Book 8: Taking a stand

Chelsie looks like my new dance club boss here, I guess it's the angle, as well as they have similar smiles and hair. Hey, she's probably a Brit too, so .... I could have found Chelsie's mum ;) What is the girl in the background doing?
I thought Chelsie and Nichelle were really short until I saw that they were walking on bleachers.

Or Generation Girl goes hypocritical.
In all the other books, the idea "We're such a tolerant and understanding, multi-culti PUBLIC school where everyone is allowed to be themselves, so lets hold hands."
In this book, the school board shows proof of their suckiness by going all controlling instead of their usual loose ways.

First Katarina's personal views *gets on soapbox*
I think school uniforms are good because there will be one peer pressure area less, allowing kids to wear anything is good because then they're allowed to choose a personal style if they are gutsy enough, but I think dress codes are absolute crap. It takes away the possibility to express yourself if only one or a few types of clothing are allowed, and it still has the same, if not more pressure to conform and dress like everyone else, and pressure on parents to buy their kids brand name or designer clothing.

Tori shouts "Kangaroo! Platypus!" out in pleasure over that the new stuff she added to the school homepage works. She's working alone in the newspaper office an early Wednesday morning. Tori has added some cool graphics which links to skateboarding pages. She's going to be late, so she runs to English class. Tori loves her new wacky hat, which was a gift from Aunt Tessa. Aunt Tessa finds it ugly herself, but as an artist she appreciates Tori's own taste. Tori slides into her seat. Ana compliments on the hat, but it's not her style. Ana asks if Tori and Tessa wants to come over to the Suarez family for thanksgiving. Tori will have to check with her aunt first. This is probably Toussaint's best, I mean only good, moment in the series. He will tell the class about Henry David Thoreau. But first, he asks Tori to borrow her hat. Then he asks everyone to take out a dollar and drop it into the hat, when he will send it around the classroom. The pupils start to take out their money. Tori raises her hand and asks why they are doing this. Mr. T(which I'm going to call him in the books where his name are mentioned often, so I wont have to spell out his name every time) says that the coffee machine in the English office are broken, so they'll have to chip in for a new one. Students start to put their money away, and a girl named Lucy says that she doesn't think it's right that they have to pay for the teachers' coffee. Mr T says that what if he, who makes the rules in the classroom, thinks so. Tori says that she would still not pay anything. What if she was threatened with detention then? asks Mr T. Then he says he wouldn't take a cent from them, but the point was to demonstrate the predicament Henry David Thoreau faced. Because of his principles, he refused to pay a tax he could afford to pay and would rather go to jail than support that policy. He refers to when Ralph Waldo Emerson came to visit him and was asked "What are you doing out there?" Thoreaus friends pays his taxes for him, so he's soon let out of jail. Props for that, as I think this is an interesting exercise, and refusing to pay certain types of tax on principle, I have the same thoughts myself sometimes, so I can relate to this. Lucy says that nobody would do anything if they could just stop following a law when they think it's not fair. What to do if you consider a law unfair? And how can you decide if a law is unfair?

As Nichelle, Tori is a maths and science whiz, so she spends the class going over some advanced algebra. Nichelle actually heard Tori humming while working. She compliments Tori on her hat, then tells her that Fletcher asked Melissa to the dance. Principal Simmons could joke around with the students. Yeah, I'm sure it's easy to respect a principal that's just one of the kids. She, Merlin and an unknown man passes the girls. The last man is named Mr Klench. He is from the board of education and will be doing some um, observing. Why the um infront of observing? Is he really doing blackmailing? And now he has the photos of Mrs S. licking tequila off the abs of a male stripper. Tori opens her mouth to say that they have a wallaby of a good time, and they could show him around. Mr Klench is writing on his notepad with his back turned to the students. I bet he's writing MUST BUY MORE TRANQUILIZERS. To use on the kids, or himself, as appropriate. Mrs S. has got her HDU, douche look on because he's rude to her sweet students, but she doesn't say anything. Think of the snaps, madame. She explains that Mr. Klench will take a tour of the school on his own. Then she compliments on Tori's hat. Tori answers that it's from her aunt. Merlin explains for mr Klench that her aunt is the famous artist Tessa Steinmetz. Mr. Klench remarks that her aunt probably wouldn't mind if she took off her hat indoors, as it's discourteous. Tori goes all "Why can't I do it when all the other kids are doing it?" and points to a boy with a blue mohawk and a girl with a teeny miniskirt and platform boots. Mrs S. is all uncomfortable at the thought of some sort of confrontation and says to the girls that the bell will ring soon. They hear a piercing scream and see a group of students gathered around the girl with the miniskirt, now crumpled on the floor in tears. "He broke my ankle!" the girl in miniskirt cries, pointing to the boy with a leather jacket covered in chains.

