15 year old girl claims she was forced to wear "shame suit" because skirt was too short

[Ms. Toad]

48. That was pretty close to the solution the kids at my daughter's school used.

A female friend of my daughter's was put in in-school-suspension for wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed I love my boy girlfriend. The vice principal's reasoning was that the shirt advertised sexual activity. I pointed out that if that was the case, then so did his wedding ring and photos of his family in his office. For some reason he did not think that was an apt analogy.

About a third of the class was outraged - and planned to get identical T-shirts, which would have landed them all in in-school suspension. So, after I had already had conversations with the principal and the superintendant - warning them about messing with my daughter's free speech rights, the kids came up with the creative solution of buying "Free Speech" T-shirts instead. They were able to support their friend, get their point across, in a way that did put them at risk for disciplinary action. Proud mama.

That incident will be part of a 15 minute presentation I'm doing next week to put a face on LGBT families, as part of a day long conference for attorneys, educators, CSB staff, mental health professionals and community leaders. (The rest of the story about our conservative school system - in dealing with a child with 2 moms will be universally positive.)