PRINCIPAL GIVES HIGH HEELS ON BOYS THE BOOT

[Lisa]

http://www.chicagofreepress.com/news/index.html#principal

PRINCIPAL GIVES HIGH HEELS ON BOYS THE BOOT

By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

A 15-year-old gay student at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences expressed disbelief last week after the school's assistant principal allegedly told him he had to "dress as a boy" if he wanted to remain at the school.

"I had on some high heels for about 10 minutes," the student said. "She told me as long as I was at the school, I would dress as a boy, that I would not wear anything feminine."

The student also said CHSAS assistant principal Martha Hamilton told him his long hair was "offensive" when she reprimanded him in a hallway July 24.

Hamilton denied making the comment about the student's hair but acknowledged that she told him he couldn't wear high heels.

"We don't allow boys to wear high heels and earrings," Hamilton said. "Girls can wear earrings."

Asked whether girls at the school, part of the Chicago Public Schools system, are allowed to wear high heels, Hamilton said, "Girls are allowed to wear whatever shoes are appropriate for girls. How many boys do you know who wear high heel shoes?"

Hamilton said distinguishing what male and female students can wear is not discriminatory.

"It has nothing to do with his sexual orientation," she said. "Before (students) come here, we explain what our policies are. He's one of the ones who signs a contract to abide by them. If there's a problem with this, he can go somewhere else."

But the student said he feels the atmosphere at the school is not good for GLBT students, adding he's the only openly gay student he knows at CHSAS, 3857 W. 111th St.

"Everybody at that school, they look way down on it," he said.

He added that he's spoken about the atmosphere at the school with at least one teacher he knows is gay, but said the teacher told him if he spoke out about it, "he would only be causing trouble."

"It's not right for them to tell you how to dress," the student said. "There's other guys, straight guys, who wear their hair long and in braids, and they haven't said anything to them."

The student said Hamilton's actions "were very traumatizing" and expressed additional concerns after Hamilton, following an interview with CFP, called his mother.

CPS chief legal counsel Marilyn Johnson said the school system has a strict policy barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.

"I can tell you this is an issue that arises from time to time," Johnson said. "We deal with these on a case-by-case basis. We do take these seriously."

Johnson said she would discuss the issue with Hamilton and CHSAS officials and take appropriate action.

Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, expressed outrage at Hamilton's actions.

"It certainly should not be the business of the school to tell this kid what to wear," Garcia said. "If there's no dress code and the child wants to wear heels, then it's not appropriate for them to say he can't."

Each CPS school sets its own dress code. At CHSAS, that code is being revised, according to Hamilton. But Garcia and Johnson agreed that the code cannot be used to discriminate against GLBT students.

"It's entirely possible and necessary to accommodate (issues of) blanket discrimination," Johnson said.

The student, who returns to the school this fall as a sophomore, said he intends to continue dressing in a way that he feels is appropriate.

"I identify as whatever I put on in the morning," he said.

Comments?

[Dexter23]

So the next thing what the principal did was to expell every girl who was waering jeans ?? and told them that couln'd wear man's clothes ?? To bad there are still so manny narrominded people in the world. Thank god I live in the netherlands, a thing like this would probaly not happen here.

[Gizmo]

Very interesting !! I wonder how it`s gonna end and How many students will start to wear HH to scholl ??

[hoverfly]

Maybe this forum should send the School system an invention to look us over? Naaaaaaaaah we maybe just be to liberal for them!! Mmmmmm.... Or how about we all e-mail them, and tell them what we think? Any way, I say we have some missinformed people here. What does high heels have to do with him being gay? I can't see it.... Any one??

[Phoenix764]

Be very happy that at least that this happened in Chicago and that there appears to be some outrage against the principal's actions. She should have called the district and asked for advice on how to handle the manner, because unless they do have a strict district-wide enforceable dress code, we're dealing here with 1st admendment and freedom of expression issues. The ALCU would love this type of case, and it could be a very nasty and expensive lawsuit. That principal just might have lost her job, and ended her career because of her narrow-mindedness. Shucks, I'd like to what would have happend in the plains area, otherwise known as bible thumping territory! Shoot, a man in high heel. Call a town meeting, and get a rope I do have to say that that last part is complete speculation on my part. I have no idea how the people in those states would react. I'm in a VERY conservative part of california, and freedom of expression is not taken well down here.