The girls are at Eatz and debate who is to blame for the accident. Lara think the guy was a jerk if he pushed the girl. He didn't technically push the girl as one of his chains got caught in her long hair and when he tried to unhook it she couldn't keep her balance on her tall platform boots. Tori think the girl is really dumb and that it was her fault. This reader finds their reactions totally moronic. Well, guess what girls are also blamed for when they have short skirts and long hair? The boy isn't the delinquent he's presented as in the last chapter, but it was the girl that was hurt. Tori says that she must be a fashion slave with very long hair to get caught in one of his chains. Pot, kettle, Tori. You must have waist length hair yourself. Chelsie takes out the new school paper with the article on our earlier mentioned burial ground. But what she actually wanted to show them is "School board considers uniforms for all public schools". Lara saw Mr. Klench give the pants boys a lecture about proper clothing. Heh. Melissa went to the school board meeting last night, originally to write an article if they were going to cut funding for school clubs, but instead the issue on if school uniforms should be mandatory in all public school in New York. Mr Cecil Klench supports the idea as students who use uniforms has been rapported to get higher test scores, and he thinks it will cause less disruption and reduce fashion pressure. The school doesn’t want to make this public until they've made a decision. Mrs Simmons "personally doesn't favor the idea(she doesn’t want any form of discipline)", but she's "keeping an open mind(she's still under Mr. Klench's thumb). Nichelle remarks that she's never noticed any "fashion-related competitiveness" at the school. Of course will fashion victims not notice this. Ana mentions the two guys who got into a fight over who had the coolest design on their leather jackets. I guess it was Ninja Turtles vs. Pokemon. And then there's the guy who kicked in his locker door with his steel toed boots. And the two girls who had their gold chains stolen(Why aren't doing a mystery where Barbie finds the poor soul's chain and makes the thief return it?) .... And the aforementioned girl with platform boots... Tori thinks uniforms are terrible. They had them at her old school, she felt like she was in the army, and now matter how hard they tried to be different, their uniforms made them look all the same. Tori. No room for being a speshul little snowflake them. Tori think that everyone should be allowed to dress how they want and that uniforms are for little kids. Tori thinks that Barbie is obviously crushing on Randall, the shy cartoonist who draws the superhero cartoon “Steele crazy” for the newspaper. This time, Jake wants to ask a beautiful girl to the school dance, but he’s afraid that his secret identity as a super hero will be revealed. Barbie promised to give Fletcher some swing lessons. Nichelle will come and watch. Fletcher is over his crush on Barbie now, so he has asked Melissa to the spring dance. Ana will come to, as she knows how to dance salsa, but not swing. Blaine asked her to the dance! Chelsie will come too, Lara will have to feed her cat (is this a new cat, or just a continuity error, as there’s no mention of a cat in the Lara books?) before she goes to dinner at her dad’s. Tori can't come, because she will check out some skaters in the park before she goes home to her dog. Tori spins happily around on her blades, thinking about all her reasons to be happy. Her dog, her aunt, her friends and her phat new hat.

