re: Principal forces student with Down syndrome to remove high school letter jacket

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It's a shame anyone would have a problem with this in the first place though.

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Honest question for you, would you have a problem with the school doing it if it was just a random kid that didn't play sports having a varsity jacket on and the school made him take it off?

Of all the things to take a stand on, this is dumb. The truth is that there wouldn't be outrage if the kid didn't have down's. The kid is being treated like any other kid would be.

I don't do the whole feel good stories thing like most. I think it is ridiculous when a kid in a wheelchair gets in a football game and I think it is ridiculous when you put a kid with mental retardation on a limited team just because he wants to be on the team and it will make him feel good. What about the kid who doesn't get on the team because the spot was taken?

This

Stolen Valor...

They give the band members a letter and it's not even a sport... Fricking jelly lips!

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Should the kid's mom have bought him a varsity letter? Probably not without checking first.

Should the kid have to give up the letter? Imo no.

Should the uptight peaked in HS prick of a parent who bitched and complained about this be slapped and told to stfu? Imo yes.

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Good post. But you forgot about the principal who bowed to the crazy arse POS mom instead of telling her to STFU. That's what happened here. Bitch bitched; man cowered.

That's what the headline to this story should read: Bitch Bitches; Principal Cowers. The details re Down's Syndrome and a letter jacket follow.

Just terrible.

It doesn't hurt the other players/parents one but that he has a letterman jacket. But it prolly means the world to that kid. My wife is a special education teacher so this kind of stuff hits pretty hard to me. On my highschool football team we had a manager that was slightly disabled and he had Lettered in football. No one disagreed one bit. Can't even imagine complaining about him having it. It's sickening.

My old HS has "Special Olympics" letters to contrast "normal" varsity letters. But I honestly couldn't care less about a letter.

My theory is that the parent who complained, their kid probably sucks at sports and didn't get a letter due to said suckery. Pure jealousy for complaining about a special needs child having something that he/she couldn't earn.

The principal painted himself into a corner. He should have taken the moral high road and said "are you kidding me?" to complaining parent. Unfortunately...we get this.

Edit: Should have had a school vote with the kids. See how the students actually felt.

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My old HS has "Special Olympics" letters

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My wife, a nurse and an elementary school teacher, is finishing up her Masters in Education. I've been a witness to the whole process. In fact I've been up all night proofreading her thesis. The sociologists have commandeered public education. "No child left behind" was a masterful coup by the rich: It satisfies the guilt-built yearnings of the sociologists, and it broadens the [already broad] gap between the privately educated blue bloods and what was once a middle class. In a nutshell it's all about the least common denominator. A teacher must ensure that her least capable student reaches every last learning objective. This is the focus and fundament of the new school order. A kid who speaks only Portugese, is dyslexic and autistic, has no hands, and is deaf and blind, has every right to be in the regular classroom; moreover the teacher had better make sure this kid don't fall behind.

If any group is to be sacrificed then it is to be the gifted and talented. This is part and parcel of the current plan. No child left behind.

I'll stop. What I'm getting at is this: the way things are now the special needs kids are practically the superstars of the whole damned system. I'm surprised they don't get the REAL letter jackets.

That's all I have to say about that.

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I don't have a problem with a school deciding they want to give letters to whoever they want to give letters to. That's their issue. But to paint it as "they're playing hard so they should get a letter" is a dumb argument.

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He's a participant on their special needs team that represents the school in competition. How is that any different than receiving a letter for playing on the varsity team that represents the school in competition? If you're the Principal, would it really hurt to recognize those kids with their own letters so they could also have their own jackets?

My opinion would be different if this was a kid who got cut from the varsity team and never participated on a team representing the school.

Thank you. First world problem #4857.