"Snohos" derogatory?



I was in Washington State last weekend, and while there caught a news story about 3 high school students who were disciplined for wearing T-shirts with the word "Snohos" on them.

What is strange about this story is that the high school in question is located in the town of Snohomish. The word "Snoho" is used as slang for the town or its inhabitants. And, by what I've read, it has even been used on the high school campus in years past with no one saying anything about it.

But when the three young men showed up at school with the pluralized form "Snohos," the principal demanded that they not wear the shirts in school because it was "demeaning" to women. Say what?

The men were using the term to refer to themselves and displaying a term demeaning to women was the furthest thing from their minds, apparently. But the principal (a woman) chose to take offense at the term and make an issue out of it. And all the citations of the general use of the word "snoho" apparently won't change her mind. It's OK when singular, but offensive when plural.

What it says to me is this: some people strain very hard to ignore intentions and context to make innocent words or actions into offenses. Many examples of this appear to involve school principals, but I'm sure the phenomenon is not limited to them.

My advice to this principal is: loosen up a bit. You can read more about this story here. Or simply Google the word "snohos" to get more than you ever wanted to know about this.

Posted: Tue - April 5, 2005 at 02:54 PM        

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