This photo provides an ironic
touchpoint to the article.
The Bee reported yesterday on a new rule at McClatchy High School banning students from wearing the color red. Problem is, the school’s colors are red and white.
Now I am not very educated when it comes to current gang problems, names of gangs, ways to identify bangers, which gangs are the coolest, etc. I’m sure that banning the color red is a great way to go, since I assume gangs usually wear solid color outfits to maximize their display of the gang-affiliated color. For example, gang members who are fans of the Yankees baseball club must have a tough time, since their team colors are blue and white. If their gang color is red, they are screwed. Likewise, a gang member itching to wear red is going to shy away from anything with something else on it like an M or a picture of a lion, right?
Look, I get that McClatchy seems to have a gang problem. I get that the administrators are trying to do something about it. Last year was scary at McClatchy and the students and parents should be able to feel good that the board is doing something about it. However, student Clara Mello is completely right when she says “‘This year it’s been taken to a whole new level where there’s basically an assumption'” of gang affiliation for anyone wearing red. After all the same story quotes Principal Cynthia Clark: “This is a compromise. We’re trying to control the wearing of red so it really is school spirit. That’s what we’re getting down to. Are you really trying to show school pride?”
My kudos to Clark and the rest of the administrators at McClatchy for doing something about the problem. I just don’t think suspending otherwise innocent students for wearing red socks is a useful exercise of their authority.
The Sac Rag 
My in-laws are currently in charge of McClathy’s 60th (yep) high school reunion. This saddens them to no end..but they intend on wearing their red hats any old time they want to.
For my birthday, my MIL presented me with an apron with her red/white “M” on it. I guess I should be glad it wasn’t a cap.
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sorry..McClatchy’s. I can spell when I try.
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I only wonder if this will be selectively enforced rule. If you have some taped glasses, pocket protector, and penny loafer girl accidentally wear a red cardigan are you going to enforce the same way you would with the baggy pants hats backwards guy. I have always been in favor of the do not show up unless you want to learn rule. But that gets back to the money for students argument of a few months ago. Wear whatever you want just show up and want to be there to make your life better.
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bauserman: i believe there was a news story a couple days ago where a girl had a red or pink streak in her hair and they told her she could not come to school until it was gone or she wore her hair in a bun as to hide the color. but i guess we’ll see. it seems that the admin will be trying really hard, now that this story has some focus, to keep it fair.
my question is this. since there are gang problems having to do with red and blue why do sports teams put out jerseys and hats in red and blue when it’s not the main colors. the cinn. reds i can see but why do we have red yankees hats (asshown above)? and locally why ban a color and not just go the uniform route?
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What about people with red hair, or albinos or the official “jr. red hat society” club? It’s them I feel for.
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Not to mention, all the blue, green, yellow, pink gangs… now everybody knows they have lost their footing at McClatchy, the reds are definitely in first position! That’s a PR nightmare for any enterprising organized crime unit.
(Gang warfare is so funny.)
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As two McClatchy students have told me, this seems to be mainly enforced against African-American students, and not so much on other kids.
I wonder what the administrators think of red hair, as CSI Sac asks above?
The Bee reports that red clothing with an official school logo is exempt from the ban entirely. All “official” McClatchy goods are kosher, apparently.
Just another attempt for them to try to force the kids to swallow all unearned authority without question. Looks like it’s working, given the thousands of our kids dead over in Iraq.
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DMZ,
The gay gangs have it the toughest. All that’s left is a purple line across their clothes. Not very intimidating that’s for sure. Eat your heart outs Fab Five!
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I’ve said it before, but I’m saying it more now: The more I see of high schools, the more I want to homeschool. When you can tell the student body government kids by the sheer fact that they’re the only ones displaying any enthusiasm whatsoever, you know there’s deeper problems than so-called gang colors.
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B.Durbin have you met my friend Lynn?
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No, I haven’t. Should I have?
(P.S. I don’t want to homeschool, but I certainly will if it’s the better alternative. I had a pretty good public school education, so I know it’s possible.)
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B. Durbin,
I’m curious about what classes you took at your public high school. How many years of a foreign language did you take? What math and science classes did you take?
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I had a fantastic public high school education. Of course, even the best schools are hit hard by greedy Californians and the Proposition 13 we passed which does horrible, horrible damage to our own kids.
4 years of foreign language, art, music, science, math. Letterpress print shop, photography. Russian history, Chinese history. American civics that actually taught us to stand up and count rather than be counted. An entire year of critical thinking – trying to figure out the slant on news stories, figuring out how much influence the advertisers and owners had, who they were.
I know a LOT of home-schooled kids. When I worked for an agency that evaluated home-school arrangements, I talked to plenty. They were book smart, I guess. But they had no idea how to adapt, how to deal with people different than them, how to interact with the outside world. It was kind of sad. 80% were religious fundamentalists, which probably skews the mean quite a bit, but even the secular kids were decidedly odd – they worshiped their parents, the only real authority figure they spent time with, and had some very weird ideas about authority and submission to it.
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The typical public high school student doesn’t take four years of a foreign language, Chemistry, Physics, Beginning Biology and Advanced Biology, Geometry, Trigonometry, Intermediate Algebra and Calculus.
Several years ago, I talked to a public high school senior who was in foster care. I asked him what classes he had taken. He said that he had taken Algebra: he was very proud of that. I asked him what else he had taken. He said Government and English. I asked him what his plans for the future were: he said that he was going to join the military. With just one year of Algebra and not much else, what else could he do?
While I was riding public transportation, I overheard two public high school students talking about what classes they were taking. One girl said that her schedule included Art and Drama. You might as well give her a couple of jars of fingerpaint instead.
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I think these problems have more to do with the specific public schools that produced these students, rather than public schools across the board.
Remember, two public high schools – Berkeley High and Bronx Science – have produced more Nobel Prizewinners than all other American high schools combined, public or private (or rather, public AND private).
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Public high schools produce all of the gang members.
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I can speak from private school experience. I did not take Calculus, and did take drama, music and art history. I still can’t finger paint.
I also have a sneaking suspicion that Lynn is some type of fictional compostie charater from a really obnoxious “semi-autobiographical” work of fiction.
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Am I punchy or is Lynn hilarious?
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HeyMeg, you’re not punchy. I can’t figure out if the hilarity is intentional or not.
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RG maybe it’s like one of those questions of life, “if the hilarity is unintentional is it still hilarious?” I think so, but I guess it’s a philosophical quandry.
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I think Proposition 13 is more a culprit behind the production of gang members.
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Lynn is a fake.
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