By John Klar
A Vermont school superintendent came down hard on students who allegedly chanted “Let’s Go Brandon!” at a December, 2021 high school basketball game. If they did not agree to counseling, accused students were banned from all sporting events.
This public high school endorses BLM, queer theory, and all things Far Left but prohibits T-shirts that say, “There are only two genders” and canceled a baseball team fundraiser because it dared employ Chick-fil-A products.
The Randolph Union High School (RUHS) administration’s argument is that the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon!” constitutes profanity. In an email to the community, Supt. Layne Millington (seen in school photo above) wrote:
“[T]onight’s final game was marred in the last minutes by members of our own student community chanting, “Let’s go Brandon,” a euphemism for “F— Joe Biden,” which in this case seemed to be directed at our own athletes. This is not about politics or free speech; folks are welcome to chant what they like at our games as long as it is civil and not disparaging. Please recognize that as administrators and staff who are required to create and maintain a positive environment for all students which supports learning across the totality of our programming, I have to say that what happened tonight was inappropriate. I am also saddened by the reaction of some of the adult spectators to the chant.”
Three school principals were recruited with Millington to bring students in for discipline. One 16-year-old student insisted that she had not participated in the verboten chant; she was disciplined on the allegations of unnamed students. The school claims that her accusers have a right to privacy that supersedes her right to confront them or hear evidence.
The school explained to her parents:
[T]he Student Handbook sums things up nicely though there are more specific passages later on:
1. Respect all people, their feelings, their possessions, and their right to an education.
2. Respect that the purpose of this school is to educate.
Any interaction or behavior that interferes with either of those expectations will result in corrective action.
Superintendent Millington has repeatedly invoked the school’s handbook to control speech of the students under his care. Others disagree, saying “Let’s Go Brandon!” is constitutionally protected political speech, not profanity. This was explained to Layne Millington and the school by legal counsel for this young girl, who quoted the U.S. Supreme Court in Tinker v. Des Moines: “First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Noting that students were allowed to wear BLM and pro-Biden messaging while MAGA or pro-Trump messaging was prohibited, the student’s attorney stated: “To say this is astonishing is without exaggeration. This bears the indicia of an aggressive authoritarian regime where only approved opinions are allowed, and disapproved opinions are punished.”
As if to agree, legal counsel for the school responded curtly: “You and I disagree about what constitutes profanity.”
In the seminal case of Cohen v. California, an anti-war activist was arrested for wearing a jacket that said “F— the Draft!” in a public building. Justice Harlan observed (emphasis in original): “The ability of government, consonant with the Constitution, to shut off discourse solely to protect others from hearing it is, in other words, dependent upon a showing that substantial privacy interests are being invaded in an essentially intolerable manner. Any broader view of this authority would effectively empower a majority to silence dissidents simply as a matter of personal predilections.”
The words “Let’s Go” are not profane, despite the contention by the school’s legal counsel and bureaucrats.
This isn’t the first time ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ has been construed as profanity meriting school discipline. In November 2021, a Walden, VT school cook was fired in part for writing “Let’s Go Brandon’ on a school menu board. Like Millington, Walden school administrators maintained it was an expression of profanity.
Categories: Education
Something seriously wrong in Randolph. Time to replace the staff.
Hopefully this will be taken before the court. Eventually you will find a court level that is not tainted or corrupt and the Constitution will prevail. Eventually the school will settle out of court to save their insurance company a considerable payment.
Randolph Union High School “endorses BLM, queer theory, and all things Far Left but prohibits T-shirts that say, “There are only two genders” and canceled a baseball team fundraiser because it dared employ Chick-fil-A products.”
Randolph Union High School is promoting and supporting the Evil Marxist Ideology. Boycott this School and All Public Schools, as Your Tax $$$$ is being used Destroy You and Your Family.
God will Not be mocked.
Let’s go Brandon. Fjb lgb.
“One man’s trash (trash talk) is another man’s treasure (1st Amendment right) Is invoking Jiminy Chricket” the same as invoking the Lord’s name ? I don’t think so, but the Pope may. Snowflakes had better get used to the expression of alternate opinions, or they are going to be very “unhappy chappies”!
Whether provided to you by God or a godless evolutionary process, you were given two pinky fingers with a dimension roughly the same diameter as the inside your two ear openings
If you hear something that bothers you, please insert them and leave the rest of us Constitutionally-protected, freedom-loving American alone. That weenie of a superintendent needs to go.
And “Weenie” is a euphemism for “Hot Dog”! Right ? Lets go Randolph !
To take their lefty logic one step further then, what next? Ban the fire department from extinguishing a fire at my house because I have a sign in my yard promoting the opponent of their “preferred candidate”? Extreme? Sure, but that’s exactly where this is headed if people don’t stand up and remove these communist officials. It’s part of their plan to constantly move the goalposts, to take more and more baby step by baby step. Remember “two weeks to flatten the curve”? I say we tell them “You’re not wanted here and are going to leave. Do you want to go the easy way or the hard way?”. Does that make me a bad man? Frankly, who cares? Right is right. Stand up for it.
