Students, officials clash over shirt...School: 9/11 wear was a mistake
 

http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi...1060325&Ref=AR

A group of Arab-American students in the class of 2011 at Dearborn's Edsel Ford High told school officials they were showing pride in their class with their choice of sweatshirts Monday.

But school officials disagreed, confiscating the sweatshirts and scheduling meetings with the students and their parents because the images on the sweatshirts referenced the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Along with the words, "You can't bring us down," the sweatshirts featured the No. 11 as the twin towers with windows included on each digit. The school's mascot, a thunderbird, was flying nearby.

"The whole design gave prominence to the 9/11 tragedy, and of course was very upsetting to staff and students," said an e-mail message sent Monday and Tuesday from the district to local groups and individuals. A similar e-mail message explaining the situation was sent to parents and staff Monday.

School officials said the students didn't realize the sweatshirts would be perceived negatively and would not be punished.

An estimated 300 people attended a public meeting on the topic Tuesday evening at Salina Intermediate School. Superintendent Brian Whiston and Edsel Ford High Principal Hassane Jaafar were among those who addressed the predominantly Arab-American crowd during the 20-minute meeting.


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It does look like the Thunderbird is about to fly into the 1's or "buildings". At first I thought this was a stupid complaint but now I am not so sure. Maybe they accidentally made it look this way and did not mean it to look as it does. Interesting.

I seem to recall in the wake of 9/11 that this kind of phrase was stated quite often to show that as a country we were not going to bow our heads and that we were a resilient nation that would not be undone by the attacks. I don't see the problem.

Is this a school that has a predominately Arab-American student body?

I just wonder if the response would have been the same if the students were White. I wonder if the response would have been as I stated above and it would have been looked at as patriotic instead of negative.

This is a school that is probably around half Middle Eastern. I think the students meant it in a patriotic way from all the news coverage here on it, but others were disturbed at the reminder of 9/11 and utilizing this in that way. 9/11 had a huge impact on that community as did the resulting Iraq war. While they had good intentions, it was in poor taste. The article said they aren't being punished.

hhmmm....

I have no problem with this.

Some folks will go to great lengths in order to be entitled to butthurt.

I dunno. LOL.

After having worked in the school system, I honestly think sometimes the school officials LIKE to have "situations" like this so they can run around and have meetings and have something to do. The sad part is that while they are wasting time on stuff like this, they are overlooking the numerous students who are selling drugs in the schools and bringing weapons to school.

This is why student groups should have an advisor who can gently point out that maybe a t-shirt or sweatshirt design may not be a good decision. If we have them for college groups definitely for high school.

If the shirts didn't display any recognition or relation to the school it would be different but they are clearly referencing a school and class year, and I know with the University I attend we had very clear guidelines for club and group shirts and what wording we could use or logos were acceptable, so a high school should want to do the same.

I agree that they probably just didn't think it through. High-schoolers tend not to think about the long-range issues created by their actions.

They didn't accidentally make it that way. One of the kids' apologies was this:

On a Channel 4 newscast, one kid's "apology" was this:

I like that he said "...as long as I'm in Edsel Ford...".

Another's apology on TV was, along the lines of, "If this were a white kid's shirt this wouldn't be happening". I can't find the exact text. I think, good intentions or not, people would get offended no matter who it was. However with the admittance of one of the students that it was made out of frustration, I honestly can't say that I think it was just a stupid teenage mistake. I think they are playing innocent so they don't get in any more trouble. As of right now, no other punishment has been given. I'm also surprised that with them being minors, their parents are allowing them to speak to the media.

I think it's more than half now. Alot of East Dearborn residents are now moving to the west side because the east side is becoming more "Detroit". It's a shame because they have some beautiful houses over there that are being trashed now. And Dee, I had to laugh when they said they were made at Gibraltar Trade Center. I think any other shirtery place would raise eyebrows and ask if they were sure they wanted that. Anything goes at GTC lol.

O boy.

What? With that extra information that the Freep didn't report, you still think they were just trying to promote junior class unity? I think some may have been like "ok cool get me one", but it's fact that at least one of those students didn't think so.

Something else not reported in the Freep article, was that it was 15 Arab American students. If this was HONESTLY to show 2011 class unity, why wasn't the rest of the class involved?

Attack me if you want because some of you are more interested in that than the actual topic, but I'm going off of FACTS and quotes these kids were on TV saying.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/22146212/detail.html

Defensive much?

When you're acting like I'm not allowed to post on anything anymore because a select few of you think I'm a KKK supporter, yep. What's with the "oh boy" comment right after my post?

paranoid much?

I almost said 80%, but I was thinking Fordson or Dearborn High, not Edsel. Even though there is continued migration to West Dearborn, I don't think it's quite that high yet.

I think these kids were making a statement, but I interpreted it as more of a positive statement, honestly. Even with the apologies you posted from wdiv, I saw it more like deepimpact did. To me, the statement "You can't bring us down" can be interpreted as "You can't bring the US down" (even though you can knock down some buildings, you won't bring US down as a country). They generalized that to the class of '11.

In my opinion, the real problem with it is that there are so many ways to interpret it. I can see someone else interpreting it as "The school can't bring the class of '11 down", as if the school itself is trying to do that.

