Trend is fairly subjective, however the “saggy pants” phenomenon is one fashion that’s confirmed persistently controversial. As some teenagers discovered, this specific wardrobe alternative comes with penalties. Once they refused to drag up their pants, a deputy taught them a robust lesson in respect. However, did it go too far? You determine.
Deputy Charles Woods, the varsity useful resource officer at Bolivar Central Excessive Faculty, about 70 miles east of Memphis, Tennessee, stirred up controversy after shelling out what some say is a harsh punishment for top schoolers who refused to drag up their pants. In a matter of roughly two weeks, 4 Tennessee highschool college students discovered themselves in scorching water over low waistbands, and a minimum of three had Woods to thank for the penalties they confronted.
The 4 saggy pants sporting teenagers had been charged with indecent publicity after sporting their pants too low to high school. Though the arresting officer of the fourth teen was not listed, Deputy Charles Woods was liable for making the opposite three arrests, based on on-line data from the Hardeman County Sheriff’s Division. Including to the controversy, two of the 4 teenagers, each seniors at Bolivar Central Excessive Faculty, had been jailed for his or her style fake pas.
After being reprimanded a number of occasions, the scholars continued to violate the varsity costume code by refusing to drag up their saggy pants. For his or her disobedience and low-riding clothes, the 2 seniors spent 48 hours in jail after Deputy Charles Woods determined sufficient was sufficient. One among them was Antonio Ammons, who stated he had by no means been in jail earlier than.
“I simply took it and went on,” Ammons stated, talking of his time behind bars within the Hardeman County Felony Justice Complicated, the place he was positioned with different inmates. “I didn’t know what else to do,” Ammons, who lived together with his great-grandmother on the time, continued. “I actually didn’t prefer it,” he stated, including that he additionally had to determine how one can pay greater than $250 in fines and court docket charges which additionally resulted from the arrest.
In an affidavit, Deputy Charles Woods stated Ammons had been suspended beforehand for allegedly “displaying gang associated/hate violence or intimidation” and “walks round all day every single day disrespecting the principles of the varsity, the principal, the lecturers, different college students, and even the SRO.” By Ammons personal admission, his pants had been slung so low, his underwear and fitness center shorts had been seen.
Even so, a few of his friends and their mother and father deemed the punishment extreme, saying the teenager mustn’t have been jailed for his clothes decisions. “They didn’t must go to that excessive,” scholar Cheyenne Lindsey stated, defending the saggy pants sporting teenagers. Guardian Crystal Wing agreed. “I believe jail time is perhaps slightly an excessive amount of, however on the identical time there was a number of sagging pants,” she stated.
After he obtained wind of BCHS’ low-riding pants debacle involving Deputy Charles Woods and the arrests, he began a marketing campaign amongst Kansas Metropolis voters, asking for his or her signatures to ban the show of “public indecency” citywide. “Loads of folks are very offended at this style,” he stated. “It’s our proper not to have a look at your underwear!”
What naysayers hardly ever point out, nevertheless, is that this manner of sporting one’s pants additionally causes well being issues, as “The Medical doctors” clarify within the clip beneath. However, whether or not you imagine the pattern is harmful or assume it signifies a scarcity of respect for self or others, that’s not the one factor to think about within the case of the Tennessee teenagers.
The divisive pattern is undeniably some extent of competition in lots of communities. It’s already been banned in a number of locations, corresponding to Opa-Locka, Florida, and Wildwood, New Jersey, the place a unanimous vote banished saggy pants from the boardwalk in 2013. In 2016, Timmonsville, South Carolina, additionally launched a saggy pants ban, together with a heavy tremendous of as much as $600 for anybody violating the rule. But, there was extra at play at BCHS than low-riding waistbands.