Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Different Isn't Bad, It's Just Different


Jonathan Escobar was a new student at North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Georgia, but he lasted less than a week. See, Jonathan considers himself a cross-dresser and, after coming to school one day wearing a pink wig, he was told by an assistant principal that he needed to dress more manly....whatever that means...or maybe he should be home-schooled.

So, the kid who is different has to leave scvhool because the kids who aren't different, at least according to some archaic arbitrary rule set up by an assistant, feel uncomfortable and to start a fight?

Escobar says: "They should've told the students to back off. They should have never given me the option of homeschooling or changing who I am. If I can't express myself, I won't go to school. I want to get the message out there that because this is who I am, I can't get an education."

Seriously, when are the rules going to change? Why are the bullies allowed to stay in school but the "different"kids are asked to leave?

Something is horribly wrong here.

7 comments:

  1. He can, and should, get an education. If the school can't provide him with a safe environment (and it is hard thing to do in a high school) then he can be tutored at home by the district or be in a self contained classroom. This is my corner of education. (Except my students are the ones who are a danger to their classmates.) What he should NOT do is drop out and not further his education.

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  2. that is a mess, I can't that believe that

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  3. A horrible situation - very unfair.

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  4. Since Stan and many of our friends are in the education field we often talk abut this topic and it is close to our hearts. We need to get bullies out of schools and out of our society. They have no place in a civilized nation. We also need to set up better outreach/support networks for GLBT youth across the country. No teen should have to be dealing with these issues alone. I'm sure he is considering quitting school because he feels completely unsupported by adults. We've got to break this social cycle if we want to get ahead.

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  5. Oh My stars!!! This kinds of stuff make me mad mad mad!!!

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  6. Oh my goodness she is hot. Good for him that he is getting the message out. There has to be away for him to sue the Department of Education at a state level. He should get compensated. And Yeah he should stop going to school and to make a political statement out of it. I agree with him/her 100%. This is why I am so infuriated with this Gay Teabaggers out there how come they are not organizing to help kids like escobar.

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  7. I've felt this way for ages about all kinds of students. Instead of telling bullies to back off, they have strict dress codes to discourage anything that might "distract from learning" and such as that. A friend's daughter caused an uproar because she dyed her naturally blonde hair bright purple. Kids can't wear black nail polish or be at all different. It's like they want to feed them into one end of the machine and spit them out the other end all alike. Stepford Students! This is a time they are trying to discover who they are and aren't able to express it. So I'm not surprised about Jonathan. Good grief!

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