Post by Bret Walker on Jul 3, 2002 11:06:40 GMT -5
I wanna tell you a story about my Senior year of high school.
It was 1987. May of 1987 to be specific. I was 18 years old. That May we had a super heat wave. For a week the temperature was above 90 and the humidity was stifling. But the school board had two policies in effect that made it worse. First, the schools were not allowed to employ the air conditioning until June 1. Second, boys were not allowed to wear shorts.
Now, I didn't think this was fair. First of all, the schools, even with windows open, were hotter inside than out, making it all but impossible to learn anything other than how dehydration works on the human body. Second, the girls were allowed to wear miniskirts, so they were not nearly as uncomfortable as the boys who were slowly melting into puddles of goo.
So I thought about it, and I decided to make a change. After carefully reviewing the limits of the school dress code, I found a loophole.
And the next day, I went to school in a skirt.
Kids were laughing at me. Well, the girls were laughing at me, the boys were wishing they'd thought of it first. My homeroom teacher told me to go home and change, and I said no. She stared at me, then called the principal, who came down and told me to go home and change. Again I declined. I explained patiently that while the dress code clearly stated that boys could not wear shorts, it said absolutely nothing about skirts, and that I was well within my right, especially since my skirt was not nearly as short as the girl sitting next to me.
So the principal left, and returned 10 minutes later, with one of Pitman's finest. He said he was there to escort me home, and I explained again that if he could show me in the school charter what rule I was breaking, I'd be glad to go home and change, but otherwise I was staying where I was. I also explained that if he were to arrest me, he'd have to tell me first what law I was breaking, because I didn't think there were any laws in Pitman about boys wearing skirts either.
That night there was an emergency meeting called of the school board, and I went wearing my skirt.
The school board changed three things. They made the A/C rule more flexible, which meant that if the temperature ever got to above 90 they could turn it on. They also allowed boys to wear shorts, but only if they came no higher than two inches above the knee. That made me popular amongst the boys at my school. They also changed the girls dress code to state that they could not wear skirts that were MORE THAN 2 inches above the knee. That made me less popular among the girls at the school.
But I changed it. And I was happy.
Today I see kids going to school in some outfits that can only be described as pornographic, and I wonder if any of them even appreciate the cause I stood for and won for them in 1987. I doubt it. But then again, I don't care.
It was 1987. May of 1987 to be specific. I was 18 years old. That May we had a super heat wave. For a week the temperature was above 90 and the humidity was stifling. But the school board had two policies in effect that made it worse. First, the schools were not allowed to employ the air conditioning until June 1. Second, boys were not allowed to wear shorts.
Now, I didn't think this was fair. First of all, the schools, even with windows open, were hotter inside than out, making it all but impossible to learn anything other than how dehydration works on the human body. Second, the girls were allowed to wear miniskirts, so they were not nearly as uncomfortable as the boys who were slowly melting into puddles of goo.
So I thought about it, and I decided to make a change. After carefully reviewing the limits of the school dress code, I found a loophole.
And the next day, I went to school in a skirt.
Kids were laughing at me. Well, the girls were laughing at me, the boys were wishing they'd thought of it first. My homeroom teacher told me to go home and change, and I said no. She stared at me, then called the principal, who came down and told me to go home and change. Again I declined. I explained patiently that while the dress code clearly stated that boys could not wear shorts, it said absolutely nothing about skirts, and that I was well within my right, especially since my skirt was not nearly as short as the girl sitting next to me.
So the principal left, and returned 10 minutes later, with one of Pitman's finest. He said he was there to escort me home, and I explained again that if he could show me in the school charter what rule I was breaking, I'd be glad to go home and change, but otherwise I was staying where I was. I also explained that if he were to arrest me, he'd have to tell me first what law I was breaking, because I didn't think there were any laws in Pitman about boys wearing skirts either.
That night there was an emergency meeting called of the school board, and I went wearing my skirt.
The school board changed three things. They made the A/C rule more flexible, which meant that if the temperature ever got to above 90 they could turn it on. They also allowed boys to wear shorts, but only if they came no higher than two inches above the knee. That made me popular amongst the boys at my school. They also changed the girls dress code to state that they could not wear skirts that were MORE THAN 2 inches above the knee. That made me less popular among the girls at the school.
But I changed it. And I was happy.
Today I see kids going to school in some outfits that can only be described as pornographic, and I wonder if any of them even appreciate the cause I stood for and won for them in 1987. I doubt it. But then again, I don't care.
