In Lakewood, Ohio, Stephanie Milligan, a 16 year old high school student, fell down a flight of stairs and hurt her back. She wanted to get back to school after Thanksgiving break, but the principal wouldn’t let her. He wouldn’t let her because she needs to wear loose clothing — sweat pants, in particular — because of her back injury, but the school’s dress code bans Oversize, saggy, baggy or tight fitting clothing. Her doctor wrote her a note asking that she be allowed to wear sweatpants. That a recommendation from a licensed physician is necessary to be allowed to wear sweatpants to school is obviously insane in and of itself, but the school’s principal, William Wagner, is both a medical expert and a scholar, and he questions the severity of Stephanie’s injury and her need to wear sweatpants.

Armetta Landrum wrote about it for the Lakewood Patch (2010-12-20). Here’s the headline and subtitle for the story:

Student on the Hot Seat for Wearing Sweatpants to School

Sophomore at odds with school’s dress code, missed nine days of school.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that the school’s dress code is at odds with the sophomore’s health.

Here is Lakewood High School Principal William Wagner’s explanation as to why not even a doctor’s request is a good enough reason to consider making an exception to his interpretation of his saggy/baggy dress code clause:

They don’t understand what the dress code is all about or how it is imposed.

— Quoted by Armetta Landrum, Student on the Hot Seat for Wearing Sweatpants to School, Lakewood Patch (2010-12-20)

Indeed. A doctor’s advice is, usually, about helping people, and he no doubt wrote his note on the common, but mistaken, assumption that school policies exist to help students learn. But that assumption is a complete misunderstanding: the dress code is not about helping students; it’s all about controlling students, and a reasonable exception is the last thing you want to make if your aim is to ensure that you, as the controlling authority, will continue to be able to keep young people in line with even the most insane and petty of requirements.^[1]

On a related note, Principal William Wagner is probably, like most high school administrators, a very stupid man, and intellectually negligent to the point of being functionally illiterate, especially when he is trying to defend his petty exercises of petty authority. I am fairly certain that what he meant to say is not that doctors don’t understand … how [the dress code] is imposed (as if that were some sort of mystery) but rather that they don’t understand how it is construed, or perhaps that they don’t understand the reasons by which it is justified. However, I will say that he has unwittingly highlighted the real issue here: how this sort of idiocy is imposed on perfectly innocent young people and well-meaning doctors and parents, because bellowing blowhard bullies like Principal William Wagner are appointed by politico-bureaucratic means, are supported by a political structure that crowds out any viable alternative and so insulates them from either popular voice or individual exit, and thus gives them the authority to insist on even the most insane policies, in the interest of protecting their disciplinary turf from any possible encroachment — even encroachment by minimal concern for innocent students’ education, comfort or good health.

See also:

• GT 2008-12-08: On Blaming the Victim, Part II
• GT 2008-09-07: In fifteen words or fewer: On Blaming the Victim
• GT 2008-06-11: Beating up your teenage daughter isn’t just a good idea; it’s the law.
• GT 2008-05-19: Dr. Anarchy answers your mail #5: Wherever I go, he goes….
• GT 2008-03-01: Perpetual state of supervision

1. ^[1] To be fair, the original purpose of the saggy/baggy dress code requirement itself was, no doubt, not to impose an insane and petty requirement on students, just for the sake of making them comply with insane and petty requirements. Like most such dress code clauses, the original purpose was no doubt to uphold institutional racism by selectively targeting ghetto styles of dress. Sadistic authoritarianism is always spilling over its original boundaries, so in this case an idiotic policy written with the purpose of racist social regulation now is construed and applied in an especially rigid way, with no clear motive for the rigidity other than a general defense of turf and disciplinary command-and-control. ↩

• Emma Goldman: Don’t Vote. Lew Rockwell, LewRockwell.com Blog (2010-10-20). Writes Liz Roberts: Recently a friend of a friend on Facebook professed his love for the “opportunity to express our greatest blessing as a free society.”  That blessing, of course, being the ability to vote.  He fervently insisted: “It is the time that “we the people” have the greatest power... (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)

