“The idea that free speech is in someone else’s hands . . . is just something I am not going to tolerate,” Dalton said.

As I said, a stupida*s kid being used by his stupida*s father.

http://www.denverpost.com/aurora/ci_10541233

Would I have let my daughter wear that shirt to school?
No I would not have.There is plenty to debate about Obama’s
obvious lack of judgment and experience to become Commander
and Chief without having to take the Bill Maher route.
But that is mine and my wife’s personal opinions on our family,not judgment on whether it is right or wrong for somebody else to do it.

+1

You have your priorities, I have mine.

You’re correct. I don’t really care too much about my kids being kids, doing kid things or thinking about kids’ topics. My highest priority is making good self-reliant adults/citizens, so that my daughters can take care of themselves, not have to depend on anyone else (especially not a husband/man), and to make good decisions. IMHO, they need to learn how tough life is as soon as possible and know that they have to work hard at everything because no one else is going to do it for them. As a parent in today’s world, we are bombarded with news that makes us scared shirtless, and since we can’t be there 100% of the time so we need to prepare them. Yes, we all recognize that kids need to play, learn social skills and learn to pick up after themselves (that one is going to be the death of me with these two princesses of mine). However, I think that this can be an important lesson for not only this 11 year old we’re talking about, but for other kids too. I think they should learn that they can stand up for themselves and fight unfair systems, not just take it until they move on in life. The missing school part doesn’t worry *me* too much (I assign extra homework, especially math), its more important to me to let the girls know that if their rights aren’t being protected (I keep bringing up the example of the Che Guevara shirt I’ve seen at the school), then they need to do something. Of course, once my child was kicked out of school, I’d keep them from wearing the shirt again, and *I* would sue the county. If that proved unsuccessful, I’d move my kids to a private school with a school uniform.

I just find it hard to believe that one parent would make such crass statements about another parent just because you disagree with their methodology. Your method was to just let the teachers teach what they would at the school and deal with it afterwards, this man took a more confrontational approach. I don’t see anything wrong with either.

…and by the looks and sounds of him, I say lucky to be a C student.

The fact that you deride the kid’s intelligence because of the way he looks and speaks makes me think I should dismiss any of your comments out of hand. This is why I would question someone being a parent, or perhaps that’s just snobbery?

BTW, do you think missing a couple of days of school is going to be problem? What happens when your kids get sick and miss school? They have to do make up work, big deal. The kid wasn’t suspended indefinitely (he mentions he’s not going to wear it again until November 4th –> and how many 11 year olds know that Nov. 4th is election day? I think this goes towards his education as a plus), so he probably only got suspended for the day.

As a parent my wife and I will discuss issues with my daughter but most importantly I am teaching her to read and research the issues on her own.The MSM is basically worthless.
I stress to her not to judge or base her friendships/relationships on political affiliations.
My wife and I are Republicans but we do not stress this to her because we want her to research and come to her own conclusions about where she will stand on issues,then that
will lead her to party affiliation.
A large majority of our friends are democrats so she is being raised that we can have differences of opinions but we
are all Americans.We will take care of our differences at the voting booth.

The kid has the right to wear the shirt and to wear it to school unless the rules specifically forbid political attire.I don’t think this would stand up in court and I am
willing to bet that Obama shirts and anti-Bush shirts have been worn at this school without any uproar.
liberals are good at dishing it out,but cry and whine when
it gets dished back at them:

Grow a pair, Obama
By Michelle Malkin • July 14, 2008 05:26 AM
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/07/14/grow-a-pair-obama/

Welcome to public life.
Guess what? In Washington, political cartoonists and caricaturists spare no one.
*Update* Chris at The Hot Joint reminds me of this truly disgusting cartoon run in the Obama-worshipping Rolling Stone mag last month:

I have been pretty much disgusted and furious at the hate and vitriol thrown at President Bush over the last 8 yrs.and
now watching the same being done to Palin.
It has shown the democratic party is nothing but hateful,bigoted extremist who will say and do anything for
political power.
The FDR democrats that I know and are friends with don’t like Bush,but they are pretty concerned about the extremist of their party that try to hide behind words of “intelligence”,”open mindedness”,”tolerance”,and “free speech” but practice none of it themselves.

Would I have let my daughter wear that shirt to school?
No I would not have.There is plenty to debate about Obama’s
obvious lack of judgment and experience to become Commander
and Chief without having to take the Bill Maher route.
But that is mine and my wife’s personal opinions on our family,not judgment on whether it is right or wrong for somebody else to do it.

right2bright on September 23, 2008 at 3:34 PM

Apparently, it is necessary for schools to define every term they use–I hadn’t thought “Wear something patriotic” would be vague, but it seems to be lost on his parents. I’m particularly disturbed by this notion that children are supposed to have political opinions. Children simply don’t have the life experience or philosophical framework within which to have relevant opinions. We do them no service encouraging them to form opinions when we know full well they cannot do so intelligently.