[azraelle]

When I was at what is now BYU-Idaho (then known as "Ricks College") the student government, under some pressure from the administration, enacted a rule that made it an expulsion offense for female students to wear denim jeans to class. It was shown to not be applicable to girls in denim or twill jeans with back or side-zipper fastenings, and eventually to front fastening pants if in a suitably feminine color (such as pink). They appointed student "enforcers" to patrol the cafeteria. One nut attempted early-on to turn in a girl in pink denim jeans with a side zipper, but that got shot down by the administration. I don't know what they would have done if a GUY would have shown up for class in pink jeans, etc.

On a slightly different note, a girl was sent home last year at one of the local (St. George, Utah) high schools after she (and her mother) dyed her hair purple! She wasn't allowed back in until she had bleached it suitably blonde. In the words of Rita Coolidge, some 35 years ago, "Its still going on here today.."

[Charlie]

It all sounds to me like the age-old theory of narrowly defining what is "normal" and forcing everyone to conform so that the mental midgets of the world don't get confused. It's also kind of scary when the place where we send kids to learn new ideas and ways of looking at things openly forbids that which they teach. Oh well, the good news is that progress usually finds detours around mental blocks. After all, progress is inevitable. Charlie

[Charlie]

Sorry for the double post............ Charlie

[WOZ]

Once a friend of mine (back then when I was student) told me that one year before a girl was seen in the school bathroom kissing another girl... This part makes me angry: the news spread in seconds, and soon many people where by the bathroom's door ready to beat them down. I'd love to be there to beat the crap out of each and every one who'd ever try so (as I did once in that very same year). Luckily, this very same friend, who's a cute little bisexual girl who really knows how to fight, where there and protected the girls untill the teatchers came to solve the problem... See, the teachers, at least most of them, where very open minded and tried to put some sense into the crowd's minds, but the very boys and girls who're suposed to be liberal and open minded where the problem then... That was a very isolated event, and is not very likely to have hapened somewhere else, but it did make me think about how people can be really foolish concerning other people's lives and lifestyles.

[ShockQueen]

Now this just makes my blood boil. With the sorry state of our public schools these days, they have the gall to nit-noy over something so small as wearing heels??? I mean.......don't they have bigger things to worry about, such as educating kids, and disciplining the troublemakers? The public school administration here in the US has about the spine of a wet noodle. If kids cause so much as a minor disruption, the knee-jerk reaction of the school is to call the parents and have them sent home. No detention or anything! It's just "lets wash our hands of it" and that's that. The school administration really needs to get it's head out of it's collective ass and grow a pair for crying out loud. They should quit being so "societally correct" and try teaching the basics to our next generation! No wonder homeschooling in the US is on a meteoric rise - it's due to crap like this! I tell ya what...if my son chose to wear heels to school, I'd back up their individual choice 1000%, and heaven help teacher or principal who told them otherwise. Of course, our kids don't have to deal with that, thank goodness, since we educate them ourselves. At least we know they'll know enough to get about in the real world with more than fast-food knowledge. Sorry.......I'll get off me soapbox now. GAH!

[hoverfly]

Good greif, this thread it over five years old!!

[Guest]

well hoverfly, it still is rather stupid the way these schools are run these days if you ask me. I agree with shockqueen all the way! (esp. if they are mid-western ultra conservative types)

[Dr. Shoe]

In the UK not even the girls are allowed heels on health and safety grounds. However, the teachers probably would not discriminate and should a boy turn up at school dressed in a skirt etc. then I don't think a lot would be done.

[jmc]

Good greif, this thread it over five years old!!

. . .and the situation has not improved one iota.

[Selene]

What amazes me the most in most of the U.S. is not so much the discrimination that everyone can see, such as what happened to the kid wearing heels to school, but the fact that nobody can just leave well enough alone anymore. Everyone out there is just way too concerned with what everyone else is doing. Who am I or anyone for that matter to tell someone else what they can and can not do especially if there are no direct consequences to me for what someone else is doing. Just like abortion, prostitution, drugs, and any other thing that you can think of that should be left up to individual and family choices. If that choice isn't for you then just make the choice to NOT do them. Think about just how much the taxes would go down if everyone realized this because there wouldn't be a huge bill for trying to prevent everything and instead it could all be taxed and regulated for safety. As an added bonus I would think that a completely different message would be sent to the people that closed mindedness really doesnt have a place for a truly successful and productive society.

[Tech]

Just like abortion, prostitution, drugs, and any other thing that you can think of.

That is a REALLY bad comparison.

[JNR]

Selene wrote, in part:

Who am I or anyone for that matter to tell someone else what they can and can not do especially if there are no direct consequences to me for what someone else is doing.

Key phrase in the above quote "especially if there are no direct consequences to me". As you infer, what one person deems approprite, no one should deem inappropriate. (That goes for murder, robbery, rape and pilllaging, or any other scenario you can envision or imagin.) If someone harms or injures you, who is going to determin if the person causing the harm or inury should be punished?

