I  forgot to mention it also raises issues about following rules, that you disagree with.

I think this or another similar controversy involving the bracelets came up in a thread awhile ago.

I can see why wearing the bracelets could be distracting to a bunch of teens who may overlook the message and purpose for the silliness. I can see why this would make things difficult for teachers to have a bunch of kids running around distracted and enthralled by, "I love Boobies". I also think suspension is too heavy handed.

What would be distracting is if the girls in the class were running around topless.  What we've actually got is a guy wearing a sign declaring what 95% of the male population of the school is already thinking in the first place, including the teachers.  It's about as distracting as a bracelet that says, "I Love French Fries."

I'm more prone to thinking that it's just another example of a Catholic School system that is focused waaay too much on the "Catholic" and waaay too little on the "School".  In the context of the bracelet and the cause, it's a positive message.

Besides, if it causes supposedly virgin priests to start thinking about boobies and grown women instead of young boys, it's a win/win.

When I saw the title of this thread, I immediately thought of birds, as in "Blue-footed Boobies".  Actually there are several species of this interesting bird.

Too bad people get bent out of shape when teens try to help send a message in their own meaningful way.

Guess you're right, chansen and gecko. Merry Christmas to you btw!

All good questions Alex, but the one I'm really thinking is this: whoever names a boy "Kelly"?

Merry Christmas to you, Kimmio.  Hope it's merry and bright.  Happy New Year too!

I've known a few guys named Kelly.  I think it was one of those names (like Ashley) that started off male and then over time switched to female.

We had a lot of kids with those "I love boobies" bracelets last year in grades 7 and 8.  We decided it wasn't a big deal unless they got silly, but whenever that happened we just had a discussion about how it was about breast cancer awareness, which wasn't funny.  I think it's a good opportunity for learning about a lot of things: breast cancer, objectification of women, advertising and getting messages across, etc. 

*chuckle*  Thank goodness there are still endless opportunities for adults to be absurd and ridiculous :3

(as well as how 'news' again is, by definition, not)

Hi chansen,

When I was 13 girls didn't have to go topless to distract me.

Being in the room was distraction enough.

Now, girls aren't a distraction at all.  It is the women.

I think I'm cool about it though.

Sometimes when nothing terribly controversial is going on somebody has to invent a controversy.  That's my read here.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Personally I think he should be able to express himself. It's a shame people get uptight about this. It reminds me of a story about two high school girls who raised money for breast cancer research with t-shirts that said "save second base" and had a baseball diamond on it. Their school shut that down too.

Before my sister died from breast cancer she made us aware that donating to some "pink" organizations sometimes did more harm than good. Make sure you look into what you think you're supporting and how much money actually goes toward breast prevention, rather than "detection". Some companies have a "cap" and when that cap is reached it stops contributing, even though they are allowed to continue to market the "pink ribbon" campaign.

http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org/?page_id=13

I do this in honour of my sister, so when I see a bracelet that says "Boobies", I tend to not get caught up in a fight about whether it's "acceptable" or not on the basis of what it says, but I find myself looking at what the bracelet is actually made of. Some kind of plastic that probably contributes to some form of cancer by way of it's manufacturing.