The Arizona newspapers tackle the Maryland high school bola tie incident.
The official neckwear of Arizona is not a tie. Huh?
Next they’ll be saying ignorance is bliss.
By now, you’ve probably heard. A high school in Charles County, Md. withheld a diploma from a graduate because he wore a braided bola tie under his graduation gown.
The black bola tie with a silver-and-onyx clasp was not considered “acceptable” by school administrators. The youth, Thomas Benya, wanted to honor his Cherokee background by wearing the tie.
But administrators saPOSTID: “No.”
Around these parts, the bola tie is high chic. In a Maryland school district, the single-strand leather tie with a metal clasp, often adorned by a polished stone, is disruptive clothing.
Oh, those know-it-all Easterners. They’re hilarious.
But it wasn’t funny for a Maryland high school student in suburban Washington, D.C., when school officials denied him his diploma – which he earned – because he wore his bola tie during the graduation ceremony. Oh, by the way, the 17-year-old student, Thomas Benya, wore his black bola tie underneath his purple gown.
Around these parts, that’s called official stupidity. It’s also a big-time insult to Arizona, where the stylish tie was born.
“It’s an important part of Arizona’s patrimony,” said Diane Dittemore, Ethnological Collections curator at the Arizona State Museum.
The bola tie is Arizona’s official neckwear. It has been since 1971, when then-Gov. Jack Williams made the bola a fashion statement.
Hey, Washington Post, please note: It’s BOLA not bolo.
I think I’m going to need an attorney on retainer once my kids enter public school.
I was told if I showed up for my senior picture (a commercial photographer in a department store) without a tie that either he wouldn’t take my photo or the yearbook committe would omit my photo from the annual.
I showed up without a tie, the photographer took my picture and the yearbook left it in. Only one other guy in my senior class of about 300 was photographed without a tie. But he was star athlete, a BMOC and an African-American in a school that had only a handful of African-Americans.
That was 1975.
Somehow I thought by now our society might have come a little further along with regards to respecting others’ cultures and beliefs. If anything I would say it’s gotten worse in many ways.
When I was in high school (Class of 1970) there was a guy they said couldn’t march at graduation because he had long hair. (For the record, he was an excellent student.) No matter though, because a bunch of jocks got him down and chopped it off for him.