"That's so gay" - enough to get twelve-year-olds suspended

Stefu · April 3, 2003, 18:31

12 Year Old Suspended For Anti-Gay Remark

Next they'll be banning people at Poly for using that "This thread is gay" Richard Simmons picture. No, wait, better not give them ideas...

St Leo · April 3, 2003, 18:32

It's about time they started cracking down that.

Az · April 3, 2003, 18:35

Hey that link is empty! I sense a setup to get me into a gay site.

Ben Kenobi · April 3, 2003, 18:35

Paging Dr. Simmons, paging Dr. Simmons

Stefu · April 3, 2003, 18:37

Quote:

Hey that link is empty! I sense a setup to get me into a gay site.

Works fine for me!

Inverse Icarus · April 3, 2003, 18:43

yea, in my highschool they started punishing people for that

KrazyHorse · April 3, 2003, 18:47

Quote:

Originally posted by St Leo
It's about time they started cracking down that.

Actually, I think so too.

KrazyHorse · April 3, 2003, 18:49

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
yea, in my highschool they started punishing people for that

Would schools accept insulting things you didn't like by referring to them as ethnic groups?

"That's so black"...

I don't know if suspension is indicated in either situation, but it should definitely be treated equally...

Boris Godunov · April 3, 2003, 18:50

So is saying to a stingy person "don't be such a Jew" not offensive, because the person saying it might not actually intend it to refer to Jewish people?

Az · April 3, 2003, 18:50

nothing. Just a small link on the top left corner for a Barbara Streisand CD sale.

loinburger · April 3, 2003, 18:51

They suspended him for that? Dude, that's so gay!

MrFun · April 3, 2003, 18:53

Quote:

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
So is saying to a stingy person "don't be such a Jew" not offensive, because the person saying it might not actually intend it to refer to Jewish people?

Remember Boris? The conservative backlash dictates that to find anything offensive, means that you're a PC fanatic.

General Ludd · April 3, 2003, 18:53

I don't agree with censorship, but I certainly wouldn't mind hearing that phrase less.

Of course, school environments are rife with censorship anyways.

General Ludd · April 3, 2003, 18:54

Quote:

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
So is saying to a stingy person "don't be such a Jew" not offensive, because the person saying it might not actually intend it to refer to Jewish people?

I've actually noticed "jew" is replacing "gay" in some, ehm, 'communities' such as Counter-Strike.

loinburger · April 3, 2003, 18:59

I remember seeing the term "Jewry" somewhere or another, probably one of those boring-ass 19th century British novels they made me pretend to read in high school.

I still use the term "gyp." I didn't know its derivation until just a coupla years ago, and by then the term was pretty well ingrained into my lexicon.

KrazyHorse · April 3, 2003, 19:00

I use it too. Along with gyprock...

KrazyHorse · April 3, 2003, 19:01

Quote:

Originally posted by loinburger
I remember seeing the term "Jewry" somewhere or another, probably one of those boring-ass 19th century British novels they made me pretend to read in high school

Is there anything wrong with that? I was under the impression that it held the same type of meaning as "Christendom"; the community of Christians.

General Ludd · April 3, 2003, 19:01

I bet half the english language is made up of racial slurs.

Worthingtons · April 3, 2003, 19:02

This is PC Madness. I actually thought too that the Apolyton homosexual's would actually comdemn such stupidy , but clearly they agree with such a policy

This Phrase, while annoying has been around for ages and rarely actually is meant to offend someone's sexuality.

loinburger · April 3, 2003, 19:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Frogger
Is there anything wrong with that? I was under the impression that it held the same type of meaning as "Christendom"; the community of Christians.

Could be, but in this particular case the term was used to refer to miserliness.

MrFun · April 3, 2003, 19:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Rothy
This is PC Madness. I actually thought too that the Apolyton homosexual's would actually comdemn such stupidy , but clearly they agree with such a policy

This Phrase, while annoying has been around for ages and rarely actually is meant to offend someone's sexuality.

Back to Boris' statement about the Jewish slur -- in this same incident, only with the Jewish slur, you go and explain this to a self-respecting Jew.

And just because something has been around for ages, does not justify it.

Boris Godunov · April 3, 2003, 19:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Rothy
This is PC Madness. I actually thought too that the Apolyton homosexual's would actually comdemn such stupidy , but clearly they agree with such a policy

This Phrase, while annoying has been around for ages and rarely actually is meant to offend someone's sexuality.

See my above example of why it is still offensive.

I don't think the suspension was necessary, if it was the first offense for the kid. Maybe he had a record of misbehaving, though. Perhaps he had already been warned about using that kind of terminology, who knows? Or, they could be making an example out of him, after failing to stem the term's use through less-draconian means.

At any rate, yes, suspension for 2-days seems a little harsh. But I am all in favor of schools not tolerating this kind of thing any further and making it known that they won't do so.

Skanky Burns · April 3, 2003, 19:29

The phrase itself is annoying enough to warrant a suspension, let alone the possibility that it may cause offence.

Ben Kenobi · April 3, 2003, 19:30

Boris:

My prof is so gay. That's why I recommended him to some of my friends.

Shi Huangdi · April 3, 2003, 19:43

to the school board. School is probably the greatest bastion of vitriolic anti-gay hatred America, they ought to take action.

Boris Godunov · April 3, 2003, 20:02

Quote:

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi

to the school board. School is probably the greatest bastion of vitriolic anti-gay hatred America, they ought to take action.

Outside the Republican Party, probably.

Spec · April 3, 2003, 20:10

That teacher was probably gay.

Asher · April 3, 2003, 20:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Frogger
Actually, I think so too.

Me too.

So many schools/families haven't put a stop to it, and the use has grown so fast because of it.

I think it's offensive, even though it's not intended to be with most uses of it these days.

C0ckney · April 3, 2003, 20:22

bloody hell, if you get suspended for that now, i would have been expelled

i use 'that's so gay' etc. a fair bit, don't mean to offend anyone, but it's a phrase my friends and i have used since primary school. i use the jewish stuff sometimes as well, again out of habit, not a desire to offend anyone. suspension seems a bit much in this case.

Asher · April 3, 2003, 20:26

Quote:

Originally posted by C0ckney
bloody hell, if you get suspended for that now, i would have been expelled

i use 'that's so gay' etc. a fair bit, don't mean to offend anyone, but it's a phrase my friends and i have used since primary school. i use the jewish stuff sometimes as well, again out of habit, not a desire to offend anyone. suspension seems a bit much in this case.

Don't you see WHY they should start suspending for it?

You said it yourself -- the reason you use it because you've used it since primary school.

Now, if you got punished in primary school for saying it, you'd probably be a lot less likely to call random things "gay" when you don't like them.