Coke Lovin' Administrators
There are some rights that, far too often, you are forced to give up when you attend a public school. Especially when your principle is a fascist. Such is the case in Greenbrier High School in Evans, Georgia, where 19 year-old Mike Cameron was suspended from school for wearing a Pepsi shirt on Coke Day.
In an effort to win $500 dollars and be included in the pool for the $10,000 national grand prize, Principle Gloria Hamilton invited four Coca-Cola exectutives to the school's first (and probably last) Coke Day. The Contest offered $500 to the Columbia County school that could come up with the most creative method of distributing promotional discount cards to students. GHS decided to make a day of it. To open Coke day, students of GHS spelled "Coke" in huge letters while photography students took photos of it. Home-economics students slaved over hot ovens all day baking Coke cake. Chemistry students spent the day analyzing Coke's sugar content, while Economics students spent their day listening to a Coca-Cola marketing executive.
Mike Cameron, who sported a Pepsi shirt during the photo shoot, spent the latter half of the day in the principal's office, Where he was informed that he was suspended.
Mike Cameron states "It was just a joke." And that's really all it was. "The Coke executives did not even see Cameron's shirt and were not offended by the prank," said Coke spokeswoman Diana Garza. Pepsi thought it was a pretty funny joke, too: "Without knowing all the details, it sounds like Mike's obviously a trendsetter with impeccable taste in clothes. We're going to make sure he's got plenty of Pepsi shirts to wear in the future once we track him down."
"In the past, when kids have decided to ruin a school picture -- occasionally we have some who decide that's the time to do an obscene gesture-- they've been given six days of suspension," the principal said. "So it's not a new situation."
Is it just me, or is principal Hailton comparing a hand gesture which means "Fuck You" to wearing a shirt that says "You Got the Right One Baby, Uh-Huh"? Obviously, no one was offended by this prank. Why then, did Hamilton go out of her way to persecute this boy?
As a student who annualy wore the rival high school's colors during Spirit Week, I am totally baffled by Gloria Hamilton's actions. Her intolerance for anyone who dares to raise above (or step sideways of, or duck below) the norm disgusts me. Part of me wonders if she had a hand in selecting the school's mascot- they are the Greenbrier Wolfpacks. Not the Wolfs, but the Wolfpacks: a bunch of animals that survive by all acting the same.
I fear, however, that she is just one of many, many public school administrators who do this. In a coutry founded and thriving on both the similarities AND differences between people, it is a tragedy to see how many educators go out of their way to produce (their concept of) the perfect cookie-cutter citizen.
At this point, as an Oblivion reader, you should be asking yourself "What can I do to fight this from happening again?" The answer is to make it happen again. And again. And again. Don't get sucked in to the norm. Nuke the norm. If enough people dare to raise up off the beaten path, then the path will cease to exist all together, and instead become a not-so beaten giant feild of footsteps. Even if we get knocked down at first, it won't matter. Eventually, public education will realize "It's a good thing that our system of making everyone the same doesn't work, because if it did, society would be pretty screwed. Let's scrap this shit and let students try to figure out who the really are, not who we want them to be." And don't just do this in schools. No, it goes much further than school. This is a societal issue as well. The same problem exists, and the same solution will work.
So let's get out there, people. Spike your hair for the symphony concert. Wear Airwalks to prom. Bust out your purple and gold on Cougar day. Wear a Jewel shirt to a punk show. And dammit, wear a Pepsi Shirt on Coke day.