In a small high school in DeKalb county Alabama, the principal nearly expelled a young woman because of a simple tongue piercing. She worked as a library aide for three years running and was salutatorian of her senior class, yet because of one little piercing, all of her achievements suddenly did not matter. On the day she returned to school after Christmas break the principal took her aside and told her that she was not allowed to attend classes or return to her job as an aide until she removed her tongue ring. The young woman refused and her mother had to be called in to speak to the principal on the matter.
             As punishment they dropped the girl into a class full of seventh graders and she was not allowed to be an aide. The class lowered her grade point average and she lost her place in the class rankings from second to third. How could something so simple cause such chaos? To make matters worse, out of twenty-seven students, ten had various body piercings and were allowed to get away with them without punishment. Does this sound fair?
             The young woman held no grudge against her classmates but her opinion of both the teacher who turned her in and the principal dropped greatly. How can people just forget or never even look at a person's achievements just because they have some sort of body piercing? What about the piercings disgusts people so badly?
             I tell the story of the young woman because I am the young woman. I lost my place in the class rankings, I lost my job as an aide, and a teacher lost my respect. People just cannot look past them to see the person who is really there. They believe that once a person has a piercing that they are not the same and do not deserve the respect they once had. This is the misconception of piercings. Why can a person not be the same when they have some sort of body piercing? What alters their personality?
             Absolutely nothing. They are the same person they were befor...