As Tori comes into Mr. Toussaints class, she sees copies of the memo laying on each desk.
They decide to forbid inappropriate clothing after some incidents. No platform shoes, skirts or shorts shorter than mid-tight, chains thicker than one-eight-inch, deliberately ripped clothing(how can they know if it’s not been ripped on purpose), underwear worn as outerwear, steel-toed boots, facial piercings, or hats of any kind. No "bare bellies not allowed"? The dolls wore some serious short crop tops. “Students wearing any of the above articles will be asked to remove them(so take off their short skirts and shorts? I’m sure pervy teachers will be delighted.) or go home and change. If students repeatedly or deliberately violates the policy, they’re in danger of being suspended or expelled. Tori couldn’t believe that Mrs. Simmons would have approved of these rules. Had Mr. Klench something to do with it? Why is she so whipped around him? Must be some more photos. The classroom is quiet. Some kids are nervously playing with their piercings. Mr. Toussaint hasn’t heard anything about this, but maybe it’ll be explained in the morning announcement. Mrs. S gives the announcement instead of Merlin. She says that they have give the issue a lot of thought and they don’t think the uniform suggestion is appropriate for their school, but they think dress codes is a “good compromise”. Bull. So they’ll try it as a one-moment experiment and hope that their students will cooperate. The kids make it totally unfair. Tori thinks that this is worse than at her old school, where they sure know they had to wear the uniform at all times .
MIH’s motto is “Respect individuality “. Now they’re telling the kids how they’re allowed to be individual and which forms of individuality that are forbidden. So the school drops into hypocrite theory. Mr T. can’t do anything. He has some views of his own, but he won’t interfere as he’s sure that Mrs. S. has her reasons for doing this. He suggests that Tori writes an editorial for the school newspaper to get her points across. Tori is unsure, as it seems like a big thing to do. Damian thinks that this is ridiculous. Will they stop and measure people’s shorts? He has a plan to show the teachers that they won’t follow those stupid rules. Ana and Tori won’t participate as they don’t think it’s worth getting expelled over. They don’t trust Damian and thinks that he could act this way because his mother is principal and his father left when Damian was just five years. Tori wonders if Damian could stop the dress code. In Mr. Budge’s history class, she asks if it’s legal to tell the students how to dress, as it’s a free country. Mr. Budge hates straying from his lesson plan. He says that students don’t have the same rights as adults, but they won’t abandon their rights as they walk in the school door. It’s not clear how far their rights to self-expression go, but the school should be careful not to violate their rights when they make their rules. Mr. Budge is unusually passionate about this issue. Then he becomes a little self conscious and goes back to the lesson. Tori thinks about the issue all afternoon. She decides to hear what Damian’s plans are tomorrow. That night she dreams that the new school uniforms will be pink bunny costumes. She can’t fit her hat over the bunny ears and her zipper keeps getting stuck. Lol. Tori is early at school to catch Damian before the lesson. The goth kids have to wear regular sneakers which don’t look right with their long black clothing. Everyone has taken out their piercings. The pants boys have non-saggy pants and have taken off their baseball caps. Even their wallet chains have to be removed. Damian is not there until halfway through the class. Then he comes in wearing a silk half-slip where his boxers are hanging out at the bottom, orange spandex tights under those, big platform boots, a mad hatter-like hat and two thick chains around his neck. Everyone is silent until Damien says “You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to run in platform boots.”

Mrs. Simmons and Merlin have been talking in her office all day after Damian got sent home this morning. The students have been very interested in the outcome. Tori is glad she wasn’t part of Damian’s plan, but she still thinks he’s brave. Tori has been to the headmaster several times back in Australia for things like singing in the hallways. She wonders if they’re rethinking the dress code. Tori comes along to Barbie’s swing lesson after school. Barbie is in the music room, looking at Randall’s newest comic strip. An evil army has stolen Jake Steele’s cape, the source of his superpowers. The only way to regain his powers was if his dream girl accepts his invitation to the dance. Tori says that Randall practically asked Barbie to the dance. Nichelle bursts in. Thomas Garie, handsome debate team captain has asked her to the dance. They start singing and mucking around with the instruments. Fletcher enters the room with a loud crash as the laces of his shoes tangle around a desk leg. Tori says that she saw the desk grab him. Nichelle snort that the school will probably ban shoes with laces. Fletcher isn’t as opposed to the dress code idea. He thinks that the first amendment was made for people to have the freedom to speak their mind, not to look cool, and the students could think less about how they look. The girls are surprised that shy Fletcher express this different opinion. Barbie teaches Nichelle to dance and Tori dances with Fletcher. They do the jitterbug. Barbie spins Nichelle away and quickly pull her back. Fletcher tries to copy it, and drops Tori into the bongo drums.

