Jedi costume protest referenced in Review article on next week's school board meeting

Here's the story that'll be running in tomorrow's Reidsville Review about the meeting this coming Monday night of the Rockingham County Board of Education. It's widely expected that the public comments portion of the night will be dominated by P.O.T.S.M.O.D.: People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress, the group that's fighting the mandatory uniforms at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools this coming school year.

Here's part of the story...

Monday, POTSMOD plans to attend wearing costumes and black armbands to show its opposition to school uniforms. Former school board candidate Chris Knight said he will attend the meeting dressed as a Jedi knight to get the board's attention.

"It's a result of this past meeting where the public comments section was dominated by opposition to uniforms," Knight said. "But the board ignored our concerns."

Samantha Fettig, a parent involved with POTSMOD, said she felt the board scoffed at people's concerns. It seemed to some parents that board members considered the new principal problem a better reason to dismiss the policy than the public opposition.

"How can you pass something when you're in a room full of people who oppose it?" said Fettig.

Fettig argues the decision to implement mandatory uniforms in a Title I school is unfair. Sixty-nine percent of Reidsville Middle school students and 52 percent of Reidsville High students receive free or reduced lunches.

"It seems they're picking on the poorest people in the county," Fettig said. She said uniforms seem good on paper, but students change out of uniforms as soon as possible when arriving home. They need a second wardrobe to wear outside class. For parents who can barely afford a child's lunch, uniforms for one student or more are too expensive.

Edward Inman, another parent involved in POTSMOD, said even if the school board provided uniforms for free, some believe the issue has gone far beyond clothing. To upset parents, the board has been dishonest and has violated the First Amendment rights of the students.

Inman said he has never been fond of public speaking. But on behalf of his two children, who will be students at Reidsville High School in the fall, he has driven from Reidsville to Eden and spoken before the board.

"My children are going to know I tried everything I could to stop this," Inman said.

As was first announced on this blog early last month, I have every intention of coming to Monday night's meeting and addressing the board while garbed as a Jedi Knight from the Star Wars movies. I've been working on my remarks for a few weeks now, and the pitch is pretty much finished. One slight change in plans is that originally I said that I would not be wearing a lightsaber with my costume. My custom-made "metal tube" lightsaber will remain at home for sake of any safety concerns. But since the lightsaber is so much a part of the Jedi "look", I am building a lightweight cardboard tube replica that will hang from my belt.

It is very much my understanding that there will be quite a few others who will make a prominently visible show of disapproval of the uniforms at Monday night's meeting.

There may be some more items related to this story in the next day or so. I will post them as they become available.

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Video of WGSR interview about the July 9th "costume party" protest

There's apparently starting to be some interest in the stating of my intentions a few days ago that I would address the Rockingham County Board of Education at its July 9th meeting... fully costumed as a Jedi Knight. The only thing that I am leaving off the ensemble is my lightsaber. For one thing, I am being extremely cautious in adhering to the school system's weapons policy: even though this is not a functional weapon by any means, I'm not taking chances. For all intents and purposes, this is simply a "different" mode of attire than what you usually see at a school board meeting. As it is, I don't see this being construed as a special circumstance, and I'm not going to intentionally make it one, either.

Besides, I have something much better than a lightsaber that I intend to take with me. You could say that I will be a Jedi without a lightsaber... but one well-armed with a Sword: parse that as you will. People will know it when they see it.

This clip is from yesterday's Star Talk on WGSR Star 39 in Reidsville. Mark Childrey interviewed me (via telephone) live on the air about what happened at this past week's meeting of the board, and the plan for next month's meeting, including my inviting any other opponents of the Standard Mode Of Dress (S.M.O.D. or "school uniforms") to likewise come dressed in wacky attire, in protest of the board's indifference toward the public regarding this matter.

Speaking of which, that is why I am protesting in this manner. Yes, I'm against S.M.O.D. very much... but it has really started to bother me that the board - which is supposed to be hearing and representing our concerns - is ignoring why it is that we don't want the uniforms and instead is beginning to play political football with the issue. That's what this is all about: if the board will not pay attention to our words, then we should - peacefully of course - oblige them to pay attention to us in other ways.

And I do mean something that I say in this clip: that there are members of this board that I respect. I respect them an awful lot. With the exception of a very few, I've no reason not to respect any of them. But we out here in the public have a moral obligation to speak up when something's not right... as it is here.

Anyhoo, there's the first (and probably last) TV interview about the "Hey PAY ATTENTION TO US, Darnnit!" protest planned for next month's meeting. If this should get any more press attention, I'll be sure to post the appropriate links.

Thanks to Tyler Richardson for providing the video!

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I will wear my Jedi costume to the July 9th meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education to protest the uniforms

And I invite anyone else who wants to protest the board's indifference toward us on the school uniforms issue to likewise come dressed as outrageously as they wanna be (within reason of course).

I had originally thought to come to the meeting wearing V's costume from V for Vendetta, but won't do that out of respect for public safety concerns. That, and because it would be really hard to speak to the board from behind a Guy Fawkes mask.

