Say Anything Blog

From The Boston Globe via the Volokh Conspiracy:

A sixth-grader started serving a three-day suspension yesterday after refusing a lesser punishment for bringing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue to school, the school's superintendent said.

Justin Reyes had the magazine in the gymnasium at Belpre Middle School before classes Feb. 18, and principal Kathy Garrison cited him for violating school policy on nonverbal harassment and possession of lewd or suggestive material, Superintendent Tim Swarr said.

Garrison ordered the 12-year-old boy to spend two days at an alternative school where students from several area districts are sent when they get into trouble.

But Swarr said Justin and his mother, Nicole Reyes, refused to accept the alternative school punishment, so the penalty was increased to three days of out-of-school suspension.

Unless there's more to this story than the Associated Press is telling, I don't see how this situation can be considered harassment. Was the kid running around forcing other boys to look at it? Was he shoving it in the faces of passing girls? The mere act of possessing the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition while in school shouldn't be considered harassment. Disruptive, maybe, but certainly not harassment.

When I was in middle school/high school the girls all carried around magazines like Cosmo or Seventeen. Comparing some of the pictures and content in those magazines to that displayed in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, I don't really see a lot of difference. Is Superintendent Swarr going to start suspending girls who carry around Cosmo?