Firefighters promote Gangs?

[pgg]

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Sonoma family's 9/11 observance stirs controversy | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA

Sonoma family's 9/11 observance stirs controversy

By MARY CALLAHAN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT


Published: Friday, September 18, 2009 at 6:18 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, September 18, 2009 at 6:18 p.m.
The Martin family of Sonoma finds itself pulled in two directions.


Click to enlarge
Dean Martin, 11, a 7th-grader at Adele Harris Middle School in Sonoma was sent home on Sept. 11 after wearing a firefighters' T-shirt to honor rescue workers who died in the terrorist attacks. School officials said the blue shirt violated the anti-gang dress code. His father, Vallejo firefighter Dennis Martin, defended the youth's stand.

KTVU
With two sons in local middle and high schools, they’re eager to support school officials’ efforts to establish rules and keep students safe.

But they’re unrelentingly displeased with a decision last week saying their middle-school son’s bid to honor the fallen firefighters of 9/11 by wearing a Vallejo Fire Department T-shirt ran afoul of the school’s dress code prohibiting gang colors. The boy was sent home when he would not change the shirt.

Continuing news coverage of the episode and “a lot of mixed response” from the community has forced them to try to maintain a thick skin, said Karin Martin, the boy’s mother.

But Martin and her husband, 14-year Vallejo firefighter Dennis Martin, aren’t backing down from their support of son Dean, a seventh-grader at Adele Harrison Middle School.

They dispute that the navy blue shirt with large red and white lettering on the back and a white insignia on the front constitutes the kind of “solid blue” shirt prohibited by school rules.

Dennis Martin also said the dress code should be enforced with some discretion, taking into account the sensitivities of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

“We have the utmost respect for the schools and the school district,” he said. “They have a hard job. But our son believed in this, and we backed him.”

Adele Harrison Principal Karla Conroy said the school was just enforcing the dress code as effectively and fairly as possible.

Rules regarding colors and symbols traditionally affiliated with gangs are designed not only to forestall violence but any intimidation students might feel, she said.

Periodically, someone forgets and is sent to the office to change into one of the extra T-shirts Conroy buys and keeps on hand for such occasions.

Even with the lettering, anyone looking at Dean’s fire shirt would recognize it as a blue T-shirt, Conroy said.

“Do we ask one kid not to wear red and blue but another kid can?” she asked.

Conroy also said the policy was new last fall when Sept. 11, 2008 rolled around, and officials decided to make exceptions on red and blue shirts so students could pay tribute.

But some students abused the opportunity at two other Sonoma Valley Unified schools where school personnel observed what they believed was gang-related posturing, Conroy said.

So no exceptions were made this year, and though four Adele Harrison students turned up in blue, “three of them said, ‘Oh, I just forgot,’ and they changed the shirt,” Conroy said.

Dean Martin, meanwhile, says the whole thing is just disappointing and sad.

“It was kind of mean, because it was a fire shirt and I was honoring the fallen firefighters,” he said.

The 11-year-old may have firefighting in his blood.

His father, maternal grandfather and uncle are all firefighters, as was his paternal grandfather, now deceased.

His brother, Drake, 16, is a firefighter Explorer with the Schell-Vista Fire Department.

Dean says he wants to be a firefighter, too.

He attended St. Francis Solano School for most of grade school, each year attending Sept. 11 memorial services at which his father twice was guest speaker.

On Sept. 11, before school, he and his mother watched what they could of a televised memorial service honoring those who perished that day. After taking a shower, Dean Martin told his mother he was going to wear his dad’s Vallejo Fire T-shirt to school as a tribute, and she assented without thinking of the dress code.

But when Dean Martin got to school, he was quickly pulled aside and told he needed to wear something else. He was offered one of the extra shirts or even his gym shirt, Conroy said.

But the boy refused and his mother suggested he ride his bike home, then told him he could stay home for the day.

“It made me sad that Dean was just trying to do something nice that day for remembering 9/11 and for firemen and everyone who was lost, and he had to come home because he couldn’t do it anymore,” she says now. “It just didn’t feel right to me. It seems like someone took away someone’s right.

“But rules are rules, and we have to abide by them, so he came home,” Karin Martin said.

[CTR man]

This state (California) is getting more and more retarded by the day. Word of Warning: School Administrators, like the Media are mostly liberal so go figure.

[Pinki]

That's sick. Society has truly lost its minds.

[TXCharlie]

a Vallejo Fire Department T-shirt ran afoul of the school’s dress code prohibiting gang colors.

Someone please explain to me what a "gang color" is.

Which one is it - red, black, or white? Or could it be any saturated color?... Are pastels the only colors allowed?

