Students at Battle Creek's Lakeview Middle School were saddened when their classmate, sixth-grader Caitlyn Jackson, passed away from leukemia at age 12 last week. To honor their friend's memory, students began wearing blue or orange tshirts with Caitlyn's name written on them. Blue is the school color and orange was Caitlyn's favorite color.
It's the kind of tribute that would bring tears to the eyes of even the most hardened cynic. Or so you'd think.
Instead school administrators banned the shirts as an inappropriate "permanent" memorial.
Detroit Free Press: [Lakeview administrator Amy] Jones said the district’s decision was based on its “crisis management plan,” which she said is “based on a lot of research and expert opinion.” The plan specifically bars “permanent memorials” on the research-backed belief that memorials can remind students of their grief and, for some, can make it worse.
Chuck Crider, a retired school administrator helping the district out while Peterson and others are out of the country, said the T-shirts were interpreted as a more permanent memorial.
Wow.
Following parental pressure, the decision was reversed. Future memorial concerns will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
