Guns and carnations

For the record: pink is not the new black. \nIt's pink. Or maybe I'm wrong. \nIn any case, the color's been banned in the Merrillville, Ind., school district.\nFashion faux pas or not, administrators at the school have come to associate pink with gang activity and banned it for the remainder of the school year.\nCheck the logic: "There is no evidence of gang activity," says Associate Superintendent Michael Berta, according to the Associated Press. "But because of the growing use of the color pink, we decided to be proactive. Girls and boys are supposed to avoid wearing pink."\nSo whether hip-hoppers rock cotton candy laces in S. Carter sneakers, skaters sport electric pink wristbands or Ryan Seacrest-followers don salmon button-downs, the administration says, "Cut it out."\nThe ban on pink may now become as big a trend as the color itself.\nSouthern High, a public school in North Carolina, has already banned red, blue and white apparel. It's now considering a ban on pink for reasons similar to Merrillville's, according to an ABC affiliate.\nIn Newport Beach, Calif., six middle school students were actually barred from a class portrait for wearing pink T-shirts, according to the Associated Press.\nThe school's principal associated the "Easter pink" shirts and black and pink wristbands with "dance crews" that hold all-night dance contests and raves and sometimes evolve into gangs.\nA Newport Beach student was quoted in the local newspaper crediting "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest with starting the pink trend. Seacrest caught wind, and on his morning radio show, "American Top 40," he deemed last week "Think Pink" week and encouraged students to wear the color in protest.\nSo are schools around the nation trying to prevent youth from following the self-described "Pink Piper" into the metrosexual world of eyebrow waxing and hair frosting? Maybe.\nAmong female students, the color pink went unnoticed. But it seems administrators and parents alike are simply baffled about boys' new affinity for pink. \nBut is it the "Ryan Seacrest" crowd that administrators fear the most?\nDoubt it.\nMerrillville administrators' suspicion of gang activity might have something to do with the school's location 10 minutes from Gary. Gary's been commonly associated with gang-activity, and neighboring areas are trying to stay as unrelated to the "Murder Capital" as possible. \nBut with students dressing like rapper Cam'ron -- clad in bubble gum-colored baseball caps and carnation-dyed Timberland boots -- keeping a suburban image is hard to do. \nStudents are wearing pink in inexplicably high numbers, and administrators can't understand why. So rather than have no explanation for the trend, somebody decided a wrong explanation would be just as good.\nBut what if plaid comes in vogue, and "dance crew" kids or "gang bangers" start dressing like Al Borlen? Will everyone else be deprived of the right to wear shirts that look like picnic-blankets?\nIn the spirit of the First Amendment, we must fight for our right to wear pink. Because in America, even bad fashion sense is Constitutionally-protected.