Saw a t-shirt today....

[milomito]

I teach high school and I was in the cafeteria this afternoon. I saw a boy with a t-shirt on that said "Marry me! I need a green card!" I was sooo livid when I saw that, the ignorance of it, and then the sheer fact of making light of an insufferable reality for so many people. I was glaring at the kid for so long that he started to feel uncomfortable and was trying to find other places to look to avoid my glare. I was going through my head of how I would explain in great detail how his shirt was extremely misinformed, and what the *real* law said about marriage and green cards, but then I thought the kid probably bought the t-shirt (Or someone gave it to him) without thinking, and really had no opinion on the subject. Plus he was with his buddies and I didn't want an audience. It would take no time to get around school how Mrs. XXX went off about immigration, and before I know it my students would be asking all kinds of personal questions. Although I'd love to use my classroom and my students as a pulpit for spewing off about immigration laws in this country, my principal would not appreciate it at all. Nor would the parents. We teachers unfortunately have our hands tied on a lot of things. And quite honestly, I need my job!

How would you have handled it?

[djones9714]

Hey girl. Good to hear from you again. Well, the only comment I can make here is that kids display emotions that are taught by parents or others in their group. That is why we will never change the world ourselves but have to continue trying.

You are correct that you, as a teacher, have to be objective and let freedom of speech run its course; however, one day we can only hope that he will check the immigration status before he falls in love!

[meesh]

I wonder if you could incorporate a related lesson in one of your classes. I don't know what you teach, but you could even work it into a math question! If 91 waivers are filed in Ciudad Juarez for undocumented spouses of American citizens, and only 54 of these waiver cases are approved, what percent of these cases was approved?

Even though this example may be unrealistic, I had fun thinking about it. I'm laughing at myself right now. Anyways, I need to get back to work!

[angela256z]

My school would not have allowed any of us kids to wear that. We were not allowed to wear shirts with anything on them and we would have to go to the office and put duct tape over it. I am surprised they let him wear that. If there are any Latino kids in the school he will get told about that shirt. My school was not friendly and we were mostly Latino and Black (Except my little white, native, asian butt), they would have got into some kind of fight with that kids and that is why we could not wear things on our shirts.

[Ixtapa/TX]

First of all this is a high school kid. Key word kid! Second this is why our loved ones chose this country because of it's great freedoms. It was meant to be comical and to those of us who are going through this hard process it might be offensive, the reality is that a lot of people have been married just to get their green cards. This is one of the reasons it is so hard for us now. I think you where right to calm your rage and dismiss the teens T.

[JennyM]

I think that is a load of crap...no offense but I think that is racist and prejudicial. If I wore a t-shirt that said "I'm white, so the goverment won't help me" that would start a riot. Yes, our forefather immigrants wanted a free world but they would roll over in their graves if they saw what was going on today. Just because its "freedom of speech" doesn't mean its right. If a man has pictures of half naked women around his desk and I was offended by them and told my boss, BY LAW they have to take them down. what is the difference here? Someone is offended, so it shouldn't be tolerated.