Friday. Tori hits the snooze button, remembering that she skipped her shower last day amd has to take one today. Then she knocks over a carton of milk, and almost forgets her keys, making her twenty minutes late. Tori apologizes to Mr. Toussaint. Ana tells her that Damian is suspended. Tori can’t stop thinking about Damian during the lesson. She admires his nerve and feels like it she should have been her standing up for something she believed in. Then she wants to write an editorial, pointing out that students should be allowed to express themselves with clothing, they made the decision too quickly, and it will affect kids in the future. Again she thinks that it’s unlike Mrs. Simmons to make this kind of rule. Because she’s a big fat hypocrite who says anything when she’s pressured. Tori wants to discuss this with Lara, as she hopes to get an European perspective. Lara thinks Tori’s acting all jumpy like Bart Simpson. Lara thinks Damian is too sneaky. A guy in the queue agrees and thinks the jerky cheater deserved what he got. But Lara thinks he was punished too good for making his point. Like her mother, when she was training to be a designer, her boss wanted her to dress in his designs and use the same styles as he did. She was fired when she came to work in clothes she had made herself, but now she's a successful designer. All weekend, Tori works hard on her EdiTORIal. Heh. She only takes some breaks to skate with the pants boys, play with Bagel and go climbing once. Tessa is really encouraging her. Tori's editorial are one and a half page long and called "Fashion is expression". In short: The kids get treated like criminals, fashion is an important way of expressing yourself, the school take away a way of expressing yourself, students have their rights to freedom of speech too. Chelsie is very impressed with the editorial. Tori decides to run it by Mr. Toussaint before putting it up on the school's webpage. Mr Toussaint think that's well written, but Mrs. Simmons will have to see it before it gets published. Tori thinks that this is like letting the enemy see your strategy. Mr T. says that the principal is not an enemy. Mrs. Simmons has denied publishing the article! Because "she's under a lot of pressure from the board of education(more like Mr. Klench, which threathens to publish the photos of her smoking a joint... and that's the least vulgar thing she's doing in that photo.)" and it's "too delicate of a topic to open a debate upon", meaning that she's a wuss who do not like people questioning her decisions. "This is war!".If you think Toussaint has been awesome this book, think again. He can't print the article and sinks down to Terri's lameness level again. Unless all this stuff had been mind games from the staff, to use almost reverse psychology to make the students appreciate freedom of speech. Then I would have a whole new level of respect for them, but I think it's sadly not the case.

The next morning, the school's homepage has been switched with the word "censored" across a huge black X, and the text "Students are being stripped of their right to free speech. For more information, go to studentrights on the web". When they click on the link, they're redirected to a quote from the First Amendment and the situation are summarized. First, MIH kids have been stripped of their right to dress how they want to, one student has been suspended for challenging this, and now their free press is been taken away because the principal refused to allow an editorial on issue on the school website. Meet at the lawn 7.30 AM tomorrow so we could discuss peacefully what we can do to keep our rights. Tori has stayed up all night creating the website. She's pleased that she's standing up for herself, but slightly worried that she could get suspended and sent back to Australia. As Tori walks by to check her email, she hears a crash of cymbals and Lara's voice exclaiming "Mon Dieu". Fletcher dropped her into the cymbals when he wanted to practice at lunch. He's getting worried as he still can't dance, but he told Melissa that he can. Fletcher and Lara go outside to practise. Nichelle is the only who has left Tori a message on the website. Barbie meets Tori in the hall. She's very excited about tomorrow, she just hopes Tori won't get into trouble. Randall asks Barbie to the dance. All the girls will come over to Barbie's house after school to give Fletcher one more dancing lesson.

Barbie has pushed all the furniture away to make room to dance in the middle of the floor. Ana admires some of Terri's photographs. She thinks it's really unfair she has never travelled around like the other girls. Tori think it's cool that she's a native New Yorker. They start with Jimmie Lunceford. The girls are reluctant to dance with Fletcher as they all have various injuries from trying to teach him how to dance. Barbie will be the Ginger to Fletcher's Fred Astaire. Nichelle dances with Lara, Chelsie with Tori, and Ana sits this one out. They practise for some time and are pretty good, except for Fletcher. They get some international snacks from Sam's restaurant and Tori dares to try a prune wrapped in bacon. Ick. Fletcher slips on the floor and takes Barbie with him when he fell down. Melissa finds Barbie lying in a heap on top of Fletcher on the floor. Lol. I could have put a dirty joke here. She runs out, screaming that she should have known Fletcher still liked Barbie, but she though Barbie was her friend. Tori catches Melissa, and they explain they were just trying to teach Fletcher to dance. Fletcher gracefully wipes her tears away and admits that he didn't know how to dance. They start laughing and Melissa says she can't dance either. She came over to make sure that Fletcher met her at the rally. Tori says that she has to go home and prepare it. The others can make petitions against the dress codes, which will be passed around. All her friends will be there to support her, even Fletcher, who doesn't share her opinion.

