Can these people please go away? Aren't we all tired of being embarrassed by them?
I know I am.
A shocking little ditty appeared today on The Buzz, the political blog of the St. Petersberg Times, about the passage through subcommittee of what most folks are calling the "sagging pants bill." The bill is what is sounds like. The "sagging pants bill," HB 61, is known less colloquially as the "Code of Student Conduct" bill, and it includes comprehensive dress code regulations for public school students.
The dress code is probably a good idea. As school uniform proponents have understood forever, adolescence is stressful enough without worrying about the vagaries of fashion. Less obviously inspired is the bill's insistence that kids without a 2.0 GPA be barred from extracurricular activities during their junior and senior years. What effect will that have on kids who are (rightfully) bored out of their minds in class but excel at forensics or band? Or, less sympathetically (but no less significantly), football? For some kids, extracurriculars are the only ticket out of town.
But forget about that for a moment, because there's something far weirder and more perverse about this bill than its contents: its supporters. The Buzz story featured a really remarkable quote from one of these creatures, a Republican representative from Naples named Kathleen Passidomo. Here it is. Brace yourself.
I know I am.
A shocking little ditty appeared today on The Buzz, the political blog of the St. Petersberg Times, about the passage through subcommittee of what most folks are calling the "sagging pants bill." The bill is what is sounds like. The "sagging pants bill," HB 61, is known less colloquially as the "Code of Student Conduct" bill, and it includes comprehensive dress code regulations for public school students.
The dress code is probably a good idea. As school uniform proponents have understood forever, adolescence is stressful enough without worrying about the vagaries of fashion. Less obviously inspired is the bill's insistence that kids without a 2.0 GPA be barred from extracurricular activities during their junior and senior years. What effect will that have on kids who are (rightfully) bored out of their minds in class but excel at forensics or band? Or, less sympathetically (but no less significantly), football? For some kids, extracurriculars are the only ticket out of town.
But forget about that for a moment, because there's something far weirder and more perverse about this bill than its contents: its supporters. The Buzz story featured a really remarkable quote from one of these creatures, a Republican representative from Naples named Kathleen Passidomo. Here it is. Brace yourself.
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