• "What’s it to you?": Canada Admits its Crime, Again. Larry Gambone, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-06). by Kevin D. Annett Thousands of children died in the (residential) schools and their families were not informed of the deaths or the burial sites. - Murray Sinclair, chair, ”Truth and Reconciliation Commission” (TRC), to Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, September 29, 2010 The lingering remnant of my home-bred naivety... (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)

• Putting a new spin on "bank robbery" Phil Dickens, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-11). Via Ann Arky, who tips her own hat to Politics in the Zeros, I today came across this truly astounding story from the States;In yet another sign that the foreclosure crisis in the US may be getting out of hand, a Florida woman has gone to the press about having... (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)

• i guess i am in heavy blog mode! on evolutionary ethics. i. Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-10-20). i guess i am in heavy blog mode! on evolutionary ethics. i assume that pretty soon these folks are going to start invoking evolution in detail as a set of moral principles. so if i was a 17-year-old trying to think about whether to go to the party, they'd tell... (Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)

• Emergency Arts gives LVZL a chance to expand! LVZL, LVZINELIBRARY (2010-10-19). It's been a hectic few weeks! Zinebriated was a great end to the month of September! The open mic I've been co-hosting with my good friend Dj miss Joy at the Beat Coffeehouse(Human Experience Mondays 7pm) has been blooming this month with talent and support. The Vegas Valley Book Festival... (Linked Thursday 2010-10-21.)

• New PCWC downloadable pamphlet thanks to Rise Like Lions! Phoenix Insurgent, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-20). Thanks to the new (at least to us) publishing operation Rise Like Lions for putting together a PDF pamphlet version of my recent essay "Union of Arsonists" faster than I could get one done myself. And it looks damn good, too! Cheers to them for a job well done.I also... (Linked Thursday 2010-10-21.)

• Proudhon's "New Theory" (1 of 3) Shawn P. Wilbur, Out of the Libertarian Labyrinth (2010-10-18). Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, The Theory of Property, Chapter VI: "The New Theory" (1865)New theory: that the motives, and thus the legitimacy of property, must be sought, not in its principle or origin, but in its aims. Presentation of these motives. Philosophy has had, for three centuries, many institutions and many beliefs:... (Linked Thursday 2010-10-21.)

• Proudhon's "New Theory" (2 of 3) Shawn P. Wilbur, Out of the Libertarian Labyrinth (2010-10-19).  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, The Theory of Property, Chapter VI: "The New Theory" (1865)[continued from section 1]§ 1. —''Necessity, after having organized the State, of creating a counter-weight to the State in the liberty of each citizen. Federalist and republican character of property. Observations on the electoral census and confiscation.'' Considered in... (Linked Thursday 2010-10-21.)

• December 17th- International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. SWOP-LV's MySpace Blog (2007-11-29). LAS VEGAS, NV This year, SWOP-LV will hold a memorial march down Fremont Street, with a candlelight vigil at the end. We will meet at the Fremont Street Experience Parking Plaza on the top floor. (Se... (Linked Thursday 2010-10-21.)

• Virginia school AP History class bans curiousity, independent study, Internet. Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (2010-10-22). Government School AP History Vs. Independent Thought and Research (Linked Friday 2010-10-22.)

• Save & Restore. Chris Clark, Release Candidate One (2010-10-20). I let out the biggest “finally!” today during the Lion preview event, when Steve Jobs said one of the things Apple has learned from iOS apps that they are intent on bringing to Mac OS X apps is stateful pause and resume. In the Mac environment, with a more specific... (Linked Friday 2010-10-22.)

• here's a brief illustration of what i mean on environment: Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-10-22). here's a brief illustration of what i mean on environment: biosphere 2 (earth was supposed to be biosphere 1). the idea was to create a completely enclosed ecosystem, a sort of model for the way they thought about the earth, or perhaps the way they thought about various local ecosystems: as essentially... (Linked Friday 2010-10-22.)

Give Me Down to There Hair. Daily Brickbats (2010-09-03):

Officials at Godley Middle School in Texas have placed 12-year-old Chris McGregor in in-school detention until he cuts his hair. The school dress code bars male students from having hair below the shoulders, and McGregor's locks are too long. Superintendent Paul Smithson says the rule helps reduce bullying. You see,...

In which Superintended Paul Smithson is using indefinite in-school suspension to make sure that no student "stands out" in any way.

