Upon Further Review: SI flap gets blown out of proportion
Now I know sometimes people do and say things that are not appropriate. And in the society we live in today, we sometimes tend to overreact when certain situations occur.
We tend to be more protective and defensive and are easily offended about things that sometimes just don’t really matter.
Well something caught my eye this week, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
At a school in West Virginia last week a 12-year old boy was suspended for bringing a magazine to school. No it wasn’t one of those dirty magazines that you find at some bookstands. It was a copy of Sports Illustrated.
The boy who is a sixth -grader was suspended for three days and it was suggested that he be sent to an alternative school.
Yes, it wasn’t just any Sports Illustrated. It was the swimsuit edition.
A teacher saw the magazine and confiscated it as the school board found it to be sexually suggestive material and that the boy had committed a delinquent act on school property.
Now I must admit, I get Sports Illustrated and over the years, the swimsuit edition has become a little sexual. But it’s actually nothing you wouldn’t see going to the beach or even the swimming pool. Maybe not our swimming pool, but it’s still just girls in bathing suits.
Now as far as a sixth-grader taking a copy to school, that shouldn’t have happen. But I do think the school could have handled this in a different manner and it wouldn’t have exploded into front-page news.
We don’t know what kind of history the boy has and maybe he has caused trouble before at school. But it’s still not like he brought a copy of Playboy to school. It’s Sports Illustrated.
Like I said before, sometimes things get blown out of proportion and are taken the wrong way.
By the way the boy’s mother is outraged and has refused to send her son to an alternative school.
Yes, maybe this was a little too much skin for a 12-year old to bring to school.
When I was in school the library got Sports Illustrated but somehow whenever the swimsuit edition came out, it was missing.
Can the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition be considered sexually suggestive material, sure. Should a 12-year old bring it to school? No.
But on the other hand, what about the short skirts and outfits that cheerleaders and dance teams wear?
If you look at it the wrong way, that could be sexually suggestive too. But it’s not. You see my point. It’s all in how you interpret each situation. We all see things different and it can be good for some and bad for others.
The teacher who confiscated the magazine found it to be offensive. But the next teacher down the hall may have not even thought anything about it.
When it comes right down to it, it all seems a little ridiculous to me. There’s going to be more time and money spent over this than it’s worth.