Posted on 11/02/2001 4:26:13 AM PST by Olydawg
A Community High School senior's Halloween costume - a pink cape fashioned into a larger-than-life vagina -earned him wild applause at the school costume contest Wednesday and a two-and-a-half-day suspension.
Christian Silbereis, 17, said his mother, midwife Rosalyn Tulip, created the costume last year and wore it to a party.
When Silbereis asked if he could borrow the costume, Tulip said she cautioned him that wearing it to school might make some people uncomfortable, but she would support his decision because it is a positive way for people to talk about their bodies.
"It's not about me being a pervert" or trying to make people angry, Silbereis said, adding that he has the highest respect for women and their bodies.
But assistant dean Maggie Jewett said staff felt demeaned and outraged by the costume. From the back, Silbereis' costume resembled a space creature more than a female reproductive organ - even with the tufts of wig hair lining the cape. But in the front, folds of satin and lace running from his chest to his knees graphically depicted a woman's external sexual organs.
"It's anatomically correct," Silbereis said, lifting up the cape to reveal a T-shirt bearing a rendering of a fetus. Silbereis said he feels bad if he offended anyone but wonders why his costume did so. "It's just another body part," he said. "They teach us about it in school."
Silbereis said he removed the costume in fourth hour when Jewett came into his class and asked him to lose it or go home. But he pulled it back on for the contest and won first place.
"If I won, that means most of the school was down with it," he said.
Silbereis said after the contest Jewett told him he was suspended for the rest of the week. Jewett said she couldn't comment on the incident because student disciplinary action is confidential.
Tulip said she is proud of her son, but felt he shouldn't have put the costume back on after he agreed to remove it. She also said she doesn't question the school's decision to suspend her son and has no plans to fight it.
Although staff members were angered by the costume, groups of students rallied in support, signing their names to a petition objecting to Silbereis' suspension. In less than an hour, they collected 85 names. Junior Miriam Shabazz, 16, called the suspension ridiculous. "There's nothing inappropriate about what's given all of us life," she said.
At least one student's jaw dropped when he realized just what Silbereis' costume actually depicted. "That's crazy," he said, agreeing to sign the petition anyway.
Silbereis said he's not sure if the petition will do any good, but after being suspended in September for smoking marijuana on a school trip, he said he can't afford to miss more school.
"I just don't see what the big deal is," he said. "I mean, what if I was wearing an elbow costume? That's part of the body. Would they suspend me then?"
I think we should all be proud of her son.
And of course dressing up as women's anatomy for Halloween is surely meant to fire up a frank, honest, professional discussion that will really help others understand their bodies.< /sarcasm>
being suspended in September for smoking marijuana on a school trip
After reading this, it's apparent to me this was meant as a joke, not for anything else, and the liberal family is trying to put a 'for education purposes only' spin on it
Turns out it apparantly wasn't a vagina but vulva. I have never understood the reluctance to use the correct term. I also can't understand the reasoning of those who can't see the inappropriateness of such a costume.
Couldn't he have gone as an elbow? A foot? An earlobe? Those are body parts too...
Oh no, silly. Only contraversial body parts make the best costumes!
a close knit family? what no hyphen?
But, you gotta love our country. Compare Afghanastan where women walk around covered from head to toe in fear of even showing an ankle to America where a 17 year-old boy can wear a gigantic vagina costume to school for Halloween and get the admiration of his peers and a couple of days off of school.
Oh, me too!! :))
Greeeaaaaaaat. Next week I'll have students whipping out their own body parts ('for discussion and education purposes', of course,') and acting offended when they get punished.
um...
nevermind
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