Freedom of speech in schools?

Jesus, Joe, I dunno where you went to school... but at my school, freely expressing one's opinion - even on highly relevant and important matters like the usefulness of visual arts teachers, or simply remarking upon the staggering resemblance between PE teachers and shaved apes - was an excellent way to earn yourself a detention if your speech was too free within earshot of the wrong people. Even just the harmless use of certain words - the 'naughty' words - was punishable.

I don't know where these utopian schools that aren't highly restrictive of their students speech are supposed to be. Steiner schools maybe? But the State and Catholic systemic schools with which I'm most familiar have always been quite restrictive when it comes to speech. I'm not sure why you'd think they wouldn't punish a student for wearing an offensive shirt to school. I know that when one of my brother's mates showed up wearing this T-shirt on an out of uniform day:

http://img.cdandlp.com/2016/10/imgL/118335729-3.jpg

He was made to take it off, and was punished for wearing it in the first place.

Isn't that a sort of textbook definition of censorship ? Of institutional repression ?

Or is it reasonable to forbid a student wearing what is, after all, a shirt that expresses a sentiment which many people in our society would regard as extremely offensive and deliberately provocative? Even if he does think homosexuality is shameful? Or that Jesus is a c$%t?

Dear Foxy and Joe,

At home, you should be able to say whatever you want.
As a guest at other people's home, you should respect your host's policies as to what can be said and what cannot.
Likewise at school, you should be able to say only what the school allows you to.

There is just one problem:

As a guest, you may leave at any time and go home.

- And so it should be at school. One should never be required to go there against their will to begin with.

Whoa, Toni, I'm one of the most liberal and outspoken comentors on OLO, I thought, and I have to say, mate, WOW, no way.
Look things have gone beyond the pale because of these PC twats.
I live next door to a catholic school and I can tell you things have changed dramatically since I went to a catholic school.
The language, the abuse, the insults, and these are sometimes directed at the teachers.
You say how do I know this? Because at times they are yelling when they spray their abuse so it is hard not to hear it.
I won't go into why discipline should be re-introduced at school again because I'll only have to suffer through the PC brigade and all their pathetic reasons why it shouldn't.
In short, I'm pleased someone had the stones to grab this filthy arrogant little smart arse grub and remove him from the rest.
And I'll bet he thought he was the duck's nuts too.
Idiot.
What this idiot did is a clear example of what is not PC but merely attention grabbing simply for self gratification and no other useful purpose.

Well put, Toni Lavis.

As I often point out when freedom of speech and gay wedding cakes are discussed, there is a level of disingenuousness to the concern shown. No one would care, for example, if the student was told to take off a t-shirt that said:

“Be Ashamed. Our school accepts Jews. The Jews KILLED Christ!”

But because we can’t stand those filthy poofters, and because it’s alright to not like people for what they can’t help so long as it’s sexuality, suddenly freedom of religious expression trumps basic standards of decency.

When thinking about the need for political correctness, imagine for a minute that until recently, black men had created all knowledge since the beginning of time. Then change it to Muslim men wrote everything we ever knew. Now change it to gay men have been the experts on the world and how we live in it since time began. Now change it to women being the writers of all books on human existence.

If you thought about that deeply, you’ll now realise why we need political correctness. Because the humans who have really dominated human existence, white heterosexual men, have completely neglected the needs of the rest of us. PC means they can’t bully or overlook anyone any more. What a richer existence it will be.

Because we have this nonsense presented as fact; "Because the humans who have really dominated human existence, white heterosexual men, have completely neglected the needs of the rest of us. PC means they can’t bully or overlook anyone any more. What a richer existence it will be". The above comment is clearly racist. No understanding to why intelligence and discovery happens in a free society, unlike undeveloped mind of the oppression in totalitarian societies.