Isn't life without consequence, direction, rules or regulation called "anarchy."

Therefore, I think your coment is torpid.

[hoverfly]

In the UK not even the girls are allowed heels on health and safety grounds.

However, the teachers probably would not discriminate and should a boy turn up at school dressed in a skirt etc. then I don't think a lot would be done.

Health and safety grounds........Well the middle school I went to has marble floors, clogs were banded because they pose a slip hazard do to the fact they were wood bottoms. But to day that may be different as they come with a rubber tread coating on them. But where do we draw the line when a child becomes an adult? The school does have rights to do so with in reasoned. But when schools do unreasonable things then people need to speck up. People in power will get away with any thing unless you speak up, so speak up!!

[WOZ]

That's the old ways of human society baby... Hypocrisy without limits and some morality to add flavor. Good old society... Always the same.

[Firefox]

I'd think in the UK if a boy turned up to school in a skirt, something probably would be done. Most schools have some kind of dress code, no matter how casual, and I doubt they include skirts as an option for boys. Personally I think they should, but no doubt the old "behaviour which may distract from the primary purpose of education" argument would be trotted out

[Ozzard]

I'd think in the UK if a boy turned up to school in a skirt, something probably would be done. Most schools have some kind of dress code, no matter how casual, and I doubt they include skirts as an option for boys.

http://www.imff.net is probably still down, but it kept a reasonably close eye on the reports of boys showing up at school in skirts. In general, they were tolerated, though rarely encouraged. A typical head teacher comment is that the school is not allowed to discriminate about uniform on grounds of gender. This was tested in court fairly recently when a school banned a girl for turning up in trousers rather than a skirt when boys could wear trousers; most heads appear to have thrown up their arms and decided that the only way to deal with the problem is to allow full flexibility.

[WOZ]

http://www.imff.net is probably still down, but it kept a reasonably close eye on the reports of boys showing up at school in skirts. In general, they were tolerated, though rarely encouraged. A typical head teacher comment is that the school is not allowed to discriminate about uniform on grounds of gender. This was tested in court fairly recently when a school banned a girl for turning up in trousers rather than a skirt when boys could wear trousers; most heads appear to have thrown up their arms and decided that the only way to deal with the problem is to allow full flexibility.

Sweet.

[Firefox]

These differences in uniform between the sexes may be subject to legal challenge but they do seem to form the norm of what is preached by the UK schools:

http://www.ampleforthcollege.york.sch.uk/houses/dress_code.htm

http://www.aylestone.hereford.sch.uk/uniform.html

http://www.sloughgrammar.berks.sch.uk/about-us/rules-uniforms.htm

http://www.thomasaveling.co.uk/students/uniform/

http://www.bayhouse.hants.sch.uk/uniform.asp

Interesting website showing uniform code changes

http://ecsosa.org.uk/theschool/uniform.html

The most common differences being that girls are given the option of weaaring a skirt as well as trousers, more choice in the colour of some garments, and the option in some cases of wearing a tie or not, whereas in some cases the boys are required to wear ties.

As regards shoes, the boys rule usually states:

Plain black shoes of a sensible style (no boots or trainer)

while the girls rule states:

Plain black shoes of a sensible style (no boots or trainers or heels greater than 2 inches, or stilettos or platforms or slings or open toe shoes)

[Fetiche]

Obviously I don't have a problem with heels. I also don't have a problem with heels on men or boys. But I'd like to talk a bit about "normality," and some considerations that apply to schools and similar public institutions.

Just so you all know, I'm a devout Catholic and a political conservative. If that causes you to decide what I'm going to say MUST be wrong, so be it.

Like it or not, "normal" means "usual" or "commonplace." What the great majority of people do in a setting is what defines "normality" in that setting. A tiny percentage of the male gender is willing to be seen in high heels, in any setting. Therefore, it's the opposite of normal.

We tend not to think about how closely "normality" is tied to public peace. The streets are orderly mostly because when we leave our homes to go to work, the grocery, or the salon, we don't see a lot of "abnormal," disturbing, disgusting, or threatening things. Granted that there's a range of not-quite-normal public behavior that we can tolerate without sparking off a riot, but that doesn't mean that anything goes -- that any sort of conduct whatsoever must be treated as acceptable in public.

A school is a place where special conditions apply. For one thing, it's filled with kids -- creatures barely in control of themselves, if they're in control of themselves at all. The adults responsible for the school are legally responsible for everything that happens within it. They must decide what sort of departures from normality the school can tolerate -- NOT on the grounds that they're "immoral," but out of concern that some departures would provoke incidents that everyone would regret later!

