Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Yesterday afternoon my inbox contained a statement from our local school district refuting a rumor about banned clothing. Bill O'Reilly reported on Friday that "a school told students they couldn't wear red and green because they are Christmas colors."
Here we go again.
Last year it was candy canes. The district got into trouble because some student brought candy cane pens to pass out at the school party. Along with the pens was a "legend" giving the supposed Christian origins of the confection. The school would not allow to the child to pass them out because they were in violation of the district policy regarding handouts at school. I can't find a good, neutral source that doesn't require a password, but if you'll google "candy cane" and "plano" you'll find some references.
The parents filed a lawsuit. In the end the school district modified its policy. End of story. Apparently not, since this rumor surfaced on Friday. Of course, the district got a number of (presumably angry) calls and e-mails from concerned parents, which prompted them to issue a statement. In short, the district does not ban certain colors. Their dress code is more liberal than some other districts, which even dictate the color of shoestrings tht must be worn. Plano does have a few schools that use a voluntary "standardized dress" which consists of khakis and a choice of shirts, but one of the choices is red. A little common sense would suggest that there's no reason to believe the school district would ban red for a certain time of year. Besides, several schools have red as a school color. That would knock out kids wearing school T-shirts, wouldn't it?
This is so insane. So how do these things get started? I can tell you for a fact that once the rumor mill in a school gets going, it's hard to stop. And some parents take these stories as fact instead of checking them out. And this is what the school district is asking of Mr. O'Reilly. Why didn't his producers check this out? It was a matter of a simple phone call. His web site shows no attribution for his claim. If he's got proof, I hope he comes forward with it. If not, he needs to issue a retraction as the school district requests.
Education