I’ve tried to warn you over and over and over again. People complain, but they do nothing. Part of me says well, you reap the spoils of your non-involvement. But a bigger part of me HATES what’s happening to my country, as I know people like me are the silent majority. We are the 85%. If push ever came to shove, our sheer numbers would overwhelm them quickly. It’s time we started acting like it.
And the BLM flag continues to fly at RUHS and a Chick-fil-a fundraiser for the ball team was cancelled by Layne because the company wasn’t sufficiently aligned with the BIPOC agenda despite having opened their doors to feed thousands who faced tornadoes and hurricanes and other community disasters. Let’s Go Chick-fil-a should also be chanted.
It’s the school administration that needs to be disciplined. Does impalement seem too extreme?
Let’s go Millington!
fire the principal, replace the school board, sue them in court! enough is enough!
Time to take your children and your public education dollars out of this state. If the community and school can’t stand up to protect students from this type of discrimination then they do not deserve your educational tax dollars. I have to laugh at respecting everyone’s feelings. Give me a break, these people live in an echo chamber and certainly exhibit no respect for their students feelings, unless you are a member of the BIPOC or LGBTQ+ community. School administrators run their school’s like political indoctrination camps. There is no where to run and no where to hide and anyone who offends their narrative will be punished to the fullest extent possible, even children, young and old. You can’t make these kids go to counseling over such a thing. I am serious, protect your kids and leave this miserable state!
Time to get new superintendents. The fact that they canceled a fund raiser voted on by the students tells me that they also don’t like free speech, yet endorse BLM, BIPOC, the queer agenda etc. Tells me that the credentials of this superintendent needs to be checked. Is he also a marxist??
Has Randolph had the chance to “discipline’ the former Randolph principal involved in a sex case or the other individuals there involved in the recent sexual exploitation cases? Priorities, priorities….
This is truly a sad commentary regarding our school administrators. The left has gone too far in this case, and some of these administrators need to be held accountable to the taxpayers.
Sue for injunctive relief. Damages AND firings.
Marxism
A unacceptable euphemism for profanity, you say? Well Jeezum Crow, Judas Priest, Jeepers Creepers and Jiminy Cricket – we sure need to clamp down on that!
Some of us understand that “LGB” has little to do with the desiccated puppet in the White House and much to do with poking fun at a press corps who will trip over themselves at every opportunity to cover for him. It’s beyond ridiculous to think that the school boards that expose our kids to degenerate filth on a regular basis would suddenly care one tiny bit about profanity – real or imagined – in their midst.
Please note that the newer organization “LGB” was founded to resist this fascism.
Only serious lawsuits and/or demonstrations will put a check on this. Otherwise it will get worse.
Phantom’s right, PLUS vote in a new BOARD and THEN can the Super’s, period..One either HAS Free Speech or doesn’t..Courts..Boards..Firings..!, 2, & 3…
We need school choice!!! SEND YOUR KIDS TO A SCHOOL THAT TEACHES THE PILLARS OF EDUCATION!!! Pressure your congressional representatives to allow your tax dollars to go to a school that represents YOUR (the majority of parents) view. Once the students leave the public school system this oppressive agenda withers. Yes this should also be fought in court with civil consequence to the superintendent as he should feel the damages he is responsible for. Legal links:
https://adflegal.org/
https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/931/rights-of-students
We need to make sure these superintendents and school boards are held legally and financially responsible for the agenda they are ignorantly / illegally pushing.
“Black Lives Matter” is a chant that presupposes the audience doesn’t already agree. It is therefor a euphemism for “You’re a racist”, and I find it uncivil and disparaging (and an obvious grift).
As other posters have pointed out, only lawsuits will make this stop. There used to be an organization that lived for these sort of lawsuits, and I’ve historically donated a bunch of money to them. Now, the ACLU is just another skin suit being worn by Marxist revolutionaries.
I’ve been trying to warn people about the coming pendulum swing for quite awhile. How it’s likely to massively over-correct in a way most people are really not going to like. I can actually feel my own trepidation for this event melting away into schadenfreude, and I’m not sure that isn’t worse.
Bondsforthewin.com has all the info needed to legally get rid of this school board because of all the laws they have broken..time to take back your school! It’s not that difficult and no lawyers are involved.
Vermont superintendents and principals now lead the state in wokeful stupidity. It’s great for their resumes & careers…..job security, fatter salaries, notoriety and awards…the whole ticket.
Orange man bad is okay though. You know that Every socialist lib democrat “educator” said it out loud.
Orange man bad is okay though. You know darn well that many of the socialist lib democrat “educators” said that out loud.
This just happened to the 6th graders at the school yesterday. They have been wearing Let’s go Brandon Tshirts and hats all year, but we’re told last night that they wouldn’t be allowed to wear these slogans on the field trip to the Minnesota State Capital. That seems like the perfect place to wear a shirt like that…I guess they don’t want kids to express political messages at the Capital.
Here is the email the parents received.
This is a message from St. Louis County Schools Campus Messenger system.
6th Grade Families-
We have heard that some students may be planning to wear clothing on the capital trip that is not appropriate. “Let’s Go Brandon” attire will not be allowed on the trip as it represents profanity. Thank you.
Mr. Vukmanich, principal
The students need a new chant that is euphemism for go to he🏒🏒and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine!