[Artemisia] Yearbook Picture

[gregero]

I am fairly certain events went like this, and very little thought was given
to it beyond this until things got ugly....

Senior pictures were coming up, this student being a kid thought it would be
cool to dress up in some "cool" SCA gear. He got together what he thought be
the coolest outfit, without any thought of the swords being weapons...they
were just accoutrement  (yes he might have actually thought that word being
in the SCA). Parents think this is a creative idea, pay for the picture and
submit it to the school. The image gets to the school administration. The
principal gets a gut feeling that it's not appropriate and cites the zero
tolerance rule because it seems like it's a reasonable fit, not thinking
about the double standard he is creating.  Feces proceeds to trickle into
the fan and he offers the pay-for-ad option, failing to realize he is
further perpetuating the double standard (presumably because he is operating
without too much other insightful input).  The brown stuff really starts
moving into the fan.

Now, yes, this is a whole bunch of supposition, but it seems to me to be
the least simplest and most straight forward chain of events. No nefarious
plans to bring down the school.  No nefarious plans to squash creativity.
Just a few people doing what they thought was right without thinking about
the bigger picture.

What is important is how they react.  The school has stayed mum on the
subject since the story broke, pretty much indicating that they weren't
backing down. The family is now pressing them on their double standard and I
would assume to encourage them to be more circumspect in the future. They
are simply suing for the right to get the picture included on principle (no
puns Cas) as opposed to a sum of money (although court costs are asked for).
See http://www.riaclu.org/documents/AginvPortsmouthcomplaint.pdf (its at the
end). For all the grief the ACLU gets, they are not ambulance chasers
looking for a big payout most of the time.  They are out there trying to
protect our rights as best as they feel they can, and within the law.

Gregory