Samantha Zyduck and four other students at Mosinee High School in Wisconsin wore homemade t-shirts to school last week to promote sexual abuse awareness. School administrators confiscated the shirts, saying they would be returned on Wednesday, the last day of school.
According to acting associate principal Dennis Kaczor, he received complaints about the shirts on June 2, at which point he asked the students to stop wearing the shirts. They refused, so he confiscated them. I’m curious to know the nature of the alleged complaints. The article doesn’t say whether Mosinee High School requires uniforms, or what sort of dress code it enforces, but I’m also curious how many kids have gotten away with “Sexy bitch!” t-shirts and t-shirts glorifying misogyny and sexual predation.
Each shirt read “Stop abuse” on the front and included a different sexual abuse statistic on the back. The students were incredibly brave to speak out in this manner, and their voices have been silenced.
Guidance counselor Joe Prillwitz thinks the students went about their activism all wrong.
“I asked them to get permission from administration and to be sensitive of others’ feelings and they did not do that. It was more like a crusade,” Prillwitz said. “Sexual Assault Awareness Month is in April. Why didn’t they choose to do this stuff then?”
Dog forbid any child go on a crusade against sexual abuse during one of the other 11 months of the year. They must have been up to something fishy.
“I’m all for educating students on this topic, but I think it should be done during the month of awareness using pamphlets and fliers from an established organization. That would add some substance to the cause,” Kaczor said.
:sputters incoherently:
The sentiments expressed by Kaczor and Prillwitz are so offensive I don’t know where to begin. Sexual abuse doesn’t stop from May through March, and I’m sure some of the children at the school could verify that from experience. Creative peer-education might have a greater impact than whatever pamphlets and fliers authority figures approved.
I support you, Samantha and friends, and I hope you won’t give up.
That’s an amazing display of activism from the students and an equally gobsmackingly performance of insensitivity from the administrators. “Awareness Month”: Ur Doin It Rong.
The only way they could have been bigger asshats would be to confiscate the shirts, then send the kids home for being inappropriately dressed, what with being newly shirtless and all.
Now, now, some of the students may be rapists, and you don’t want them to feel bad when they’re trying to get their school work done.
I’m sputtering incoherenty too. All I can say is that I support these students and hope their ridiculously reactionary school administrators haven’t killed their activist spirits.
You know, this is a direct result of the attempt to isolate our children from the troubles of the world, babying them and nannying them into insignificance. Here you have girls who felt passionate about something, wanted to do their part to raise awareness, and they were stifled by an uptight, misogynistic, and backward school administration, that simply didn’t want to deal with “controversy.” They simply want these issues to remain swept under the rug while the kids are in school, like the proverbial child with their hands over their ears going “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA.”
This kind of thing pisses me off — children need to be more engaged, not less. They need to be made aware of the rough-and-tumble that is real life, and they need to start forming opinions and gathering information to help them make better decisions in the future. This school seems hell bent on keeping that from happening.
Samantha, you and your friends have hurt the Patriarcy’s feelings with your upsetting activism. Apologize right now!
Students, Please remember to conduct all potentially revolutionary activities according to the rules and regulations spelled out in the Student Handbook.
And remember, your voice counts.
I am certain there were some parents yelling in the background at the admin about those students unacceptable POV and how they try to indoctrinate my kids and keep that away from my kids.
School administrators are so afraid of any controversy that I’m not surprising they would ban this. But I’m not clear as to how anyone could be offended by this message.
@Newt
Agreed. These trouble-makers were “distracting” other kids from their rote memorization and test-taking. Their dull minds were at risk of awakening.
The school cannot be serious. Are we now worried about offending abuser-Americans? Or are they just worried that the ACLU has nothing to do now that prom season is over?
If one of our kids had done this, I’d be thoroughly proud of them. This is a hugely important message for teenagers, both boys and girls. They all need to know that abuse happens to teenagers, it’s not the victim’s fault, and education should focus on those who perpetrate it.
Samantha & co., you have my complete respect and wholehearted support.
So, this is completely terrible, obviously. I’m wondering, additionally, about what the article says was the students’ “inspiration” for awareness-raising: reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Is it possible that their classroom experience around it included reiteration of the idea that women are all just making false rape accusations? This is a possible reading that never occurred to me for To Kill a Mockingbird–but it’s the only way I can make sense of this as an inspiration.
@philosophyerin: There does seem to be a step missing somewhere. But if the message you take away from TKAM is that all women lie about rape, you fail at literary analysis-and basic English.
I am beyond galled, by which I mean I am literally filling with bile right now. I am wondering what about these shirts was so “upsetting” to the students that they had to lodge a formal complaint with the principal. And which “others’ feelings” should these brave students have been more “sensitive” to? AUGH!
I was glad to read that the students’ parents stood behind them. Good show.
Off to set something on fire, biab.
…and that laughing at a man means he will kill you, a la “Of Mice and Men”
If this is typical of the “counsel” that Joe Prillwitz is providing to his students, he is doing them a serious disservice.
And the associate principal’s argument that raising awareness should somehow be limited only the officially designated “awareness month” leads me to believe that this is the kind of school environment where there is “awareness” of African-Americans only in February and of women only in March, that those who don’t have a month don’t count, and the rest of the months belong to the people who really count: straight white dudes.
Sadly, I think this is far too common.
This is infuriating. To be honest, the first thing I thought of was calling up principle what’s-his-name and counselor who’s-it to give them a piece of my mind. My temper flares at this, not just because they took the shirts away (which in my opinion shows their true ignorance of and apathy to sexual assault) but also because they fail to recognize the character, initiative, and courage it took these young women to do this.
And for lack of a better excuse, they have the gall to criticize them for not picking the right month to do this? Talk about hashing out the first excuse that comes to mind. “Ya, girls, I’m sorry, but in case you haven’t noticed, it’s not APRIL anymore . . . so, looks like you’re gonna have to wait until next year . . . to uh, celebrate? . . . Sexual Assault Awareness month. Let’s not affend the would-be rapists, for now.”
To the young ladies: I commend you. Keep doing exactly what you’re doing and don’t give up.
Just when I was running out of things to be furious about…
“I asked them to get permission from administration and to be sensitive of others’ feelings and they did not do that. It was more like a crusade,” Prillwitz said.
This is the most bizarre thing ever, especially in the context of sexual violence being, you know, something that occurs when people do things without others’ permission and without sensitivity of others’ feelings.
And, oh noes, how dare they “crusade” against sexual abuse! WTF?
Gee, Sarah, thanks for the Friday fun thread. /joking/
A long time ago, we talked about how “Awareness Months” were largely a device that allows us to forget those/that which most need/s remembering. Principal Asshat demonstrated this perfectly with his “concern” for “sensitivity” and “substance.”
These girls are amazing.
And if you don’t mind, I’m adding the You’ve Got To Be Fucking Kidding Me tag.
If this were my school and I was a child experiencing abuse, this action by the school would show me that I could not trust them to listen to me and help me. Way to go, idiots.
One of less-commented-on aspects of To Kill a Mockingbird is that the alleged rape victim actually was being sexually assaulted … by her father. If these students noticed that, or their teacher pointed it out to them, that could be a more logical impetus to activism. Maybe the reporter just put a standard description of the novel in the article.