School Makes Girls Wear Trash Bag Skirts

NW Cable News ^ | 09/19/03 | Staff Writer

[bedolido]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two Bronx girls reportedly had to wear skirts made of trash bags to class as a punishment for coming to school in jeans rather than their uniforms.

The sixth-graders at the Bronx Preparatory Charter School were made to wear the bags by principal Marina Bernard Damiba, the Daily News reported Friday.

Damiba called the garbage-bag skirts "Damiba fashions" and said they weren't meant to be humiliating.

"It was more of a fun way to say, 'Listen, guys, wear the uniforms,'" she told the News. "Let's not dwell on something as simple as wearing the uniforms when we have a lot of business to take care of. We have a lot of learning to get done."

Joy Vasquez, whose daughter, 12-year-old Christina Zuniga, was one of the girls who wore the skirts, at first said the punishment was "really wrong," the News said.

But after meeting with Damiba, she told the News that her daughter "got a lesson out of it."

Students at the school are required to wear a polo shirt with the school's logo and khaki, black, gray or navy blue pants or skirts that are at least knee-length.

Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Consort]

There's no rule prohibiting you from ending a sentence with a preposition.

The above sentence ends with "a preposition". There is no rule against that.

[b9]

>>> more disruptive...jeans or Hefty's <<<

depends on which were so low as to show a lovely
plumber's crack.

[TheBigB]

Visiting Southerner: "Scuze me buddy, could you please tell me where the General Store's at?"

*Tight-sphinctered Yankee: "Suh, up heah in the Nawth, we do not end a sentence with a preposition."

Visiting Southerner: "I apologize. Could you please tell me where the General Store's at, a**hole?"

* Just kidding. ;)

[b9]

LOLOLOL
Yaw jus too funneh, honneh! :o)

[Pest]

When I was in kindergarten in Michigan in the 70's, if a student was bad, the teacher put a diaper on them and give them a pacifier. She said, "If you're going to act like a baby, then you are going to look like one too."

I wonder if she could get away with that now.

[general_re]

I don't know where I picked that up.

It's a myth originally perpetrated by stuffy Victorian-era English teachers, and propagated by stuffy English teachers ever since. The root of the "rule" is actually from Latin - in Latin, you really can't end a sentence with a preposition. Somewhere along the line, some pedantic putz decided it would be a good idea if such a rule existed in English as well. The trouble is, as the citation in your post notes, that often has the effect of making sentences sound really stupid when they purposefully avoid prepositions at the end. The best rule of thumb is that if one can easily avoid prepositions at the end of sentences in formal or scholarly writing, do so. If they can't be avoided easily, or it's writing or speaking in any context other than the formal or scholarly, don't worry about it.

[ken5050]

Quick..what's the over/under as to when the first lawsuit is filed?

[robertpaulsen]

Freshman (at Harvard): "Excuse me, can you tell me where the library is at?"
Senior (in condescending tone): "At Haw-vud, we do not not end our sentences in prepositions."
Freshman: "Very well. Can you tell me where the library is at, a$$hole?"

[b9]

Oooo...now that IS a bit harsh!
Unless of course it was one of those 'candy' pacifiers.

[mhking]

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[HamiltonJay]

There was nothing REALLY WRONG about this... had the parents of these girls done their jobs the kids would not have showed up in JEANS in the first place! Your kid breaks the rules, faces humiliation for it, and somehow its someone elses fault? Please!

I think these girls parents need to GROW UP!

[itzmygun]

Oh, the horror...

[arasina]

We had a teacher who, if he caught anyone chewing gum in class, would make the student put it on their nose for one period. Result? Kids didn't chew gum in class.

I admire this principal for having the guts to enforce the rules about uniforms. If she gives in, the students are in control, and they'd all be wearing jeans and who knows what else.

I went to a Catholic grade school (1950s-1960s) and had to wear a uniform every day. Once we reached the 6th grade, we were allowed to wear different colors of sweaters instead of the standard navy blue. Still had to wear the dreaded beanies in church though. I didn't wear navy for years after I graduated, but eventually I got over it. I'm glad they made us wear uniforms; I believe I got a better education because of it.

P.S. I'm an Autumn too! :o)

[Marc Poor]

I think it was fourth grade. I didn't want to eat my ham sandwich, so I stuffed it into a milk carton and threw it away. Someone told on me, and I was forced to fish the carton out of the garbage and I had to eat this mangled sandwich in front of the class. By the '60's, the nuns were not longer smacking knuckles with rulers, they were into psychological warfare.

[BabsC]

When I was in third grade I had a teacher that thought you should eat everything on your tray. They served pimento cheese sandwiches that day. I don't eat pimento cheese. The teacher said I had to, I said I'd throw up. She insisted, I threw up, in the full lunch room. I don't believe that particular teacher ever even spoke to me again.

[JonathansMommie]

PING.

[JonathansMommie]

Hand me a fork so I can poke my eyes out now.

[4mycountry]

It was part of a vast right-wing conspiracy!! </sarasm> ;)

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Two Bronx girls reportedly had to wear skirts made of trash bags to class as a punishment for coming to school in jeans rather than their uniforms.

Waaa.

My kids wear uniforms to school as well; should they, or anyone else decide to show up to school without the proper uniform, the child would be taken to the office, the parents would be contacted, and the child would sit until the parent either came to take the child home, or brought the correct clothing.

It is a rule. Plain and simple.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Two Bronx girls reportedly had to wear skirts made of trash bags to class as a punishment for coming to school in jeans rather than their uniforms.

Waaa.

My kids wear uniforms to school as well; should they, or anyone else decide to show up to school without the proper uniform, the child would be taken to the office, the parents would be contacted, and the child would sit until the parent either came to take the child home, or brought the correct clothing.

It is a rule. Plain and simple.