Response to "A Little Civility, Please"

Reading “A Little Civility, Please” by Mark Davis, really got me thinking about freedom of speech in high school.  Although, this article is mainly about freedom of speech on teenagers’ T-shirts, you have to think about how much freedom is being taken away from high schoolers.  You can’t talk about certain subjects in the halls (e.g. drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.), you can’t say certain words, heck, you can’t even give your significant other a peck on the cheek without getting in trouble.  So, why would you be able to wear a T-shirt saying “homosexuals are possessed by demons?”  Short answer, you shouldn’t be able to wear something like that to a high school.  It’s offensive to a lot of people, not just homosexuals.  However, what if you wear the T-shirt just to “spark a debate,” and don’t intend to offend anyone?  Well let’s look at it this way, if you saw a T-shirt like that, would you go up to the wearer and start a discussion about why he or she is wrong, or would you give the wearer a dirty look and think to yourself how horrible and ignorant he or she is?  You would probably choose the second option.


This article said pretty much the same thing, just longer and with different words and examples.  It was a very well written article, and the author made it interesting to read.  I had only intended to read a few paragraphs to see if it would be a good article to blog about, but I ended up reading the whole thing before I even thought to stop.  Mark’s points were very valid and well supported, but he didn’t present the other side, the side of the teenager wearing the T-shirt.  There may actually be some teens who would wear a controversial shirt to spark debate, but will never get the chance because of how offensive it would be to his or her peers.  Others may argue that there is no other side to the issue, people who wear stuff like that are ignorant and should not be allowed to wear a shirt like that.  So maybe he did cover all the bases.