Students Punished For Obscene Gestures
Published: September 30, 2009
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio—A Central Ohio high school has disciplined four students it says made obscene hand gestures for a photo published in a newspaper.
The picture was taken during Friday night’s homecoming ceremony for Chillicothe High School. The Chillicothe Gazette said Wednesday the gesturing was not noticed until after the photo was printed in Saturday’s paper.
Principal John Payne says the four senior boys embarrassed the school and their parents. The school’s code of conduct calls for three days of in-school suspension for an obscene gesture.
The incident comes a few weeks after nine Upper Arlington High School football players in suburban Columbus had to sit out one game for making a similar gesture in a team poster.
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Reader Reactions
localguy,
Both are rude gestures of a sexual nature. I am in favor of considering nuances in any given situation, especially when considering punishment but these are similar enough in nature to be treated the same. If anything, the shocker is far less known and would offend a much lower percentage of people. I might be more inclined to up the punishment if it were hate motivated or targeted at an idividual, but as far as we can tell this was just some guys essentially flicking the bird.
All along I truely thought we were talking about kids flipping the bird….What gesture are you talking about…
Some of you need to learn the difference between the “bird” and the “shocker”. Different gesture, different (and more offensive to most) meaning….
No one is arguing that there are not rights and wrongs. I am not even arguing that this wasn’t wrong or that it shouldn’t have been punished. My entire point is over punishment, and this was overkill. In school suspension, in my opinion, is the step before out of school suspension which is the worst thing a school administer (unless, arguably, the student is involved in something that is extra curricular). Saying a bad word or giving an inappropriate gesture does not rank high enough in the no-no scale to warrant the next to most severe punishment available as an administrator. Sure, they deserved punishment, but it does not behoove us to teach our children it is acceptable to over punish offenders, lest we breed a generation of people who see no harm in Draconian law or torture
Excuse me, but “flipping the bird” is wrong….There are rights and there are wrongs in this life….If you choose to do wrong you should be punished…period…If this had been my kid, I would have been standing right there with the school on this…There have been times I have had to defend my own kids against the school and there are times I asked the school to punish my kid…If my child has done something wrong at school, he will not only get punishment at school, he will also receive some kind at home….If you do not do this, it is possible you will have your own child end up in the prison system….
Bring them up in the way they should go…
P.S. Bush was also wrong in doing this…
I wonder if it was amusing to you when President Bush flipped the bird to the camera in that rather famous video of him getting ready for a broadcast. Did you think he should have been punished? Or was it just a stupid, immature gesture that deserved a brief comment of *idiot*, and then was no longer thought about?
Over-punishment is a huge problem… whether in this case, bird-flipping by high-schoolers, or sending someone away for a decade because they have a certain amount of marijuana. Really?? is certainly right about the harsh judgment and treatment we give to people across the board. If you tell someone long enough that they’re a waste of space, they’ll eventually adopt the label and lose regard for their own well being, and for you and I.
You’re right, diamondhair1, society has brought us here. We don’t want to worry about helping those who have lost their way… just reward those who either haven’t, or who haven’t been caught in their folly.
diamondhair1,
You have a very interesting perspective on this. You sound like quite the defeatist when you say “Society has gone to pot” and assuming that we who think the punishment was too harsh use these gestures on a regular basis. But then you have such incredible faith in the power of punishment. I simply don’t see how more in-school suspension is going to cure the ills of society, but to each their own veiw.
I personally believe that we have become a lazy nation in terms of punishment. Instead of actually investing in reform and eduaction in morality (especially in the case of kids) we just adopt this idealogy that if we would punish people more harshly then people would stop doing bad things. Our prison system has such a ridiculous return rate not because these are bad people who will just never change their ways but because we lump them in the “bad people” crowd and they psychologically adjust to that roll and make friends in criminal circles because those who could and should be good influences reject them. Harsh punishment is a slipperly slope to draconian law and this punishment was simply too harsh and ultimately pointless.
I am going to give my 2 cents on this subject…
I totally agree with Patriot….Kids have to learn that we should not use this type of “gesture” in our everyday life…If they do, and there is a rule, then there have to be consequences…
The people on here defending this probably use the same gesture to whom ever they please in their daily life…...This is where society has brought us…Do what you want , when you want, and the heck with everyone who doesn’t like it….I say it is time that something(as little punishment as this is) was done…
Are the parents suing the school system yet?? That is what usually happens when little bobby or sally gets in trouble…Mommy and Daddy step in and bully the school and they drop the punishment…
I say “Let the punishment stand” and while the school is at it, make those kids who wear their pants to their knees pull them up or get suspended..
Society has gone to pot…
Before anyone asks…Yes, I got whacked in school and got detentions for things I shouldn’t have done, and I deserved everyone one of them…
I bet when the admin leaves the room they will receive a dose of “the bird” behind their back. Whatever happened to explaining to someone that their action is petty and embarrassing? Even today, if I do something that is inconsiderate or rude and someone calls me on it, I feel like a fool. That feeling is much worse and more effective than a stupid suspension.
I was punished in high school for disrespecting a staff member (a deserving one, at that), and when it was over, I had even less respect for authority than before the incident.
Two words here: Teenage Boys.
and chris61 - you’re dead on.
No!! That is why I think this punishment was appropriate. I was saying that their punishment could have been worse, being expelled or cutting them from after school activities would have been too severe. Detention or a good talking to would have been not severe enough, expelling them or banning them from other activities would have been too severe, this was right in the middle of each.
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