Imagine if that boy with the heels had attracted the attention of a pack of homophobic bullies. Imagine if they'd dragged him out behind the building and beaten the living daylights out of him. Or worse, imagine if they'd gang-raped him! Leave aside the suffering of the victim, which is surely bad enough. Who do you think would be held responsible? Whose abuse of discretion would be blamed for "allowing" such a thing? What sort of hell would be visited on those persons?

We ADULTS don't do terribly well in dealing with dramatic departures from normality. Look at the difficulty we've had over homosexuality. Look at the difficulty we've had over transgenderism. Humans are just barely mature enough to have learned that these things are tolerable among mature, informed, consenting adults -- and it took us thousands of years and a lot of pain to learn it! Kids are not ready for that sort of latitude, at least not in a public place where their hijinks can easily give rise to chaos, violence, bloodshed, lawsuits, and candlelight vigils.

Be sensible.

[Ozzard]

We ADULTS don't do terribly well in dealing with dramatic departures from normality. Look at the difficulty we've had over homosexuality. Look at the difficulty we've had over transgenderism.

[...]

Be sensible.

I agree with being sensible. I'm just not sure whether "sensible" includes taking steps towards making the uncommon more commonplace.

If you want to move something abnormal towards being normal (women wearing trousers, women driving buses, women wanting to vote, non-whites wanting any rights at all in the "western" world, Roman Catholics or Jews wanting to follow their religion in England) then there end up having to be trailblazers. Sometimes those trailblazers get hurt. I don't know whether someone getting hurt is better or worse than leaving the status quo as the status quo - I suspect it depends on circumstances.

There are few better ways of indoctrinating someone than to indoctrinate them as a child. This cuts both ways. School is, therefore, both the ideal place to indoctrinate children with civilisation and conservative normality, and the ideal place to indoctrinate them with civilisation and liberal tolerance. Which way you bias it, again, probably depends on your own views :-).

[Firefox]

What you say is certainly the most practical Fetiche; in fact it's probably the only way to keep thing under contol in schools. However in schools, I think we also have to be careful to stamp on thing like homophobia, discrimination, bullying or gender discrimination. If that is not done then reinforcement of thes issues become part of the children's education and those ideas are perpetuated as norms themselves.

[Histiletto]

Fetiche does have a point that really needs consideration. Children up to the legal age of an adult, which I believe in most places is the age of 18 (or is it 21?), must be subject to mature and responsible adult supervision. The idea is to teach the children how to be mature and responsible adults.

However, they can't be expected to perform that way the day they turn 18, unless they are given the opportunities to make choices from the array of solutions to given situations and understand the results as they grow up. Adults have the responsibility to teach everything the developing child can comprehend and deal with at that child's level. As the child becomes more responsible, they should also be able to increase their choices and then act upon the choice they make, realizing they will also have to deal with the results.

My contention with your statement, Fetiche, concerns your justification of society's actions because of the "normal" setting. You pointed out that heelers are a small percentage of the visable public, therefore not worth society's effort to change the normal behavior. If the school administrators had an understanding about the gender situation, would this incident of the boy in heels be out of the norm? Many of these occurrences that happen become news, but they are really testaments to what society doesn't seem to understand or doesn't want to acknowledge concerning the human condition.

I tend to be an idealist and care about the wrongful actions and attitude of society upon anyone who does not fit the normal definition. Being the person you are doesn't always fit the normacy slot. There are many people who exhibit the personality traits of the opposite gender's listing. They are that way because of who they are. If being normal doesn't give me the right to choose my own attire for public attendance, then this normal setting needs to be changed. If there are those who don't want to give up their need to dress me as they see fit, then I should have the same right to dress them as I see fit.

I send this challenge to society, let me dress you and you can be sure everyone and I do mean every able body, male or female, that can walk in heels will have to wear high stiletto heels or be considered out of the norm or weird! Do you accept the challenge? -- Well? ------ Well?

If there are bullies or others with whatever phobias that are offended at the appearance of someone, then it is their problem, not the one who is the object of the offence. If someone causes physical harm or injury, then the someone should be brought to justice for the crimes they have committed. When this type of action is done by minors, then the authorities in charge should be held accountable, especially if they haven't taught their minors the importance of respecting and supporting another individual's rights. If we as a society continue to promote, condone, or overlook the action of those who take away our rights, what other personal rights will we have to give up to satisfy the bullies and phobias?