My first thought is that the shirt is a home grown lettered mess, but I’m seen worse that that in the hallways.

Hening on September 23, 2008 at 3:22 PM

We probably should acknowledge and give credit for the fact that the shirt’s message was correctly spelled and even had the apostrophe to indicate that Obama is a terrorist’s best friend.

Geministorm on September 23, 2008 at 6:37 PM

Well, you and I differ. I think making sure the kid has a good education is more important then wearing that foolish, t-shirt.
I am no fan of Obama, but if you think a 10yr. old wearing that specific shirt is a good thing for him, then we just have to agree to disagree.
You have your priorities, I have mine.
School and education and being a kid comes first, then you grow into the rest of the stuff.
My kids were raised in an extremely liberal school district. I never made a fuss, just taught them at home, union members like the teachers have to believe the way they do or they can’t work. Never place yourself in that position that you have to sell your beliefs.
BTW, kids like the kid with the T-shirt, I used to tell my kids that kids like that are important, their families are training those kids to mow lawns, wash cars, clean offices…

If you want smarter voters, it begins early, my friend. Teach your children how to make smart/good choices or better, to do public service, and our country will benefit from it.

Geministorm on September 23, 2008 at 6:32 PM

Well gee “my friend”, I see nothing wrong with what you say, but you apparently think what I say is wrong. Where did I say not to teach them civic duty?
Tell me where I am wrong, and let’s assume that a parent can multi-task, that is they can teach them values, civic duties, public service, and teach them respect and how to be a friend. Let’s teach them to get along on the play ground, because that is where they belong at 10 years old. Going to the polls? Great, that’s about 6 hours a year, on the playground about 1,800 hours a year.
GET IT? doing kids things, rather then adult things is probably about a ratio 500 to 1.
THEY ARE KIDS, wearing a cheap shoddy “Obama is a terrorist” shirt is not teaching civic duty…unless the kid is a straight A, and by the looks and sounds of him, I say lucky to be a C student.
Let’s hope that with all of your “civic” duty you don’t forget to teach the kid how to play ball, go hiking with them, fish with them, teach them to read, write, pick up their room…you see those are kids stuff too.
And maybe if you are lucky you will have kids as responsible, civic minded, productive as mine…
That is the answer to your original challenge, that you bet people who diss kids and parents like is shown probably don’t have kids…you were wrong.

robblefarian on September 23, 2008 at 2:39 PM

In the FIFTH grade??? This kid is eleven in the fifth grade. At this time of the year, I have mostly NINE year olds, going on TEN in the fifth grade. I don’t think he’s the sharpest tool in the shed.

Just sayin’.

Actually, it’s ten year olds going on eleven in the fifth grade, typically. Just sayin’.

Furthermore, there are many other reasons why a child might be behind a grade aside from being held back. Just be careful about making assumptions, because after all, it makes an “ass” out of “u” and “mption”…or something.

Geministorm on September 23, 2008 at 6:41 PM

Thanks. It’s been hard, though, because she watches Nick, and they’ve been very one-sided in their kids voting commercials. She knows that Mommy and Daddy want to vote for the ‘Pretty Lady’ and ‘Somebody’s Pop-pop’ because they share our values, which is good enough for a kindergartener.

She calls Obama and Biden ‘Mr. Smiles’ and ‘Man from Delaware’ (my home state). It seems she has inherited my penchant for remembering faces, not names. : )

Anna on September 23, 2008 at 6:39 PM

+1 +1 +1

Exactly.

Geministorm on September 23, 2008 at 6:32 PM

I too take my kids when I vote – I even took my twins when they were infants. My daughter is very interested in civics, because she sees how interested I am in civics. Same with book-reading, animals, and building – she gets her interests from watching how her parents spend their free time.

As I said before, I was very politically active as a child. I grew out of it by the time I joined the Navy, because being in the military was it’s own civics lesson. Now that I’m out, it’s a passion of mine again. No reason to think my kids should be any different – and if they’re not interested, fine. But it is our duty as parents to ensure our children understand how important it is to look at the facts and qualifications before voting, and how important voting is, whether they’re voting for hall monitor or for the nation’s highest office.

So you tell me, wearing a shirt does what good???

None, unless its calling attention to biased administrators in a school system. If the administration looks the other way while their teachers teach or students wear _________ (fill in the blank) clothing, but someone that espouses (geez, I’m using that word a lot today) a different view is punished, then that situation needs to be addressed and fixed. Calling attention to this problem may embarrass the school system enough to apply the rules evenly, and that would be a good thing.

right2bright on September 23, 2008 at 6:19 PM

Do you have children?

