The kids are alright

Amanda Marcotte introduces us to a new hero: Hannah Lindquist, 14, a freshman at Tri-Valley Central School in Grahamsville, N.Y.

According to the local chain paper, the school started out by banning all school bags. This decision, they said, was supposedly partly to protect students from the burden of carrying heavy bags (because, I guess, carrying stacks of books bound with twine is ergonomically better for them). And it was to prevent the possibility of students carrying concealed weapons. The paper doesn’t mention what seem to be the obvious additional reasons for this decision: the school administrators aren’t too bright, they can’t be trusted with authority and they don’t like students.

The principal’s name, by the way, is “Worden.” He seems to be mistaking this for his job description.

School officials quickly realized that banning backpacks and purses left female students with no way to carry pads or tampons, so Worden and his clown show amended the policy (or at least that’s the rumor — these folks aren’t very good at communicating clearly). Female students would be allowed to carry bags, but only during their periods — meaning that every female student carrying a bag would be subject to questioning about whether or not that was the case. And, of course, school officials would need to keep track of who was carrying a purse and when, just to make sure that no one was trying to exploit this “privilege.”

Mortified yet? The students are. And, God bless ’em, they’re fighting back. I can’t help but quote the same two paragraphs from the article that Amanda did:

The small Sullivan County school has been in an uproar for the last week. Girls have worn tampons on their clothes in protest, and purses made out of tampon boxes. Some boys wore maxi-pads stuck to their shirts in support.

After hearing that someone might have been suspended for the protest, freshman Hannah Lindquist, 14, went to talk to Worden. She wore her protest necklace, an OB tampon box on a piece of yarn. She said Worden confiscated it, talked to her about the code of conduct and the backpack rule — and told her she was now “part of the problem.”

OK kids, you know what comes next. You, over there, you’re in charge of yarn. Get a lot of it. You two, start collecting boxes — everybody gets one. And parents: don’t even think about showing up to pick up your kids without wearing yours too. Keep it up until the policy changes or the warden gets fired. Or both.