We’re a nation of laws, and respect for the law is first and foremost. Our military swears not to uphold the President, but the Constitution, for this very reason.
Respect is earned, not enforced. Judges have ‘contempt of court’ to compel ‘respect’. Principals, however, don’t.
There are more reasonable, constructive ways of compelling compliance with such things as moderating speech - a school debate on the matter. We fail to teach children how to create, support, and communicate a position anymore, which is why we are down to sloganeering.
If the school had a debate on the matter, and the debate were structured, then you could communicate that perhaps the issue is more complicated than what can be encapsulated in a T-shirt.
As an aside, the Principals are in a no-win situation. They don’t control their employees, because they are irretrievably unionized. They don’t have sway over students because there are parents that nearly ensure that many school-wide policies can’t be enforced.
This situation is precisely in that category. The parent ALLOWED the child to go to school with that shirt on. Fortunately, parents are still free to parent. A pity that more don’t actually avail themselves of that right and responsibility.
Some parents allow kids to go to school in all sorts of really atrocious dress — dress that is disrespectful, and disruptive. Those same parents have little or no regard for authority, and some few *want* their dear ones to draw all sorts of attention. I do not understand that, but I have seen it.
You say in one sentence “respect must be earned” and in the next you give and example of where respect is not “earned” but demanded.
It is the same thing in a school room. The need for society to insist that respect be given, no mater if it is earned. It does not matter if the Teacher or Principal is bad, even the worst teacher one might think of, because it is the teacher’s ideal role to teach and the necessary role to maintain the safety of every child in a classroom. Not even a Judge has such a burden of responsibility — there are bailiffs and other officers of the court there to maintain order. Moreover EVERYONE who has been through a courtroom experience well understands that order and quiet MUST be maintained. Why? Because of the plenary authority of a Judge in his courtroom to quickly and forcefully take whatever steps necessary to maintain order.
What does “plenary power” mean? According to one dictionary: “complete in every respect : absolute, unqualified”.
That is the ideal as well for a teacher in his or her classroom and for the Principal in the whole of school. It is still the ideal even though the courts of our perverted modern era of US law have ruled otherwise. It is the biggest reason the schools are chaos and children are not learning.
A Judge could order such a t-shirt removed. He has to make no excuses or explanations in so doing. Teachers and Principals need that same due regard, that same natural and rightful authority returned to them.