I have taken my kids with me every time I’ve gone to vote (local, state and national elections). Each time, they come to the desk with me and watch who I and their mother vote for and then they get an, “I voted” sticker on the way out. Teaching our kids about their civic duty is extremely important. So, contrary to your statement, I think that it is absolutely critical to not only teach our kids about policies, rights and duties, but also about *how to determine who to vote for*. I don’t want my children to vote for someone because they are handsome, young, tall, female/male, or any of that crap. They need to learn how to make smart choices based upon candidate’s history and statements about what they stand for and what they’ll do. I discuss nearly daily with my kids about politics and the impact that things like the elections will have on not just my life, but theirs’ as well.

If you want smarter voters, it begins early, my friend. Teach your children how to make smart/good choices or better, to do public service, and our country will benefit from it.

I’d bet that those calling this man names don’t have children of their own.

Geministorm on September 23, 2008 at 6:14 PM

I’ll bet I do…this father is an idiot.
Kids are kids, they should worry about kid things.
Yes and both of my kids are just fine; graduated from pretty good Universities, then both graduated from a tier one law school, both attorneys, passed the Calif bar, and several other states.
And when they were kids, they did kid things. As they became adults, they did adult things.
I assure you, this kid with the t-shirt is lucky to have a C average, I would bet that being in the 5th grade he reads at a 3rd grade level.
So you tell me, wearing a shirt does what good???

My youngest (6) daughter came home and asked why I wasn’t voting for Obama. She said I needed to vote for Obama because then we would have our first black president. I wonder where she got that little thought put into her head? I shouldn’t have to re-work my daughters’ thoughts every time she comes home from school, political ideologies have no place in the classroom. Teachers in public schools are public servants, that means that my children learn their politics from me or from discussions with their peers, not from their instructors.

The shirt isn’t inflammatory (is it?) so, the kid gets to wear the shirt in my book.

Sultry Beauty on September 23, 2008 at 5:29 PM

Sorry, be a little more specific. Are you posting me because you agree or don’t agree.
If you don’t agree, then you will hate this.
5th grade students should be worrying about who is going to beat them up after school
Worrying about if they are going to lose all their marbles playing marbles
Worrying about why they are always picked last
Wondering what the big deal about girls is
Wondering if the Cubs or the Yankees are going to choose them on their little league team
Why does Paul’s mom make him a better lunch
I hate gym because we have to take showers with other boys and I am embarrassed of…
Why do the kids make fun of me
Why isn’t Dave talking to me
Bob is a cool guy
I want to be an astronaut, baseball player, guitar player…
I don’t want the teacher to call on me
Those are just some of the things a 5th grader should worry about…not who is president, and who supports terrorism…
Here is a novel idea…let kids be kids…

Are teachers restricted from espousing their personal political views into classroom discussions? — ???

Here’s my slant on this; if there are no strict guidelines that prevent a teacher from giving their personal political views in class, then this kid gets to wear the shirt. Aren’t kids allowed to wear Che Guevara shirts in school (I know they are, I’ve seen middle schoolers with them on)? IHowever, if the policy is such that public schools should be free of partisan political statements, and its enforced (without being overturned by the SCotUS), then the kid needs to leave the shirt at home. Either way, I don’t care that much, I just care that the law/rule is applied equally.

Having said that, I don’t believe that citizenship has an age limitation. Apparently, the children of illegal aliens born in this country are citizens and afforded the rights and protections of US citizens, why aren’t those rights being bestowed upon an 11 year old born in this nation? My children are US citizens, and I’m pretty sure that their rights are guaranteed. Are posters here saying that children are no longer members of “…the people…”?

When I was in high school, there were kids that had candidate’s bumper stickers on their lockers. The stickers were not removed unless the lockers were being re-painted or at the end of the school year. I don’t think there should be a differentiation between any student sub-18, since they are all minors with the regards to voting.

Oh, and to those that are berating the father of the 11 year old…pretty much you’re saying they are using their kid. Yep, they have brainwashed them with their ideals, morals, and ideas. He might take the kid fishing, or hunting, or watch football games with him, take him to monster truck shows, watch movies with him, take him to a church of the dad’s choice…it all boils down to a parent instilling in their kid the values they want passed on. The kids will sometimes take on those values for the rest of their lives, and sometimes they throw them off. In essence, it could be said that all children are in part a reflection of their parents. Did your parents not instill their values in you? Whether you agree with this man’s views or not, it sounds like he has a relationship with his son in which he has instilled a value system and at least partially explained the kid about our rights. That’s better than a lot of parents I’ve seen.

I’d bet that those calling this man names don’t have children of their own.

Sue, Billy. Sue like the wind.

You crack me up AP.