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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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 Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:13 am Post subject: High school student denied diploma for thin tie |
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Thomas Benya says the bolo tie he wore to graduation for Charles County's McDonough High School reflects his heritage.
Cultural Tie Gets in the Way Of Graduation
Md. Boy Wearing Bolo Is Denied a Diploma
By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 10, 2005; Page B01
Thomas Benya wore a braided bolo tie under his purple graduation gown this week as a subtle tribute to his Native American heritage.
Administrators at his Charles County school decided the string tie was too skinny. They denied him his diploma, at least temporarily, as punishment.
The bolo, common in contemporary American Indian culture, is not considered a tie by his public school in Pomfret. If Benya wants the diploma, he will have to schedule a conference with the administrators.
What his parents say they want is an apology from Maurice J. McDonough High School for embarrassing their son and failing to respect the Cherokee background of his father's ancestors.
"The schools in Charles County are asking him to ignore his heritage," Marsha Benya said as she turned to face her 17-year-old son. "I want you to be proud of it."
"I am proud of it," he said, sitting in her real estate office in Waldorf, where he plans to work this summer before enrolling at the College of Southern Maryland.
The high school is sticking to its policy. The dress code is mandatory for seniors who choose to participate in the graduation ceremony. And Benya was told during a dress rehearsal Tuesday that his black bolo with a silver and onyx clasp the size of a silver dollar was "not acceptable."
"We have many students with many different cultural heritages, and there are many times to display that," said school district spokeswoman Katie O'Malley-Simpson.
"But graduation is a time when we have a formal, uniform celebration. If kids are going to participate, they need to respect the rules."
Controversies over student attire at graduation are perennial, and school districts try to avoid confusion by sending letters to parents and seniors months in advance. In Prince George's County, for example, graduating seniors are told "they are not to wear any kind of additional accents," said schools spokesman John White.
"We set the standard to make sure all our ceremonies are formal and respectful," he said.
In March, Benya's high school sent a letter to parents and seniors explaining that "adherence to the dress code is mandatory," with the word mandatory in bold and underlined. For girls: white dresses or skirts with white blouses. For boys: dark dress pants with white dress shirts and ties.
That left Benya's classmates free to wear bright orange, red and striped ties under their gowns at the ceremony Wednesday at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro. One senior girl wore a headscarf and long pants for religious reasons.
"The First Amendment protects religion, and we do everything possible to honor that," O'Malley-Simpson said. "There is nothing that requires us to follow everyone's different cultures."
The courts have ruled that students have limited rights to express themselves at school as long as their behavior is not disruptive. A 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines, sided with students who wanted to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War.
David Rocah, a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said there are limits to those rights. Carrying political placards or wearing a clown suit to graduation would presumably be disruptive. The question, he said, is whether a bolo tie under a gown is disruptive.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting graduation to be a formal occasion," he said, "but the idea that everyone should look the same -- they're not all the same."
Rocah called the school's interpretation a "narrow and cramped view of personal autonomy."
Benya grew up hearing stories about his paternal grandmother's father and grandfather, who lived in dismal conditions on a Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma. He attends powwows and has worn an heirloom turquoise and silver bracelet for as long as he can remember.
He favors black clothes and prefers working backstage with lights and sound to performing in plays. He said he wasn't looking to cause a scene.
"It's my way of relating back to my past and showing who I am," he said. |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:36 am Post subject: |
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Hey, it's a tie.
On the other hand, I would expell the kid if he came anywhere near the school wearing a bow tie. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:47 am Post subject: |
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[deleted]
Last edited by Gopher on Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:52 am Post subject: |
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I just remembered my dream last night.  I had to go through the last year of high school again. Somebody phoned me in Korea and convinced me to go back for one more year even though it wasn't the high school that I loved but just some regular one I had never been to.
For some reason your bow tie comment brought the whole dream back. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:50 am Post subject: |
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I would interpret your dream as meaning you lust after your mom and want to kill your dad. Of course I might be wrong.
I'm trying to reconcile my feelings with the article in the OP with my feeling's on France's policy to outlaw headscarves and other overtly religious clothing from schools. |
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funplanet
Joined: 20 Jun 2003
Location: The new Bucheon!
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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| stupid, fucking government schools.....just another reason to send your kids to a private school or home teaching |
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shakuhachi
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
Location: Sydney
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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| This is stupid. A diploma is recognition of educational efforts, not for wearing the right tie. Because of the racial dimension, I predict an apology coming from the school. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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Hi, I'm a double post. Please look down.