Here's his justification for this insane enforcement of an inane policy: "Bullying's a big thing, and we want to make sure everyone's dressed appropriately, someone doesn't bring attention to themselves so that someone says something to them, and all of a sudden we have a problem."

Yep: a problem with the bullies. So why does Paul Smithson's policy punish the victims instead?

(Via Cerpn @ Google Reader.)

Kids around the country are getting high on the internet, thanks to MP3s that induce a state of ecstasy. And it could be a gateway drug leading teens to real-world narcotics.

At least, that’s what Kansas News 9 is reporting about a phenomenon called “i-dosing,” which involves finding an online dealer who can hook you up with “digital drugs” that get you high through your headphones.

And officials are taking it seriously.

Kids are going to flock to these sites just to see what it is about and it can lead them to other places, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward told News 9.

I-dosing involves donning headphones and listening to “music” — largely a droning noise — which the sites peddling the sounds promise will get you high. Teens are listening to such tracks as “Gates of Hades,” which is available on YouTube gratis (yes, the first one is always free).

Those who want to get addicted to the drugs can purchase tracks that will purportedly bring about the same effects of marijuana, cocaine, opium and peyote. While street drugs rarely come with instruction manuals, potential digital drug users are advised to buy a 40-page guide so that they learn how to properly get high on MP3s.

Oklahoma’s Mustang Public School district isn’t taking the threat lightly, and sent out a letter to parents warning them of the new craze. The educators have gone so far as to ban iPods at school, in hopes of preventing honor students from becoming cyber-drug fiends, News 9 reports.

— Ryan Singel, Threat Level (2010-07-14): Report: Teens Using Digital Drugs to Get High

So no, in case you were wondering, there is no bottom to this cognitive barrel: absolutely no drug panic so flimsily contrived that narcocratic Officials won’t use it as an opportunity to issue breathless press statements pleading for greater social control, or so obviously manufactured and transparently idiotic that the responsible gatekeepers of the newsmedia won’t gravely report about the Alarming New Trend, the worried reactions of Concerned Parents & Teachers, and the pressing need for Officials and Concerned Parents to be even more proactive in freaking the hell out, obsessively spying on their sons’ and daughters’ pastimes, taking away teenagers’ possessions, and controlling teenagers’ behavior. It’s not just that you don’t need to demonstrate that anybody is suffering, or even could possibly suffer, any kind of physical harm. The drug scare doesn’t need to involve any actual drugs; apparently it doesn’t even need to involve a physical substance. Or anything but the most tangential connection to basic facts of human physiology. A drug scare story without any drugs nicely distils the one really important feature of every drug scare story: all that you need to work up an adult panic is to find enough teenagers in one place (one or two on YouTube will do) who are trying to convince themselves that they’re having a good time without an adult’s prior approval — if some teenager somewhere is experiencing pleasure, never mind the cause, that alone is reason enough to call the narcs and issue yet another story leading off As if parents of teenagers don’t have enough to worry about…

So here, we find a whole gang of Responsible Adults holding positions of community authority — professional narcs, journalists, teachers and parents — all of them freaking the hell out because some teenagers somewhere might be trying to convince themselves that they’re having a good time listening to MP3s of binaural beat meditation music. A new craze? Sure, evidently there is a craze going on here. But who is it that’s acting crazed?

The politics of fear are the most dangerous mind-altering substance on the market.

What is the right size for a clitoris? Pharyngula (2010-06-30):

I don't know. They seem to come in a range of sizes; when they're as large as a small male penis, I suppose it might be unexpected, perhaps a little confusing, perhaps a little ambiguous to people intolerant of the idea that the human form is found in intermediate shapes....

Dr. Dix Poppas has attracted special notoriety for his sexually abusive experiments on the girls that he sexually mutilates. Of course, the more basic issue here is the non-consensual surgical sexual mutilation forced on girls by doctors and anxious parents, in the name of patriarchal Genital Correctness exercised at the point of a scalpel. Which is alarmingly common, and a far wider problem than the special case of Dr. Dix Poppas. There's every reason to say something about the special awfulness of this child rapist in scrubs; but the notion that mutilating girls' clitorises for seeming "too big" (for what purpose?) to adult observers could ever possibly be ethical medicine -- rather than what it is, pointless medical torture in the service of carving patriarchy into a girl's skin and flesh.