"There's no freedom of speech in baseball!!"

This post is in response to posts by classmates, Lissa and Remy, viewed on Lissa's blog here.

Man, this stuff takes me back...teenage rebellion. Luckily, I got over it pretty quickly when I became a supervisor in the military at 20.
But, I think we will be debating what is, and what isn't, a matter of free speech until the sun burns out. And of course that's a healthy thing. There are still many places in the world where there is no debate. In those places, the authorities are always right. In this particular instance, I have to say I have to agree more with Lissa, and less with Remy on this one.
I have had countless discussions with my son about something called "freedom of expression". He is better now, but at one point in his late teens he liked to dress (and sometimes act) like an idiot, and I tried to convince him to dress more appropriately. He said he dressed that way to "express his individuality". I couldn't reconcile the fact that all his friends looked the same...
Anyway, I do understand that my son was attempting to define himself as a person, and to test boundaries.
I also disagree with Remy in that I really don't see this incident as a free speech issue.
The school system had reportedly informed the young man who made the T-shirts up front that they considered them inappropriate for wear at school. In my opinion, this is exactly what a school should be doing. Setting boundaries for our teenagers. It appears that many parents have totally abdicated this responsibility, and the only time students are ever told "no", or that something is inappropriate, is by school staff.
In this case, the administrators made a decision and the student should have abided by it.
Public schools are not, and have never been, democracies. If we, as parents, have a problem with their policies, then we need to address them to the administrators or the school board. If we still don't like the policy; well then, we should run for the school board ourselves (that's the point that democracy shows up).
It is obvious that this boy...I want to say young man, but he isn't there yet...and his friends were testing limits and thumbing their noses. As Lissa points out in her blog, when we don't "swat our children on the be-hind when they act out" (that's figuratively), we get a further devolution of appropriate social values and mores. Young people need to understand that to be successful in life, there are going to be many limits imposed on them by employers and social circles. We sometimes don't like them, but a successful life is going to be a compromise, and that's what schools should be reinforcing.
Even if you subscribe to the idea that "free speech" has been subverted, this kid's message kinda "sucks" anyway. "I spent 12 years in public school on the taxpayer's dime, and all I got was this stupid T-Shirt!"
Anyway, as far as attire, we really should have school uniforms throughout Texas. Khakis, polos, and black shoes or tennis... Why not?