SF student suspended over Connecticut poem (about school shooter)

[Luminous Animal]

89. No. An anonymous person scrawling a well-known anti-woman slur on my house

would imply a disdain for my gender and and cause me to catalog the event and remove it immediately. As I have stated elsewhere, I wouldn't know whether a 10 year old kid had done it simply for the kicks of writing a "bad" word on the wall, or someone venting their anger against females in my neighborhood. I would have similar concern for the people in my neighborhood if I saw n*****, or f**. Chances are better than not, that if it was an adult, simply writing the word to make their targets feel unsafe is the sole intent... but that is cold comfort.

On the other hand, I see and hear the word b**** quite often in literature and music and it doesn't have affect me in the same way. I don't like it. I think it contributes to a situation where one might take out their hatred of women by scrawling it on a building for all women to see. I think it contributes to the denigration of women as a class. (And, I spent way to much time on more open discussion boards arguing that Hillary Clinton shouldn't be called a bitch.) But also, I have been called a b**** and d**e by strangers and believe you me, I get away from that situation as quickly as I can.

Nobody says this girl shouldn't be criticized. We can criticize without trampling on freedom of expression. We are saying that she shouldn't be censored and expelled. We can say, "Hey, what did you mean by understand" She has stated that "understands why" does not mean she agrees with the action. If the teacher had sat down with the girl and talked about the piece, the teacher could have found that out and perhaps used it as an opportunity to assist her to better express herself.