Underage drinking, academic dishonesty, bullying and drug use — these are all acceptable reasons to suspend a student. Every parent worries about their child going to a party. It's especially scary when these are the kids on honor roll, a sports team and involved in every other activity imaginable. They drink, they get caught, they get suspended or even expelled by their school.
They lose everything that they have worked so hard to achieve in the past 18 years. No more prom or school events. They say goodbye to the scholarship opportunities to that college they had their sights set on ever since they took their SAT prep course. This is unfortunate, but students know the rules. We all know the kids who do not drink, cheat, bully or use drugs because suspension and its costs could be fair game.
This week, seven band members from Atascocita High School in Humble, Texas lost everything they ever worked for. No, it wasn't over anything you may have assumed. These seven students lost everything over a fruit basket.
I know what you’re thinking and no, this is not a joke. This is a perfect example of over-exaggerated political correctness. It's a classic case of school officials worried about negative accusations, willing to ruin lives if that means that they can keep the peace.
These seven students gave a fruit basket to another local school, Summer Creek High School, before a football game last Friday.
Fruit baskets are not an uncommon occurrence for this Southern school. It has always been a way of showing good sportsmanship and frankly, class. There was candy and a Halloween-themed bucket that contained pineapple, watermelon gum, coconut and a small watermelon.
Apparently, this was an act of racism, and now these student’s futures are on the line after school administrators held an investigation in which they determined that the gift was inappropriate and lacked good sportsmanship. Then the administration stated that “Atascocita High School will not tolerate racial insensitivity.”
Racial insensitivity should never be tolerated under any circumstance. However, this is the most desperate and far fetched example of any type of insensitivity, let alone racial insensitivity. It is disgusting that these students are being unreasonably punished for having a little bit of Southern charm.
These students all received suspensions, will not be allowed to attend prom and there are reports that at least one student has lost a college scholarship because of this incident.
All of these students could easily be the poster child for an ideal high school student. They were involved with their school, they were planning on pursuing further education, and they were carrying on their schools tradition.
The administrators involved in this situation seem to have so much concern for the recipients of the basket. They also seem to have no logic, empathy or accurate perception of the students who were simply carrying on a school tradition.
If anyone should be facing any disciplinary actions, it is the administrators for overstepping their bounds, exaggerating a situation and for choosing only to protect a certain group of students.
Racism. Prejudice. Political correctness. Let's have a conversation about these things.
It is racist that the administrators would see a fruit basket and think of racism. It’s 2015. You can give someone a pineapple without having any sort of hidden racist agenda.
It is prejudicial that the administrators would choose to automatically take one side over another and to only defend and protect one group of people.
It is not politically correct to allow a tradition to go on and only punish one group who has participated. If these administrators truly want to serve on the side of political correctness, then they are going to have to punish every student who has ever participated in the gift basket tradition. There is something called implied consent, and I suggest that members of this school board look it up.
By allowing this tradition to go on, they were showing their consent, and for them to now deem this act of giving as racism shows that up until this point, they have knowingly been allowing racism to occur under their watch.
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Reach the columnist at Alexis.Berdine@asu.edu or follow @AlexisBerdine on Twitter
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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