Packerwear prompts suit against school

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I found this posted to a sports forum I follow...

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Minnesota Civil Liberties Union planned to announce a lawsuit today against the New Prague school district, two teachers and a principal for allegedly disciplining a student because of his loyalty to the Green Bay Packers.

According to an MCLU release, the fourth-grade student's free speech rights were violated when he was disciplined for expressing his preference for the Packers over the Minnesota Vikings. The boy wasn't allowed to go on a field trip to Vikings practice in Eden Prairie because he wore a Packers jersey on Vikings day, WCCO-TV reported Thursday.

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Personally, I think the school should have made arrangements to get the misguided little urchin a different, non-controversial, shirt to wear on the field trip. Prohibiting him from participating in the trip seems unfair to me. On the other hand, the MCLU bringing a lawsuit against the school on the grounds they alledgedly violated the kid's "free speech rights" strikes me as ridiculous.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this.

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), December 15, 2000

Answers

Well, um, he SHOULD have wore a Cleveland Browns jersey that way nobody would have bothered him.

*smirk*

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), December 15, 2000.


When the kids at my children's schools wore a questionable tee-shirt the teacher would make them go to the girls or boys room and change it to wear inside out...problem sloved. I can't believe these people were so uptight about it. The kid is what maybe 8 or 9 years old?

I wonder if it is just the MCLU that is bringing the lawsuit...does the kid stand a chance of winning monetary rewards?

-- Peg (pegmcleod@mediaone.net), December 15, 2000.


Seems to me no one would have cared if he was a GB fan or not and the folks at the Viking camp would have gotten a chuckle outa the little feller.

I mean who are we talking about offending? multi-million dollar athletes who have absolutely no alliegance to any particular team but instead to the highest bidding team.

The MCLU should be laughed out of court by the 1st judge it runs across.

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), December 15, 2000.


This is rediculous! How did the school justify the expense of this field trip? I see no relevance to any part of the curriculumn. What's next, a trip to the Megamall to see Santa?

When adults gang up on a kid, he needs a strong defense. The MCLU will do just that.

-- Johnn Littmann (littmannj@aol.com), December 15, 2000.


Student claims discrimination for wearing jersey Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS -- It's not easy being green.

Ten-year-old Rocky Sonkowsky found that out when he was allegedly banned from a class pizza party with the Minnesota Vikings because he repeatedly refused to take off his Green Bay Packers jersey.

Two days before the rival teams meet for a second time this season, the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union on Friday announced a lawsuit in federal court against the school district, two teachers and the school principal for violating Rocky's right to free speech.

Call it Packers persecution. The mess started in fall of 1999 when New Prague Intermediate School, 40 miles west of Minneapolis, entered a statewide geography contest. A visit to the Vikings facility in Eden Prairie, Minn., to meet star receiver Cris Carter was the top prize.

But, according to Rocky's attorneys, school officials made the 10- year-old cover his cherished Packers jersey in a photo for the contest.

When he wouldn't back down from showing the team's green and gold, they also kept him out of a parade the rest of the class got to be in and refused to post his Packer-centric art work. Then, after the class won the trip, they refused to let him go along, attorneys said.

"They were afraid that his being a Packer fan would embarrass the Vikings and Cris Carter," said Charles Samuelson, executive director of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union.

"I'll bet if Cris Carter had known about this, he would have talked to the kid and jerked his chain and probably given him a Vikings jersey. I can't imagine he would have been offended."

In fact, Sonkowsky and his father, Roy, will meet the Vikings anyway. After hearing about the mess, the team offered the two sideline seats and a chance to meet the team Sunday.

District Superintendent Frankie Poplau confirmed that the child in question was not allowed to make the field trip. But she wouldn't say why, noting that the district plans to dispute the facts of case -- in court.

"It is not our practice to discriminate against students based on their sports team allegiance. I have great respect for the professionals in this district," Poplau said.

The district has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit, filed Wednesday. Joni Thome, the attorney for the family, said Rocky was disciplined for some playground scrapes and foul language while the jersey debate was going on. But she said the discipline wouldn't have been required if school officials hadn't forced the issue.

The school never should have expected the boy to hide his team allegiance, she said. "They are Packer fans, as we all know Packer fans to be," Thome said. "They will die Packer fans." She also swears the timing of the case has nothing to do with the game, calling it merely an attempt to beat a one-year statute of limitations on the case.

Thome said Rocky and his dad are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys fees.

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), December 15, 2000.



The child will probably conclude that decisions made by those in authority may be disregarded whenever he feels offended by them. School officials may conclude that it's better to refrain from exercising their judgment than for a student to feel offended. I wonder if Rocky's parents have considered these things.

-- David L (bumpkin@dnet.net), December 16, 2000.

If it was a t-shirt with a picture of a huge gaping vagina I would agree with the school, or, if wearing the Packers shirt was a violation of a written dress code I would agree with the school. From what I've read here I agree with the kid.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), December 16, 2000.

Unk -- not too long ago a student in this area was banned from a field trip to a certain bottling plant. On the day of the trip he deliberately wore a shirt with a large logo for a competing brand. He was asked to change his shirt, and he refused. The school authorities banned him because they considered it to be a show of poor manners on the student's part. The students and their teachers were to be GUESTS at the bottling plant.

He didn't sue his school. He wouldn't have gone very far around here in court, since the juries are drawn from the local voting registration lists, and the only people who bother to serve on juries around here are local hardass old voters like myself. :)

-- helen (b@c.k), December 16, 2000.


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