Arkansas Ninth Grader Suspended for Wearing a Gay T-Shirt

by Michael Jones · 2010-10-14 08:27:00 UTC
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Ninth grade, for me, was the time where I was introduced to advanced algebra, Romeo & Juliet, and my first German class. Kind of a crazy year, but altogether pretty harmless. Too bad that's not the case for Arkansas 15-year-old Sommer Collins. The student was just suspended from her school in the Fort Smith School District. What could she have done wrong to be removed from school?

No, not lying, fighting, stealing, or bad-mouthing a teacher. Instead, Collins wore a T-shirt that upset her teachers. What did it say?

"Proud to be lesbian," and "Support homosexual love."

The horror.

Suspending a student for wearing a T-shirt like this goes way beyond the realm of appropriate behavior for a school district and a school administration. Not only does it send a homophobic message, but it also unnecessarily punishes a student because of her identity, especially since the shirt violated no specific policy in the district's dress code. Perhaps it's time to send a message to the Fort Smith School District, letting them know that their actions were, simply put, out of bounds.

Collins said in a video by local television station KNWA/Fox 24 that she didn't see anything wrong with what her T-shirt said.

"They are offended by the word homosexual. It says support homosexual love on the sleeve. And they also got offended by the words 'Proud to Be a Lesbian,'" said Collins. The reason Collins wanted to wear the T-shirt to begin with?

The day before, a teacher asked her to take off a rainbow bracelet, because the teacher thought it supported an immoral cause.

Sommer's mother said that the official reason her daughter was suspended, at least according to a teacher, was that the T-shirt "disrupted education."

The school district, for their part, refused to comment about the story to the local television station. Perhaps it's because there's no excuse for suspending a student for wearing a T-shirt that has nothing offensive on it?

Send the school district a message that gay-supportive T-shirts and rainbow bracelets don't warrant disciplining a student. That only sends a message that it's wrong to be LGBT, wrong to support gay rights, and could only provide cover to students, teachers and administrators who want to treat folks differently based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And that is not appropriate school policy in any regard.

Photo credit: emmamccleary

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.

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