously and repeatedly at images of prisoner abuse, at images of 'real' suffering, is asinine. For this young person, there's no greater problem than understanding who he is and how he'll incorporate his sexuality into the rest of his life.

C - Though my general and palpable distaste for the bulk of post-modern and post-structuralist (give me Louis Althusser any day) thought precludes any really involved discussion, I will point out that such writers are absolutely right when they bray that there exists no heirarchy of oppression, for it is felt as 'real'-ly by its sufferers regardless of the merits of their complaint in the eyes of a third party.

D - The problem with the stickers being allowed and the shirt being unacceptable is that the former represents a public accommodation taking a clear view on a political issue very much open to debate and the latter is an example of people in authority marshalling that authority to reinforce silence on a controversial issue. In the first case, the inconsistency should be clear. If stickers and placards were placed throughout the school in the 1970's, encouraging students to stick it to the soviets, of course there would be no problem; sticking it to the Soviets was a national goal. If the stickers called for the support of the troops, then likewise no problem. But when the issue is something so divisive as a comprehensive amendment to the state constitution that seeks to prohibit marriage rights for 5-10 percent of the population no public institution should be taking a position, especially one that is serving children exclusively.

Now, if you disagree with that view and think the overt support of the anti-gay amendment in school is fine, then there's an even bigger problem. By taking a position, the school is inviting those who disagree to take their own position and state it clearly. So now the student in the article wears articles of clothing expressing his position on the issue. The school says he's out of line in doing so. Quite frankly, bull shit. If an institution, especially a school, is going to stake out a position on a controversial issue, then it, just like any person, should either be willing to defend that position and face disagreement or cease advancing its position. This school is looking to make its case and then use its authority to prohibit any visible displays of dissent. Sure, it looks nice to the parents who don't want their feathers ruffled, but it's setting an example of intellectual dishonesty and one-sided arguments that is frankly disgusting.

Further, I will merely state that I'm pretty damned sure that if this kid showed up a school wearing a shirt saying "I'm a Christian," there wouldn't have been any problems whatsoever.

E - Finally, whether or not any person finds this issue compelling or interesting, there are only going to be more such situations arising in the coming years. As general tolerance of open homosexuality spreads in American society - regardless of what, if anything, changes in places like Missouri - we will see the continuing of the current trend toward young people coming out earlier and earlier. Representations of gay people on television and in movies allow young people to see that people can live fine as openly gay people. The internet allows younger and younger children to access general information on homosexuality and get in contact with other gay people in a way never before possible. Problems like this, once the exclusive problem of college campuses, have become high school problems and likely are exacerbated by the close proximity of the gay teens and their parents. It's entirely likely that within a couple of decades - or less - we'll start hearing of these problems in middle schools, if only because that's when heterosexual teens start taking their first furtive steps into active sexuality. (right Jen?)

This issue is nothing like the prisoner abuse scandal. It's not Rosa Parks. It is, though, a very real problem, and indicative of an issue that most people have really no faculty for handling. Suggesting it be ignored in favor of bigger problems is ridiculous.

[Chefelf]

I'm so tired of people saying that something like this shouldn't even be mentioned because of the bad things going on in Iraq. Since when should the media decide to ignore a subject because there's something deemed "more apalling" going on elsewhere?

Is abuse of Iraqi detainees worse than expelling a kid for wearing a T-Shirt saying "I'm Gay." Most likely. But why does that make the kid being expelled any better.

And, Hannibal, what news sources do you pay attention to? I have seen, read or heard a news story about the Iraqi prisoner abuse every day since the first stories came out. I had to go digging to find this news article and you know where I found it? Gay.com. Some would say that that's a fairly specialized news source and not exactly a CNN affiliate.

And I'd just like to agree with Kevin's assessment:

Further, I will merely state that I'm pretty damned sure that if this kid showed up a school wearing a shirt saying "I'm a Christian," there wouldn't have been any problems whatsoever.