Good for the kid - Apparently, he knows BS when he hears it!

[pgg]

Someone please explain to me what a "gang color" is.

Which one is it - red, black, or white? Or could it be any color

I don't know about you, but next time I go to a school I'm going naked so I don't get in trouble with any gangs

[TXCharlie]

I don't know about you, but next time I go to a school I'm going naked so I don't get in trouble with any gangs

I wonder if that's properly covered in the dress code? - It is a pastel color, after all

[pgg]

I wonder if that's properly covered in the dress code? - It is a pastel color, after all

you are forgetting about tan lines, scars, I even have a bad burn scar on my gut.

[Captain America]

That's sick. Society has truly lost its minds.

I think that about sums it up. Common sense is not very common these days.

[CTR man]

I think that about sums it up. Common sense is not very common these days.

......nor is it sensible among some people.

[JeffW]

Not surprised. The idiots running schools these days are complete morons. My first grade grandson who was playing Star Wars with another first grader during lunch was made to "walk lines" what ever that is. Sounds to me like it is some form of corporal punishment. Quite frankly I happen to know that was not have any blasters or phasers or whatever that are called.

[TXCharlie]

Remember this one?

Knife At Lunch Gets 10-Year-Old Girl Arrested At School - News Story - WFTV Orlando

Knife At Lunch Gets 10-Year-Old Girl Arrested At School
Posted: 5:41 pm EST December 14, 2007
Updated: 6:13 pm EST December 19, 2007

OCALA, Fla. -- A 10-year old Ocala girl brought her lunch to school and a small kitchen knife to cut it. She now faces a felony charge after being arrested. The school and the sheriff's office disagree on the reason for the arrest.

School officials say the 5th grader was brown-bagging it. She brought a piece of steak for her lunch, but she also brought a steak knife. That's when deputies were called.

It happened in the cafeteria at Sunrise Elementary School. The 10-year-old used the knife to cut the meat.

"She did not use it inappropriately. She did not threaten anyone with it. She didn't pull it out and brandish it. Nothing of that nature," explained Marion County School Spokesman Kevin Christian.

But a couple of teachers took the utensil and called the sheriff. When deputies arrived, they were unable to get the child's parents on the phone, so they arrested her and took her to the county's juvenile assessment center.

[tapout]

They dispute that the navy blue shirt with large red and white lettering on the back and a white insignia on the front constitutes the kind of “solid blue” shirt prohibited by school rules.

so now a kid cant wear red white and blue? the colors of our flag?

[121Traffic]

I have a hard time believing that any school that's using "gang problems" as a means to press this issue actually has a "gang problem" of any kind.

[Twan007]

so now a kid cant wear red white and blue? the colors of our flag?

bet if ya get a big ass Mexican flag T-shirt and don it you wouldn't have one lick of trouble come your way...

[mack]

Remember when being a kid was fun and life was uncomplicated?

[Odd]

Remember when being a kid was fun and life was uncomplicated?

It gets complicated? Damn, when does that happen?!

My first grade grandson who was playing Star Wars with another first grader during lunch was made to "walk lines" what ever that is.

Walking lines isn't bad. I lapped the gym while following the basketball court lines during lunch many a time (our gym was our lunchroom). It was a lot better than beating the blackboard erasers! Though I think blackboards should be brought back cut down on wasteful tech spending and restore that punishment tool.

Speaking of long ago, if a knife leads to arrest now, and we not only had pocketknives (gum was banned, pocketknives were fine), but left our pickups unlocked with guns in the racks in my day...well, TXCharlie, what sort of armament did you take to school?

I just don't get how things have changed so drastically in such a short span of time. It's worrisome.

[Jks9199]

The rule makes sense. And similar rules are found in schools with major gang problems. Limiting some forms of flagging does deter some of the potential issues during school hours. (Note that I said deter, not prevent. Bangers will find a way to flag -- even if it comes down to a brand of shoe or how they tie a tie...)

The enforcement in this situation does not. The t-shirt was clearly not at all tied to the gang, and was directly related to the memorial that day. If the school is going to be this strict about it -- are the teachers prohibited from wearing blue suits, too?

[CTR man]

The enforcement in this situation does not. The t-shirt was clearly not at all tied to the gang, and was directly related to the memorial that day. If the school is going to be this strict about it -- are the teachers prohibited from wearing blue suits, too?

Great Idea! Make the teachers and the administrators abide by the same dress code. After all, aren't they supposed to be setting the example, right?

[ms1600]

Maybe the administrators were afraid of promoting unlicensed barcaloungers and unauthorized chili recipes.