Baggy Pants + MP3 Player = Gun Scare

An article was published today in the DNJ that the alleged gun students thought they saw at LaVergne High School this weekend was actually an MP3 player tucked in a student's pants. In his baggy pants. Read about the student's vindication here. I'm glad to read that the school does not now have to search him every day when he arrives, but do believe the school initially did the right thing in sending him home for the day. I know the parents must be terribly upset, but after reading about the incidents at Paducah, Columbine, and the kindergardeners slaughtered in Scotland, you just can't take chances like that with our kids.

Which brings us around to the whole baggy pants thing that we see kids wearing these days. I feel like such an old fuddy-duddy, but I HATE that look. I truly don't get it. It looks beyond ridiculous - it looks stupid, clownish, and is such a poor reflection about the intelligence of the dudes who wear them. Of course, this is my opinion and I'm completely uncool, not down with it, etc. I just want to run up behind the boys (and yes I mean boys because no man, no real man, would do this) and yank their pants down. Instead, I turn away laughing. Yes, laughing. And I sometimes say, "Your pants are falling down" and my daughters hide their faces embarrassed to be seen with me. But they can't explain the look either.

Are the baggy pants a "gang" thing? Is it a rap thing? Is it peer pressure? I guess I'm lucky to have daughters because I'm afraid I'd have to take away the right to choose from my son if I had one and he chose that look.