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Wanette Schools Respond To Student's Suspension For 'I (Heart) Boobies' Bracelet
WANETTE, Oklahoma -- A Wanette High School junior said she was suspended last week for wearing a bracelet that said "I (heart) boobies."
Ashley Willis said she was wearing the bracelet to raise awareness for breast cancer. Her grandmother was a breast cancer survivor.
Willis said she was told by the principal to either take the bracelet off, cover it up, or face suspension. When she refused she was suspended for a day and a half and told if she wanted to come back to school she would have to turn the bracelet over.
Calls and emails to school administrators were not returned.
Earlier this month a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled the bracelets can't be banned in public schools.
Wanette Superintendent Rick Riggs released a statement regarding the incident.
"Wanette Public School has been made aware of the report that a student is claiming he or she was disciplined for wearing a bracelet. As it has been reported, the bracelets would typically be worn by persons who support efforts to eradicate breast cancer. Due to state and federal privacy laws, I cannot discuss any specific incident or possible discipline issues involving any particular student.
I can say that our students and staff have been very involved in efforts to increase awareness and support for the fight against cancer generally, and breast cancer specifically. We have had at least one all-school activity to raise funds for breast cancer awareness.
Please note that we take all issues that involve our students very seriously. We will check into the matter and will follow local school policy and state law regarding this matter. Thank you for your interest in our students"
April 22, 2011
NewsOn6.com
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Posted in: News by NewsBot on April 30, 2011 @ 11:14 PMTags: Censorship, School
I think the bracelet with the wording on it "Boobies" is inappropriate for school children. Shame on the marketers of this Breast Cancer awareness group!
The school principal did the right thing in this case. The child should have removed the bracelet when asked.
The child could have turned the bracelet inside out but she choose to be rebellious. I'm sure the child's family is thinking "lawsuit" and "easy fast cash".
What is this world turning into? Lawyers-R-US? Where is the respect for school officials and school rules?
I'm usually against school socialistic policies but not in this case.
This just my opinion, you do not have to agree. But we are all entitled to our free speech but not with vulgar terminology. Thank you.
The word Boobies was not harming anyone and more than likely was not causing a large enough distraction to be of any distraction to anyone that's there to endure the droning of their everyday lessons. The fact that the principal went to such actions as to call the child down into the office and suspend her made it more of a distraction then the bracelet itself. Furthermore it is no surprise to me that the school did not return any of the calls made by the parent of the child. Could it possibly be that they know they were wrong and did not want to deal with it?
The word boobies is gay when a girl is wearing it. Otherwise, it should have said something different that still referred to breast cancer, but wasn`t inappropriate. There are a lot of words that refer to breast cancer that are appropriate. She could have worn a pink bracelet. I agree with Mel Penn.