Last edited by mithridates on Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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I predict that you're right. Check this out, the governor of Montana has stepped in:
| Quote: |
Montana Leader Defends Bolo Ties
Governor Backs Md. Teen Denied Diploma
"In Montana and anyplace in Indian country, a bolo tie is dressed up. A tie is a tie," Gov. Brian Schweitzer says.
By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 11, 2005; Page B01
A Charles County high school's decision to deny a diploma to a senior who wore a bolo tie to graduation didn't offend just the student and his family. Montana's governor is mighty annoyed, too.
"To have some high school say that a bolo tie is not a tie is an outrage," said Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D), who called The Washington Post yesterday after reading an article about 17-year-old Thomas Benya.
"In Montana and anyplace in Indian country, a bolo tie is dressed up. A tie is a tie," Gov. Brian Schweitzer says. (Office Of Gov. Brian Schweitzer)
Cultural Tie Gets in the Way Of Graduation
Charles County student is denied his diploma after wearing a braided bolo tie under his graduation gown as a subtle tribute to his Native American heritage.
"In Montana and anyplace in Indian country, a bolo tie is dressed up," he said. "A tie is a tie."
Schweitzer, who has a collection of more than 30 string ties, called to encourage Benya yesterday and is sending him a Montana state bolo.
The Waldorf teenager first wore his black, braided tie to a graduation rehearsal Tuesday as a symbol of his Native American roots. His paternal grandmother's father and grandfather were born on a Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma.
But the principal at Maurice J. McDonough High School said the skinny tie with a silver clasp did not meet the school's definition of a tie. Benya wore it anyway. When he tried to collect his diploma after the ceremony Wednesday, he was told to schedule a conference with school administrators. Benya's parents said they are waiting for an apology from the school system.
The question of whether a bolo tie is a tie has been tricky to navigate, even in Western states where they are common attire. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), for instance, often wears one during television interviews. But in that state's legislature, the coat-and-tie requirement allows string ties on the floor of the Senate but not the House.
Former Colorado senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, an American Indian and a jewelry designer, is perhaps one of the most well known bolo boosters. He said yesterday he remembers asking then-House Speaker Jim Wright for permission to break with tradition in 1987.
"It was never contested. No one ever complained," Campbell said.
"It seems to me that if the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate give latitude to members of the highest body in the land, a high school shouldn't be so uptight to deny a kid his cultural right to wear a different type of neckwear," he said.
The school system might reconsider the bolo's status for the next graduation.
"Do I think the schools might take a look at it next year? Sure. Will they change it? I don't know," system spokeswoman Katie O'Malley-Simpson said. "The incident will give principals something to think about." |
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guangho
Joined: 19 Jan 2005
Location: a spot full of deception, stupidity, and public micturation and thus unfit for longterm residency
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2005 10:13 am Post subject: |
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| On the other hand, the school is not discriminating against Native Americans. They want every kid to wear a traditional necktie. They want a uniform, asthetically pleasing presentation. It's not worth holding the diploma back because of this but I don't like people who think that the best way to get through life is to scream "racist!" |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2005 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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| guangho wrote: |
| On the other hand, the school is not discriminating against Native Americans. They want every kid to wear a traditional necktie. They want a uniform, asthetically pleasing presentation. |
But doesn't that raise the question...traditional to whom? Lots of police departments in the US and Canada have marching bands, and play bagpipes and wear kilts during ceremonies and funerals. Nobody legislated the custom. What makes a necktie so "traditional"? |
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justagirl
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Location: Cheonan/Portland
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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We had a dress code for our graduation, too. So what? That's not hard to do. Wear your bolo tie at your party, afterwards, before and any other time you want.
At our school no one could wear jeans or sneakers to graduation and NOBODY even got their diploma until they returned their cap and gown neatly folded in the box. If you didn't dress appropriately, you didn't get to go to the ceremony.
I'm not saying the kid was disrespectful to wear the tie, but there was plenty of notice about what was acceptable, and he could have asked in advance if it was okay to wear that particular kind of tie. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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Some dude in the class ahead of mine wore shorts to his graduation. Classy stuff.
I went to a private school I might add. No dress code for anything. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 12:50 am Post subject: |
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Whatever happened to those cartoon neckties that were popular back in the mid-90s, the ones that had mickey mouse and bugs bunny on them? I remember thinking they were pretty tacky at first, but then you started seeing them all over the place, even in the office and stuff.
Anyone still see those around? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 3:43 am Post subject: |
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stupid, *beep* government schools.....just another reason to send your kids to a private school or home teaching
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Wow, funplanet, from your other posts I would never have guessed you are a fan of madrassas. Another good lesson for me in not making assumptions. |
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