page_title: Katie Sierra suspension controversy
section_title: Background and suspension
hierarchical_section_title: Katie Sierra suspension controversy / Background and suspension
caption_attribution_description: English: 011031-N-3405L-007 In the skies over Afghanistan (Oct. 31, 2001) &#8211; Two 500-pound Laser Guided Bomb Units (GBU-12) (left) and an AIM-9 &#8220;Sidewinder&#8221; short-range air-to-air missile are visible on the wing of an F/A-18 &#8220;Hornet&#8221; from the "Mighty Shrikes" of Strike Fighter Squadron Nine Four (VFA-94). VFA-94 is assigned to Carrier Air wing Eleven (CVW 11) aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and conducting missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Steve Lightstone. (RELEASED)
context_page_description: The Katie Sierra suspension controversy began in October 2001 when high school student Katie Sierra was suspended from Sissonville High School for her activism in opposition to the bombing of Afghanistan. The fifteen-year-old Sierra was engaged in anti-war activism at her school, near Charleston, West Virginia, wearing clothes with handwritten messages objecting to U.S. militarism, racism, sexism, and homophobia. She applied for permission to start an anarchist club at the school, and was denied by the school's principal. Her attempts at publicizing the club led to her being suspended from school for three days. Incendiary comments by the principal and the members of the school board were reported in the press and provoked a controversy that garnered national and international media attention.
  Following verbal and physical assaults by Sierra's fellow students, her mother withdrew her from the school and, with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union, initiated legal action against the headmaster and the school board.
context_section_description: Katie Sierra was born in Panama into a military family; her father served in the U.S. Army and was later a contractor employee of the military, in which two of her uncles also served. During Sierra's childhood, her family moved around frequently; prior to attending Sissonville High School in Pocatalico, West Virginia (a community near Charleston), she had attended eleven schools and lived in Florida, New Mexico, Ohio and Kentucky.
  Sierra identified as an anarchist-pacifist opposed to all violence and advocating "a peaceful revolution". In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, she was taken aback by the wave of "flag-waving", increasing patriotism and "blind, unthinking" advocacy of war on the part of her fellow students, who she believed ignored existing problems such as racism and homophobia. Although described as a "good student with no history of behavioral problems", she soon became embroiled in a controversy at the Charleston-area high school. On October 23, 2001 Sierra asked the school's principal, Forrest Mann, if she could start an anarchist club at the school, after reading about the subject on Infoshop.org. Among the possible club activities she mentioned were reading and discussion groups and community service, while flyers for the club also proposed starting a zine (called the Anny) and a chapter of Food Not Bombs. The club's manifesto declared "[t]his anarchist club will not tolerate hate or violence ... It is our final goal to dispel myths about anarchism, especially the belief that anarchy is chaos and destruction". Without reading Sierra's literature, Mann refused to grant permission for such a club in the school, and according to Sierra had to ask her several times to return to class when he would not explain his decision.
  To my students ... the concept of anarchy is something that is evil and bad.
  — Headmaster Forrest Mann, quoted in The Guardian
  Sierra attended class wearing T-shirts with handwritten political slogans, a practice she claimed to have adopted long before the September 11, 2001 attacks: among the messages written on the T-shirts were "Against Bush, Against Bin Laden" and "When I saw the dead and dying Afghani children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense of national security. God bless America." Classmates of Sierra informed reporters of their intention to give her a taste of "West Virginia justice". After reading the back of Sierra's T-shirt, fellow student and aspirant U.S. Marine Jacob Reed allegedly told her, "If you don't like this country, then fucking leave", and was subsequently detained. The day of the incident, Mann summoned Sierra to his office and told her she would no longer be allowed to wear the shirts, and claimed that Sierra had violated his prior orders by making flyers for the club available to other students. Mann suspended her for three days, on the charge of disrupting the education of her fellow students. Oddly enough Jacob later contacted Katie via Facebook and apologized for lying and felt he was now more informed and wish he could take all of the bad treatment away from Katie.
caption: Photographed on October 31, 2001, an F/A-18 "Hornet" carries several bombs over Afghanistan. Katie Sierra wore a controversial T-shirt in protest over civilian casualties of airstrikes in the initial invasion of the country.
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