Tori has had little sleep the night to Wednesday. She stayed up doing last-minute research on the internet, but she found an article that was just right. Tori crosses her fingers that Barbie and the rest will be there, but she couldn't be prepared for the scene that meets her. There's so much people there that they're spilling into the street from the front lawn. People have put their piercings back in, there's lots of guys in kilts and skirts there, kids have blue hair, temporary tattoos, short shorts, black nails and leather jackets. The more normally dressed kids have borrowed whacky clothing, and they're holding up signs like "Down with censorship!" Mr. Budge is even there, and he wears a cap with a little propeller. Budge, you naughty boy. Barbie, wearing a rainbow clown wig, hugs her and congratulates her. Nichelle wears a silver wig and silver boots. Chelsie a miniskirt and combat boots. Lara a kimono. And Ana a hat like Tori's. They started a telephone chain telling everyone to dress up. Damian is back, dressed more down and simple. They have a group hug before Tori goes up on stage. Tori meets Mrs. Simmons eyes before she starts speaking. She thank them all for coming. She explains that back in Australia most people found her quite unusual and weird, so she was looking forward to go school in New York and express herself. America is the free country and their constitution protects everyones rights. The artists who wants to create something ugly as well as those who make beautiful things. America respects the right to be different. Tori thought she was so lucky to go to MIH where they're encouraged to be individuals. Where they're told that their views matter, that it's important to communicate with each other, that art is important and ideas should be expressed. Students should self choose their ways of self-expression. Tori tells them that the editorial she wrote about the dress code were refused. So she will read them another article... Young people learn best in an environment which promotes creativity and personal expression. They need to feel that the school is their own, respects their values and opinions and have their best interests at heart. Learning only occurs when there's a free exchange of ideas between teachers, pupils and the administration. This paragraph she just quoted was from an article written about MIH by Principal S. herself. Some kids mutters "so much for encouraging creativity". That's right, call the hypocrite out! Tori says that Mrs. S showed that she cares about individuality by creating this school. In a democracy, reasonable people can listen to others and change their minds to make the right decision. Everyone cheers and cheers for Tori. Mrs. S goes up on the stage. She says that it was a very difficult decision to make and she and Merlin will re-evaluate this temporary rule. Damian Simmmons are no longer suspended, as she had to suspend everyone then.

Tori walks into the nicely decorated cafeteria with the pants boys. Some of the kids have changed into 40's clothing, but most are wearing their wacky outfits. Barbie and Ana are there with their dates. Tori have planned to go the dance with Lara and Chelsie, but she have done some skating with the pants boys earlier. So many kids have told Tori that her speech was amazing, an announcement has been made that the dress code is lifted, and Mrs. S. tells Tori that she think Tori made a wonderful effort today, the students worked really well today as a team today(Guess what I said about reverse psychology?), and it helped convince the board of education to drop the dress code. So she probably told Mr Klench to STFU and that he hold no more power over her as she had the students behind her even though she was a crappy principal. Nichelle is dancing with Thomas Garie and they look like a beautiful couple. Mrs. S and Merlin wear bobbing antennae. Sweet little Chelsie says that she feels like Mrs Simmons was on their team when she stood up for her students. Damian walks up to them, but as they're engrossed in conversation, he turns sour and walks away again. Mrs. S sees this and hurries after him. Tori watches Randall lightly swing Barbie around, and Lara and Chelsie dancing with the pants boys. Tori goes over to buy a soda from the machine, but she stops as she hears Damian and Mrs. S's voices on the other side. Damian talks about the time she forgot his sixth birthday and had to make last minute arrangements. He starts crying and asks why she always put other kids and the school before him. Mrs Simmons, your arguments are invalid. She does promise to put him first. Damian promises to never come to school in womens underwear again, then does the waltz with his mother and everyone starts clapping for them. Melissa and Fletcher are both wearing camo pants and Melissa is sitting on his shoulders, taking advance of Fletcher's height. Evan asks Tori to dance, and when they do so, he swaps Tori's hat and his own baseball cap.

Tessa and Tori have a lovely thanksgiving diner over at Ana's. Her mother makes lovely food, even if Ana herself can't cook. Juan is back from the navy, and Rosa, Ana's little sister admires Tori after she has given her a ride on her skateboard. They're thankful for sharing this with family and friends. Their meal consists of turkey, bitter chocolate mole sauce, refried beans, stuffed peppers, tamale, roasted yams, tortillas, rice, flan, banana chocolate chip cake. Juan has invited them all to join him in Hawaii, so Ana will be going on her first trip ever. Tori is thankful for seeing Ana's so happy, for being invited to the Suarezes, for her Aunt Tessa, for Bagel and that the dress code is lifted.

Mrs Simmons receives an email from all her students, thanking her for being a great principal and listening to them. It's signed by Barbie, Lara, Ana, Chelsie, Nichelle, Tori, Fletcher, Melissa, Randall, Thomas, Evan, Andy and everyone else. And all the way at the bottom it's signed.... Damian Simmons.

And the series about making a school website newspaper continues... Writing=homies=drought.

This book in one word: Awesome-though-sligthly-odd-morals.