Staff Editorial:

Seniors: Theyve Done Their Time.

The front of the clean shirt (left) and dirty shirt (right) are pictured above. The handcuff graphic portrayed on both shirts was decidedly too dirty for Libertyville Administration.
Senior year: the time when LHS students have achieved the final level
in their high school career. They have conquered the monstrous standardized tests, battled numerous AP exams, and fought long and hard during
the sleepless nights. Yet, at the beginning of this school year, seniors
seemed to have to face down one last challenge: the LHS administration.
According to an over-ten-year-standing LHS tradition, the senior class
annually designs a class shirt to symbolize their grades rite of passage.
These shirts have often included some sort of inappropriate innuendo,
yet each year, the administration seems to be cracking down harder and
harder on the innuendos displayed on these shirts.
This year, it was made clear to participants in a majority of extracurricular activities at LHS that if they wore a shirt that was deemed dirty
or inappropriate, their membership in those extracurriculars would
be stripped. To try to allow every senior to participate in the first day of
school shirt tradition, the senior class of 2016 designed one dirty shirt
and one clean shirt, with similar themes.
The shirts were made with a similar design to unite the seniors despite

having a clean and dirty version. Both shirts displayed an image of

handcuffs to coincide with the prison theme that was selected. While the
dirty shirt involved a sexual innuendo, the clean shirt strictly followed
the prison theme to abide by the administrations wishes.
According to the senior organizers of the two shirts, James He, Brook
Zant, Nicole Axe, and Luke Miller, the clean shirt was shown to and
approved by Student Council advisor Ms. Andrea Lara and Student
Activities Director Mrs. Jennifer Uliks way ahead of time, yet the two
shirts were only shown to principal Dr. Marina Scott about 15 minutes
before the first day of school. Since Dr. Scott only had a small amount of
notice, she deemed both shirts as inappropriate to take the burden off of
teachers; she confirmed this in an email to a Drops of Ink staff member.
This means that on the first day of school, the people wearing the black,
dirty shirts had to turn their shirts inside out, and the people wearing the
clean shirt were unable to wear their shirts due to the fact that when the
shirts were turned inside out, the handcuffs displayed on the front of the
shirt were still visible through the orange fabric.

Administrations Actions
It is the opinion of the majority of the Drops of Ink staff that the school
undermined the efforts of the senior class to create a clean shirt that
would allow everyone to participate in first-day traditions. Through their
actions, the administration may have discouraged future grades from
attempts to appease the standards set out by the administration.

Opinion

Many felt that it was ironic that the students trying hardest to follow
the rules were the ones who were punished the most. If the school wants
future senior grades to be mature about their selection of shirts, then the
school also needs to be considerate of the hard work that is put into the
creation of the senior shirts.

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How Inappropriate are Handcuffs?

are a common tool used by police affiliates to enforce the justice system
throughout the United States. Located in police stations, prisons around
the globe, and even on the belt of School Resource Officer Mr. Robert
Uliks, they are a tool to enforce the publics security. The staff feels that
since Mr. Uliks specifically is allowed to walk around LHS on a daily
basis with handcuffs on his belt, then the senior class should have been
allowed to wear handcuffs on their clean shirts for one day.
The staff also felt that if the administration thinks handcuffs are too
inappropriate for a school setting, any image can be twisted into an inappropriate symbol. This year, it was handcuffs, the next it will be flowers.
You name it, any image can be twisted into something that is seen by the
administration as unruly. Overall, the Drops of Ink staff felt that in an
effort to be proactive, the administration overstepped their right to censor
senior apparel. Ironically in the Hazelwood case of 1987, the Supreme
Court stated students have roughly the same amount of freedoms as prison inmates. So, maybe the LHS administration was trying to do seniors a
favor by taking away their handcuffs for once.

The senior class this year was overall relatively docile in their first day
of school antics compared to previous grades. They abided by the schools
wishes and held their water balloon fight at Dymond. So, when the
school didnt respect the efforts of the seniors to honor the administrations wishes, it felt like an unreasonable punishment for all.
The LHS administrations reason for having the senior class turn both
versions of their senior shirts inside-out was made in regards to the handcuffs portrayed on the front of the shirts. The administration assumed
the worst of the 2016 senior class and thought that the students were
trying to make an explicit reference to the novel Fifty Shades of Grey, or
similar sexual themes, by including a graphic of handcuffs on both the
shirts. While this may be true for the dirty shirt, this was not the case
for the clean shirts. The Drops of Ink staff recognizes the motives behind
the administrations actions, but disagrees with their assumptions.
It is the collective belief of the Drops of Ink staff that handcuffs, while
affiliated with crime and prison, which coincides with the senior theme,
are not too inappropriate for those of a high school stature. Handcuffs

The back of the clean shirt (left) and dirty shirt (right) are pictured above. Despite the dirty shirt being significantly more inappropriate, administration had seniors remove the clean shirts.

What the Administration Should Do in the Future

Part of the staff agreed to the idea that, in dealing with future senior
classes, a senior student leader and an administration member should
sign off on a document that binds an agreement between the two parties.
That way, each group would feel that their wishes are accounted for and
there would be less controversy during the first day.

However, others felt that there was no point in going to the administration first because they will always be too overbearing in their censorship. Many underclassmen on staff felt there was no point in even trying
to create a clean shirt, since this years grade was shut down so harshly.
These individuals felt that either way, the dirty shirt is a tradition that

Note: As this piece is a staff editorial, it is representative of the opinions of the Drops of Ink staff as a whole. The staff is comprised of LHS students from each grade level and spans a wide
range of opinions from two class periods, with 40 students total. The author(s) of this piece did not place their personal opinions in the story; they merely reflected the staffs thoughts.
Opinion

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