A kiss is just a kiss | Callie Parrish/The Daily Cougar
When teens reach high school, they can expect to go through several rites of passage such as a first kiss, a first date and a first boyfriend or girlfriend. However, one Corpus Christi school turned a star-crossed couple’s kiss into a nightmare.
A 17-year-old male cheerleader at Alice High School in Corpus Christi was caught kissing another boy. However, it wasn’t a passing teacher or school official who caught him; he was caught when school employees reviewed the school’s security cameras.
A highschooler’s sexual orientation shouldn’t factor into a school’s disciplinary actions. Had this been a boy stealing a kiss from a girl, would the school have reacted this strongly? I think we all know the answer to that. They might have made calls to their parents and given them detention, but that would have been it.”
As soon as the school saw the footage, they did what can only be described as sexist and homophobic: they suspended the highschooler and kicked him off the cheerleading squad.
How many heterosexual students caught kissing at school receive disciplinary action? The answer is none; at most, they might get a scolding. To suspend a student for displaying affection to their other half, in a way that isn’t lewd or exhibitionist, is wrong.
A highschooler’s sexual orientation shouldn’t factor into his or her school’s disciplinary actions. Had this been a boy stealing a kiss from a girl, would the school have reacted this strongly? I think we all know the answer to that. They might have made calls to their parents and given them detention, but that would have been it. To suspend a student for something as innocent as a kiss is ridiculous, and it is only an issue because he is gay.
This is made more evident by the fact that a member of the boy’s squad became pregnant and has yet to face any disciplinary action.
“If (they) were suspending everyone for that, half the school would be suspended,” the highschooler said in an article in TODAY News. “They should be paying more attention to drugs and alcohol use than kicking a person off a team for kissing.”
He wasn’t being lewd or committing any crimes. This young man’s hard work to join the varsity cheerleading team is now wasted.
He doesn’t have much to look forward to when he graduates high school, because the state of Texas doesn’t have any laws protecting the LGBT community from discrimination. Furthermore, the platform of the Texas GOP, which now controls the state Legislature, is to criminalise sodomy.
Additionally, they “are opposed to any granting of special legal entitlements, refuse to recognize, or grant special privileges including, but not limited to: marriage between persons of the same sex (regardless of state of origin), custody of children by homosexuals, and homosexual partners.”
“The issue here is whatever is in the school’s code of conduct, and whether it’s being enforced equally,” said Chuck Smith, deputy executive director of Equality Texas, to msnbc.com.
Unfortunately, the problem of LGBT discrimination in schools extends to other states. Some students in Connecticut recently staged a walkout during their school’s production of “Zanna Don’t!” a play in which being gay is the norm, and heterosexuals are the outcasts.
They were protesting a gay kiss that occurs during the play. In an article in the Huffington Post, Dave Chambers, principal of the nursing academy at Hartford Public High School said, “Even though it’s kind of chaotic, kind of wild and crazy, I see it as very successful. Our kids never deal with this, they keep it inside, and that’s that nervous energy. That’s why they walked out.”
It is that nervous energy and avoidance that creates an environment in which someone can be suspended for a kiss. And it is that same nervous energy that makes going to school akin to walking a gauntlet for many gay students. Some of them end up taking their lives because of the intolerance this nervous energy creates.
In the end, a kiss is just a kiss, and the school needs to quit being so bashful about it.
Alejandro Caballero is a creative writing junior and may be reached at [email protected].
Steal a kiss? Did the other boy want the kiss? Why was only 1 boy suspended? This article is pretty vague. I am gay, but I feel like there may be more to this story. Either way, no one should get suspended for JUST a kiss.
Whatever happened to slapping a cad when he makes untoward advances on a gentleman? Oh, the times we live in.
"Stealing a kiss" refers to doing it quickly when no one is looking, not doing it without a person's consent. Nothing in the actual story indicated that. This was just an innocent kiss between two young lovers surrounded by a disapproving and judgmental community. Just as young inter-racial couples had to deal with discrimination years ago (and still today in some areas of the country) these two boys have to endure this. Kudos to this kid for being brave enough to fight it and bring it to the nation's attention. Hopefully, we are beginning the long process of ridding ourselves of this discrimination and prejudice countrywide.
I want to commend the writer on another excellent entry. This is quite a story with such a sad outcome. The school was entirely unfair in its judgment and actions. This young man deserves an apology by the school and needs to be reinstated on his squad.
Read this about the Gay Kiss Controversy by Gina Barreca http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-barreca…
This is a question of values and morality. There are those that believe that homosexuality is natural outflow of genes, human nature, behavior, and therefore should be supported in the same way the we support other races and those with inborn disabilities. Then there are those who believe that this is just another immoral behavior, some of which is legally sanctioned/punished and some which is simply socially frowned upon.
I don't think the author is being fair to the issue in this instance. The issue is what you believe as a moral issue/moral freedom and how schools respond to disagreements on moral issues. Schools are often charged with instilling both knowledge and values into the youth. If you let this kissing incident slide, you are expressing a value of affirmation/acceptance of homosexual expression. If you forbid it, you are expressing a value of homosexual expression as immoral. I don't see a way to choose one or the other. Nearly every incident involving something homosexual boils down to belief. The particulars are unique, but it is fundamentally the same issue played out over and over again. People disagree about the nature of homosexual actions/feelings/tendencies. Unless you have something new to add to the morality facet of the issue, I think that most other thoughts or opinions are just words on a screen full of sound and fury and signifying little.
This is a question of values and morality. There are those that believe that homosexuality is natural outflow of genes, human nature, behavior, and therefore should be supported in the same way the we support other races and those with inborn disabilities. Then there are those who believe that this is just another immoral behavior, some of which is legally sanctioned/punished and some which is simply socially frowned upon.
I don't think the author is being fair to the issue in this instance. The issue is what you believe as a moral issue/moral freedom and how schools respond to disagreements on moral issues. Schools are often charged with instilling both knowledge and values into the youth. If you let this kissing incident slide, you are expressing a value of affirmation/acceptance of homosexual expression. If you forbid it, you are expressing a value of homosexual expression as immoral. I don't see a way to choose one or the other. Nearly every incident involving something homosexual boils down to belief. The particulars are unique, but it is fundamentally the same issue played out over and over again. People disagree about the nature of homosexual actions/feelings/tendencies. Unless you have something new to add to the morality facet of the issue, I think that most other thoughts or opinions are just words on a screen full of sound and fury and signifying little.
One more thing. How are students walking out on "Zanna Don't!" discrimination? It might indicate something about the general opinion of the students towards homosexual behavior, but aren't people allowed to express their thoughts about the art that they are viewing? It’s a strong message, but I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with walking out on something you don’t like. People do it all the time. Do we all have to tolerate watching something we find offensive because someone might view it as discrimination? If you like it, watch it. If you don’t, spend your time on something else. It’s as simple as that.
Nate: It's only "discrimination" when your brain has been hijacked by the dark forces of political correctitude, and you think life is about us all getting along all the time, and your mantra is Disney's It's a Small World.
oh he kissed that boy, just not on the lips. it was below the belt
oh he kissed that boy, just not on the lips. it was below the belt
Hahahah. Well you're not going to get high rates of teen pregnancy if all the couples in the school are gay. 😀
Or something.