Shocker Sign Gets a High School Student Suspended

I won't say where and I won't say who but Friday a student at a local school made a hand gesture and got suspended. A local tv station came to promote the school and as another student was talking on camera, in the background this student and another student made the shocker sign. The "Shocker" is a 2003 song from the band Steel Panther. I won't go into it, you can look it up. The song is a parody and it's a little perverted in nature but again, he said nothing and made the sign. Anyway, the school saw the shocker and the tv station censored it out. The kid was suspended 2 days from school and has to miss 6 basketball games. People, including my sister said "it's like flipping the bird" or it's "gang signs."

Are you kidding me? This kid made a gesture in the background, it's not like he gave someone a shocker on camera. It's like flipping the bird? The intent when you flip the bird is to tell someone off. The shocker is boys being boys. It's a joke guys find funny but girls always make the mad face at. I have pictures of me making the shocker 10 years before it came out. The name of our school started with a W and the shocker sign looked like a W. So, I have pictures of me flashing this offensive sign with a smile on my face. Usually when people flip the bird, they have a much different look on their face.

By all accounts, this is a really good kid who steers clear of trouble. He comes from a good family, who I have known almost my entire life. I think I am the only one who is outraged that they made this kid miss school and miss basketball games. Of all the stuff that goes on in high schools these days, they are suspending a kid for making a hand gesture? I do not think it was the most classy move someone could make but suspending them? I think the school missed an opportunity to educate and make sure it doesn't happen again. If I were in school and knew I could get a few days off for making the shocker, I would do it just to do it.

I do not believe there was malicious intent and this kid is having an example made out of him. It's a really small town and embarrassing when everyone in the town is judging you for being a kid. He will NEVER live this down. This is a kid who made a hand gesture and got suspended. Who is really hurt by this? A few years ago, radio edited the Icona Pop song "I Love It!" They didn't want kids to hear the line, "I crashed my car into a bridge" because they were concerned youths would start hurling their cars at bridges. The sanitization of America continues. This fun came at the expense of no one. No one was hurt. I feel like I'm in the movie Footloose? I wonder if dancing will be banned soon.

Half of people don't even know what the shocker really means. You have to know what it means to be offended. By suspending this kid, they have spread shocker awareness.

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