Leaning on the idea of "things have always been this way" still doesn't give any one the right to trample, abuse, or usurp the rights of another person, no matter what your roots of indoctrination. Why do the few have to suffer, because of the thinking of the many when the thinking is not in sync or in harmony with the realities of what and who people are. The males who desire to wear high stiletto heels may be a minority percentage, but we still have the right to choose. If society could come to realize this error of gender classifying, many of the misguided gender phobics and a lot of other phobias would be eliminated, because every one would be able to understand the differences each individual brings for our enrichment as we learn about each other.

Again, I'm an idealist with a personal quest to the lifting of the human spirit, using the best means available, even in high stiletto heels when they are desirous of fulfillment and care.

[WOZ]

Obviously I don't have a problem with heels. I also don't have a problem with heels on men or boys. But I'd like to talk a bit about "normality," and some considerations that apply to schools and similar public institutions.

Just so you all know, I'm a devout Catholic and a political conservative. If that causes you to decide what I'm going to say MUST be wrong, so be it.

Like it or not, "normal" means "usual" or "commonplace." What the great majority of people do in a setting is what defines "normality" in that setting. A tiny percentage of the male gender is willing to be seen in high heels, in any setting. Therefore, it's the opposite of normal.

We tend not to think about how closely "normality" is tied to public peace. The streets are orderly mostly because when we leave our homes to go to work, the grocery, or the salon, we don't see a lot of "abnormal," disturbing, disgusting, or threatening things. Granted that there's a range of not-quite-normal public behavior that we can tolerate without sparking off a riot, but that doesn't mean that anything goes -- that any sort of conduct whatsoever must be treated as acceptable in public.

A school is a place where special conditions apply. For one thing, it's filled with kids -- creatures barely in control of themselves, if they're in control of themselves at all. The adults responsible for the school are legally responsible for everything that happens within it. They must decide what sort of departures from normality the school can tolerate -- NOT on the grounds that they're "immoral," but out of concern that some departures would provoke incidents that everyone would regret later!

Imagine if that boy with the heels had attracted the attention of a pack of homophobic bullies. Imagine if they'd dragged him out behind the building and beaten the living daylights out of him. Or worse, imagine if they'd gang-raped him! Leave aside the suffering of the victim, which is surely bad enough. Who do you think would be held responsible? Whose abuse of discretion would be blamed for "allowing" such a thing? What sort of hell would be visited on those persons?

We ADULTS don't do terribly well in dealing with dramatic departures from normality. Look at the difficulty we've had over homosexuality. Look at the difficulty we've had over transgenderism. Humans are just barely mature enough to have learned that these things are tolerable among mature, informed, consenting adults -- and it took us thousands of years and a lot of pain to learn it! Kids are not ready for that sort of latitude, at least not in a public place where their hijinks can easily give rise to chaos, violence, bloodshed, lawsuits, and candlelight vigils.

Be sensible.

Well, though I see the real question of your viewpoint, that the administrators of schools have to be aware of this sort of thing to avoid their asses from being kicked by the public opinion, and that's a very good point indeed, for their have family and must care for their careers and jobs as much as anyone, yet I see much contradiction in it.

Think, if there's anyone who should be punished, it would be the bullies, the one's that really cause the trouble. In a common school we can see, everyday, boys and girls, that publically atack other boys and girls that are ugly, have strange habits or otherwise are anyhow diferent. The diferent must then be punished? Be brought to normality? Well, plastic surgery for childs is far out of question...

The right thing to be done is thus to punish the ones who bully. If it's about preventing something, then warn them that they'll be punished. People who harrass others don't do it because these are diferent, but because they have a somehow disrupted view of things and think they'll get away with it. Teatching our kids that their individuality is something to be afraid of, to be ashamed of, is not the right way to preventing them from being target of injury, it is to make them hurt themselves from the inside by feeling wrong and afraid.

Change is going on out there, and we must ready our childs to be part of it, not to turn themselves away from the reality, which is one of great change and diversity.

[JNR]

Histiletto wrote:

Again, I'm an idealist with a personal quest to the lifting of the human spirit, using the best means available, even in high stiletto heels when they are desirous of fulfillment and care.

More power to you! If you want to wear your heels in full view of society, then go for it. I do. However, at the same time, under the laws, rules and regulations under which today's society operates, anyone that walks on this planet along side of you has the identical right to disapprove of your dress.

That being said, it is my opinion -- and only an opinion -- that the best way to change customs is to expose new ideas to the general public. The larger number of men that wear heels in public, and the more often they are viewed by those around them, the sooner the concept of heels worn by men will become a "non-issue" as evidenced by men wearing earrings, bracelets and necklaces.