Too vague, too ambiguous. The fact that it simply resulted in a "lecture" seems appropriate to me. My daughter is in the class of '12 (1 year younger than these kids) and she doesn't really grasp the impact that 9/11 had on us at the time, and still. 9/11 is a reality they grew up with, not the shocking event it was to us. This is their reality since they were only around 8 at the time. The Post 9/11 world is the only world they know and remember. If their parents are like me, they were largely shielded from some of the more horrific details of the event. It did largely affect the way the Middle Easterners were seen by the rest of the community and NOT in a good way.

And, you're right PM_Mama, GTC would make any shirt that someone wanted!

Come on you two, chill. This can be discussed intelligently. <hate seeing my buds fighting>

See it's funny because throughout the city and at HFCC from what I've been told, things were different. At UMD, after a few weeks, things went on as normal. There wasn't really any disrespect. I think, if anything, there was compassion. With UMD being such a small university, many students got to know each other in our classes. And of course the Greek system was also pretty integrated, so nothing really changed.

I'm surprised someone hasn't come up with a "People of Gibraltar Trade Center" website, like Walmart's. It's pretty comparable. It sucks though because they have some pretty cool things in there.

Its very distasteful either way

This is probably what received the "o boy."

^^^^ Give the lady a prize!

Ahh ok let me elaborate.

East Dearborn is where many of the Arab immigrants live. West Dearborn and Dearborn Heights (which partially surrounds Dearborn) used to be predominately white. The houses in East Dearborn that are owned by the Arab Americans are beautiful and decorated and taken care of. Very few older generation white people still live in the neighborhood but it is still kept up. East Dearborn borders not a great area of Detroit. Those residents are starting to move into East Dearborn, and the Arab Americans are moving more into West Dearborn, making the Arab American population at Edsel Ford higher. Those moving to East Dearborn from Detroit don't keep up with the housing, therefore "trashing" the neighborhood.

And Gibraltar Trade Center is one of those weekend-only warehouse stores where you can buy anything you can think of... even get a tattoo or go to a carnival during the spring and summer.

DS if you don't understand something, then ask. Don't try to start shit.

And, in all fairness, it's no secret that Detroit proper looks like a bombed out hell hole in most areas. The city has 27% unemployment and that doesn't count the underemployed or those who have given up looking. The city is falling apart and that blight is spreading to the communities immediately surrounding it. That was all she meant.

Don't bother. We know what you meant, but the tone at which you said it the first time is exactly how you meant it. Don't try to explain away your tone now. :)

Such is the case for almost all large cities that also have large nonwhite populations.

There are many things that aren't secrets. The tone at which we discuss those things is what makes the difference.

Who said these people from Detroit that are moving into East Dearborn are nonwhite? That's actually quite the other way around.

I understood and your past history speaks for itself.

Done.

Have a nice night.

Is that what you got from my post?

No you didn't understood because you are thinking what you want instead of reading the facts. Dee even backed me up yet my facts mean nothing because I'm the token KKK girl in here, right?

Now it is you who doesn't understand.

Im going to make this really easy for you PM mama and we arent going to have any fights or trainwrecks or whatever.

Dee can back you up and it's all good that she did but check this.

It's not just what you say but HOW you say it and when you have a past and TANGIBLE history that others can access to, it sticks and makes people less than willing to converse with you on those same topics.

So when you posted what you posted...the first thing that ran through my mind was "O Boy Here We Go With That Again" and regardless if I felt like asking you for 'understanding' or not...our past disagreement already colored my opinion.

Take my response for what it's worth and please refrain from wrecking this thread because it's over ok?

Again...good night.

Token KKK Girl....wow...

**walking away**

I wasn't going based on her reputation because I haven't read many of her posts so I don't know the history. :)

"For What It's Worth" (one of the stupidest phrases in the English language, for what it's worth) . . . these kinds of posts and back-and-forth foolishness generally do more to trainwreck threads with any tiny racial component than all of the madmax-style open or furtive racism put together.

Nobody has earned a high horse, nor is anybody here qualified to moderate content like some sort of oracle. Thanks for the "teachable" moment, but no thanks.

I like madmax.

I assumed Daemonseid wasn't trying to moderate because even the moderators can't moderate what people say and how they say it. He's good for doing a big post and thread flounce like that's the end-all, but I don't think anyone pays him any attention. LOL.

For what it's worth, KSig RC, your post is kind of high horsey and also contributes to the back-and-forth foolishness. You could've spared the enlightened synopsis and seen if it would die down. But it's more fun that you didn't. I guess no one can win for losing. :)

If it was a class sweatshirt how come only 15-20 of them where made? Small graduating class? On the other topic, Detroit is a hot mess. When I went home for a visit last year I half expected to see zombies pop out of the many abandoned buildings or see people walking around in radiation suits, the place looks like a post-apocalyptic war zone.

the kkk took my baby, they took her away, away from me. (this thread made me think of that song)

srry for the double post, but, I think Detroit looks like Detroit in Robocop. It's all coming true.

My daughter said they were talking about the Christmas bomb attempt in social studies and one of the kids asked "Why would they bother bombing Detroit? you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference"

They have been filming the remake of Red Dawn here for the last several months. It's perfect.. there are so many trashed buildings that they didn't have to create any fake sets.

right.