The Associated Press reports from Santa Rosa, Calif., on an interesting
political-correctness kerfuffle:
When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her
Mormon upbringing with questions such as, "Do you have
10 moms?" she shot back: "That's so gay." . . .
After Rice got a warning and a notation in her file, her
parents sued, claiming officials at Santa Rosa's Maria
Carillo [sic] High violated their daughter's First
Amendment rights when they disciplined her for uttering
a phrase "which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture,"
according to court documents.
Testifying last week about the 2002 incident, Rice, now
18, said that when she uttered those words, she was not
referring to anyone's sexual orientation. She said the
phrase meant: "That's so stupid, that's so silly, that's
so dumb."
But school officials say they took a strict stand against
the putdown after two boys were paid to beat up a gay
student the year before.
"The district has a statutory duty to protect gay students
from harassment," the district's lawyers argued in a legal
brief. "In furtherance of this goal, prohibition of the
phrase 'That's so gay' . . . was a reasonable regulation."
We're not sure this is worth making a federal case over, but it's
certainly a revealing window into the politically correct mindset. So
vigilant is Carrillo High about protecting gay students from harassment
that it has declared certain phrases unsayable, even when the intent
plainly is not invidious and when--as appears to have been the case
here--there were no gays around to feel "harassed" by the comment.
Yet according to Rebekah's parents, the students who actually were
harassing her for her religion were not disciplined. Political
correctness is not really about sensitivity and courtesy, which require
mutual respect. Rather, political correctness entails intolerance for
some prejudices but impunity for others.
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* Political Correctness strives to impose innocuous mediocrity as the *
* standard to which we must all aspire. *
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