Fri, 23 Dec 2005

Kilt-Wearing Teen Seeks Dress Code Change

Ya know, I sympathize with this kid, I really do. I'm all into honoring the ancestors, and, with a given first name of 'Daithi' (I go by Dave, as 'Daithi' is more or less Gaelic for the Hebrew 'David', and the diminutive 'Dave' is alot easier to explain), I'm pretty much into Celtic culture, too. Furthermore, from the tale as told, it sounds like he got tacit permission from one administrator to wear the kilt to the dance, before the principal nixed the idea at the dance. But ...

It's still a school, and it's still a responsibility of the administration to prevent disruptions. And, honestly, if we get in the wayback machine we could make a pretty good case of semi-nude "ancestral dress" for nearly any of us (except perhaps Eskimos). Where does one draw the line?

I was heartened to see that there's no lawsuit (yet).

This reminds me of a personal experience with school dress. My youngest daughter, Hilary, had quite a reduced fashion sense in the late 1990's - the less she wore, the more "fashionable" she claimed it was. And Kris and I had some rather famous battles with her over the clothing she picked out to wear to school, which we felt would look more appropriate on a lady of the evening from Las Vegas than on a Minnesota high school student. And, truth be told, Hilary would relent, usually after a prolonged and raucous shouting match, which often included the following statement:

When I have kids, Dad, and they get in high school, I'll never tell them what they can wear to school, and make them look like dorks!!!

Rather foolishly, Hilary put this statement into writing and handed it to me after one of the above mentioned battles royale. And I've kept it. And Hilary's daughter, Anastasia, just turned three. And Grandpa's got a shopping trip already planned with her in about 12 years ...

AP - Nathan Warmack wanted to honor his heritage by wearing a Scottish kilt to his high school dance. Then a principal told him to change into a pair of pants.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

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