Removing the Red and Blue color ban at Balboa High...

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Author: Zach Delle

Started: April 13, 2007, 2:04:47 pm

Target: Balboa High School

Category: Education

Supporters:

Goal:

100,000

Goal Progress:

Status

Active

We, as a community, in signing this petition, are expressing our outrage at the ban on red and blue clothing at Balboa High School. We feel that the ban is unnecessary and hurts Balboa's student population more than it helps it.

We feel that the threat of gang violence is minimal to non-existent, and if it was going to happen, it would happen anyway. We understand that the rule was made in the interest of student safety, but we feel that it has since been rendered obsolete. The demographics at Balboa High School have completely changed, and gang violence stemming from color of clothing is no longer as problematic an issue as it was 5 to 10 years ago.

We feel that the ban on red and blue clothing hurts student morale and motivation heavily. Anger and resentment at the authorities that enforce the rule is prevolent amongst students, and causes much more of the violence and behavioral problems at Balboa than allowing students to pick their clothes freely would. Also, negative morale clearly correlates with negative academic performance, as unhappy students are far less likely to reach their full academic potential.

We feel that potential incoming freshmen receive false impressions about the safety of the school. A ban on red and blue creates a false dangerous impression, and students who don't know much about Balboa could easily infer that the school was still in the dangerous state it was years ago, which may lead to many high-performing students deciding not to apply to or even consider Balboa as their high school of choice.

We feel that a ban on single colors of clothing is a violation of the students First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech. Many political and social organizations (ie, the Red Cross, Product(RED), etc.) use red and blue in their symbols and/or paraphanalia. Also, symbols representing different ideals (ie, almost all Communism-related or Anarchsim-related symbols) often use red heavily. Students have litterally reported being forced to remove clothes that had the American Flag on them. Banning students from wearing clothing that represents their beliefs or support of these organizations is a violation of their right to freedom of speech.

We feel that it is too broad of a rule, and often students are singled out and forced to remove clothing that clearly do not jeopardize their safety (ie, students wearing clothing with unnoticably small red or blue emblems, small red stripes, or even combinations of red and blue). The current rule leaves way too much room for abuse from resentful and/or unreasonable staff.

Thus, we conclude that the ban on red and blue clothing hurts the Balboa student populace much more than it helps it. We recommend, at a minimum, that the rule be enforced more liberally and with prejudice. As an extention, we believe it would be best for the student populace of Balboa as a whole if the ban was removed completely.

Please sign below if you agree with the above statements.