Please, if you want to join along with this protest, do not wear something that has a full-face mask.

The board - for the most part anyway - is not listening to us. They apparently paid not one whit of attention to what we had to say to them when we spoke during public comments at Monday night's meeting.

Even if they refuse to pay attention to our words, we can make them pay attention to us all the same. Let them have no choice but to see us show that we do not want the Standard Mode of Dress.

I intend to go to the July 9th meeting at the Central Office at 6 P.M. (not the previously-used time of 7 P.M., meetings now start at 6) in full Jedi regalia from the Star Wars movies. And I will address the board in such attire. That's all I plan to do. The protest will go no further than how I will have chosen to dress for the evening and my remarks to the board, which will be as respectful as they were at Monday night's meeting.

And I ask anyone and everyone else who does not want the Standard Mode of Dress at Reidsville Middle School and Reidsville High School, who is likewise frustrated with the board's unwillingness to acknowledge our opposition, to do the same thing. Show up in something that under any other circumstance you would not wear to a Board of Education meeting. Wear a Halloween costume or a funny hat or a gimmicky t-shirt or even a sign taped to your regular shirt that reads something about your being opposed to the uniforms. Sign up before the meeting to speak if you feel led to do so. Be courteous... but stern... with your remarks to the board.

In every other way let it be a normal meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education... except that the board will have to confront not only our verbally-stated concerns, but a daringly visual - and peaceful - show of mass resistance to the Standard Mode of Dress.

Let's turn that boardroom into the set of Let's Make A Deal.

And don't think for a moment that this won't be covered in some way. There will be cameras, including video cameras. I will be contacting all of the local media outlets and even quite a few others to let them know about this next meeting and the intended protest of the school uniforms.

Yes, this is - admittedly - a stunt. But at this point I see no other way how to force the board to acknowledge us, and the fact that we do not want the uniforms at the schools, and why it is that we do not want the uniforms.

If the board refuses to hear us out, then it's up to us to escalate our peaceful resistance of the uniforms to the next level: one that, unless they are blind in eye and mind, they cannot help but take note of.

July 9th. The Central Office in Eden. 6 P.M. I will be there in full Jedi costume to speak to the board.

And I cordially invite everyone else who wishes to do so to also express to the board in their own fashion their frustration at how we are being ignored.

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Shirley Phelps-Roper arrested for letting son stomp on American flag

Remember this lady? It's Shirley Phelps-Roper. It will be a year ago next week that she and her family - the infamous Westboro Baptist Church - visited the TV station that I worked at. This is that "God hates fags church" that does those rabid anti-homosexual protests... most of them quite bizarre and all of them crossing the boundary of good taste. If you missed that report when it was filed last year, mash that link down for some truly disturbing photos along with my account of what happened that night during my close encounter with "the Phelps family".

Well, Shirley Phelps-Roper has been arrested in Bellevue, Nebraska: charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after her 8-year old son stomped on an American flag during a soldier's funeral.

Here's the story from WMUR:

Boy Stomps Flag At Funeral, Mom Arrested

Pair Are Part Of Anti-Gay Church That Protests Funerals

POSTED: 1:44 pm EDT June 6, 2007

OMAHA, Neb. -- A woman was arrested in Bellevue, Neb., on Tuesday during the funeral for a fallen soldier.

Shirley Phelps-Roper was arrested on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly allowing her 8-year-old son to stomp on an American flag.

Phelps-Roper is a member of a Topeka, Kan., church that conducts anti-homosexual picketing at funeral services for U.S. soldiers.

Hundreds of people packed Bellevue streets Tuesday morning to pay tribute to a firefighter and soldier. Spc. Bill Bailey was serving in the National Guard in Iraq when he was killed by a roadside bomb.

Police said the group to which Phelps-Roper belongs had a permit to protest 300 feet from Bailey's funeral.

Bellevue Officer Joe Gray, who made the arrest, said that at first the group brought out a couple of members' own American flags.

"The arrestee, Ms. Phelps-Roper, put one around her waist. The second one was given to a 10-year-old, who put it on the ground and started kicking it in the area they were protesting," Gray said.

Nebraska law states that it is a Class 3 misdemeanor when a person "intentionally casts contempt or ridicule upon a flag by mutilating, defacing, defiling, burning or trampling upon such flag." The law was passed in 1977.

"It appears the adults weren't stepping on the flag because they knew it was a violation of the law. But they allowed the children to go ahead and do that," Gray said.

Phelps-Roper said she believes she has the right to use the flag as a symbol, and said Nebraska's law is outdated.

"We're going to challenge that statute," she said. "That statue should have been repealed."

Gray said the arrest wasn't personal and has nothing to do with his beliefs. He said he's simply doing his job.

"It's state law, so we were enforcing the laws of Nebraska," the officer said.

Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov said the words from the group are fighting words, which are not protected speech.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: someday, the Phelps family is going to go way too far in front of the way wrong people... and some of them are going to be hurt or worse because of their antics. They won't have anyone to blame but themselves.

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Something to ponder this Memorial Day ...

I took this sign to a few places around Greensboro today...

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