Way to go girls

I'm really proud of the girls back in Winona for this one. I think issues like this are exactly what is wrong with education in America, and especially with the ways things work in Winona.

Two Winona Senior High School students, Carrie Rethlefsen and Emily Nixon, have found themselves in hot water with school officials. Why? Because after Carrie attended a performance of the play "The Vagina Monologues" last month, they wore buttons to school that read: "I [heart] My Vagina."

School leaders said the pin is inappropriate, that the discomfort it causes others trumps the girls' right to free speech. The girls disagree. And, despite repeated threats of suspension and expulsion, Rethlefsen has continued to wear her button. Their efforts have won support from other students and community members, so much so that more than 100 students have ordered T-shirts bearing "I [heart] My Vagina" for girls and "I Support Your Vagina" for boys.

"We can't really find out what is inappropriate about it," Rethlefsen said of the button she wears to raise awareness about women's issues. "I don't think banning things like that is appropriate."

Their case could become another test of whether high school students have the right to express their views in school. Charles Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, has offered to help the girls if they want it.

"It's political speech," he said. "And students have free speech rights at school."

Samuelson acknowledged that school officials can limit speech considered detrimental or dangerous to the school. But he said this case is similar to Tinker v. Des Moines, a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that followed a case where students were forbidden by their schools to wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The court ruled that First Amendment rights are, indeed, available to teachers and students and that administrators' fear about how others might react is not enough to squelch those rights. The ACLU currently is fighting schools in Ohio and Missouri for censoring student T-shirts supporting gay rights and same sex marriage.

I've kept in contact well enough with friends back home to hear how things are going, and I definativly know that there are much bigger problems going on in our schools than something like this. I do find it strange that the schools are choosing to go after these girls while letting neo nazi ensignia on clothing go by without any problem. I know many of the people that are connected to both sides of this story. As for the school administrators, the ones that I know i have never had any sort or problem with before. They are perfectly reasonable people, and I have no idea what their logic is with this.

I'm not planning on stopping here with this one; i'm going to do what I can to spread the word about this. Students should not be threatened with expulsion for opposing violence towards women.