September 5, 2006 > Letter to the Editor: Have some teachers and administrators lost their minds?

Dear Editor:
 
August 29, I sat in church behind a girl with a t-shirt which said on the back, "Senior Women Know How to Keep Their Men in Place! 2005" On the front were three panels, each with a stick-figure picture and a caption.  The first caption was, "Teach them how to manage their money." The second was, "Teach them manners." The third was, "If all else fails," with a picture of a woman leading a man around on a leash, as if he were a dog.
 
Upon inquiry, I found out this, and an offensive anti-woman t-shirt, were approved by Newark Memorial High School officials, for sale at the high school as part of a "battle of the sexes" week, at which thousands of dollars are earned for the school.  I also found out that, fortunately, the t-shirt part of this fund-raising week has been terminated, precisely because of such abusive language.  A new set of rules is now in place.
 
That's good.  But how did this happen in the first place? Are incivility and disrespect so commonplace that teachers and students no longer notice?  Perhaps I should not be surprised that since God (the source of all truth and goodness) has been banished from   government schools, virtue is vanishing too.
 
Catherine Norman
Fremont