In Lake County, Florida, a girl was suspended from school for having a pierced eyebrow. When she got home, her father verbally assaulted her, berating and degrading her even further. That night, she put a gun to her head and ended her life.
At A Glance Author Rovylern Contact [email protected] IAM Rovylern When N/A
What has our society come to, that we force our children down this path? Our schools teach that it is not only acceptable but expected that we judge others solely by their appearance while at the same time decrying racism and other stereotyping. Our children turn to their parents for shelter, for safety and acceptance, and are belittled and demeaned.
We homogenize our kids, we press them into cookie-cutter molds and take away every means of self-expression that they might find and then wonder why they explode in rebellion and violence. Our schools, so concerned with being politically correct, push these kids even closer to the edge. We talk to them about choices, and how they have to be responsible for their lives, while at the same time taking away every choice they could make, all in the name of "the public good."
To any school, any parent, any family member of a modified person, please listen to these words. You are killing our kids. You are murdering the minds of our future and raping their creativity. Please realize this the next time that you call your child a freak for wearing a piece of jewelry or scream at them about how worthless they are because they want to dye their hair or put ink in their skin. Realize this the next time you make the decision to throw a child out of school and deny them their basic right to an education just because they look different from the "norm." It can only get worse from here, never better. What will we ban next? Will we make all kids cut their hair in a certain style to be able to go to school, dye it all the same color, force everyone to wear glasses with the same frames just so they all look alike and there are no distractions? Of course those are ridiculous ideas, it's absolutely ludicrous to say that everyone has to look exactly alike in order to "deserve" an education. But that is exactly what these schools are saying, and what these parents are reinforcing.
As parents we should support our children, whether we personally approve of their choices or not. That is what being a parent means: unconditional love of our kids, being their safety net against the world. It is as much abuse to call your child a freak or a loser for having a piercing, as it is to beat them or molest them. It tells them that they, as people, have no value and that their choices have no value. It is just as demeaning to their sense of self-worth and self-respect and it should be just as unacceptable.
Schools, instead of spouting rhetoric, should be forced to become what they are supposed to be in the first place: havens of learning and education. They are not there to be the fashion police or to transform kids into paper dolls, each looking the same; they are there to teach, to enlighten, to inspire our kids to express themselves in a healthy way. By allowing teachers and principals to force their own beliefs and closed-mindedness on our children, we are effectively crippling our growth as a society and as human beings. Think about it; for example, if the teachers of thirty-five years ago had been allowed to enforce whatever rule of acceptability they wished on classrooms, our schools would still be segregated. Discrimination in any form is wrong, and yet we allow and even encourage prejudice against people who choose to express themselves by modifying their bodies.
The school officials who are involved in this particular case as well as the father should be held accountable for their actions. They should be made to answer for their actions. They are all as guilty as if they had aimed the gun for her, because in a very literal way they did.
This should never, NEVER be allowed to happen to another child. Every person in this nation and in this world should be shocked and outraged that this was allowed to happen here, in the United States, which was created with the ideology of embracing all differences and judging people on who they are rather than what they look like. Every person who reads this should write, call, or e-mail their State representatives and senators as well as the President of the United States and ask...no, DEMAND that this discrimination end immediately. No more children should lose their education over a tiny piece of metal; no more children should feel that their only option is to commit suicide. No more children should lose their education or die because someone didn't like the way they looked.