Court Enforces School's Ban of Anti-Gay Shirt

[RedEarth]

SAN FRANCISCO — A suburban San Diego teenager who was barred from wearing a T-shirt with anti-gay rhetoric to class lost a bid to have his high school's dress code suspended Thursday after a federal appeals court ruled the school could restrict what students wear to prevent disruptions.

The ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals addressed only the narrow issue of whether the dress code should be unenforced pending the outcome of the student's lawsuit.

A majority of judges said, however, that Tyler Chase Harper was unlikely to prevail on claims that the Poway Unified School District violated his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion for keeping him out of class when he wore a shirt with the message "homosexuality is shameful."

Tyler Chase Harper sued the Poway Unified School District in San Diego federal court after the principal at Poway High School refused to let the student attend class wearing a T-shirt scrawled with the message "homosexuality is shameful

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192527,00.html

[don954]

1. I dont agree with the ruling

The SC has said that people are allowed to express themselves in school. The statement wasn't inflammatory enough to require banning, I would say any message not inciting violence should be allowed. Ie, "Gays are bad" would be allowed, and "Gays should be hung" is not allowed.

Besides, its not "cool" nowadays to be a bigot, at least around here, if the student keeps it up they wont have anybody but other bigot losers to hang with...

[Kailassa]

10. And what if the slogan was "being Black is Shameful"?

do you think that would be ok too?

[roseBudd]

12. The fundies are pulling this crap on purpose, the lawsuits are part

of the plan. He wore the shirt for the express purpose of being an dick. They ought to mind their own fucking business. We do have separation of church and state. Leviticus is not in the Constitution.

[LostinVA]

16. Dress codes are allowed in schools, just as they are at work

Even civil servants can't wear whatever they want to work, including inflammatory or political clothing.

[sui generis]

2. Tyler has issues.

Poor kid hates that other gay kids get to be out but he's too afraid. And now he just made it orders of magnitude more difficult to ever come out of the closet.

That's some fucked up protoplasm running around right there.

[Clintmax]

6. I agree...

What if he wore a shirt that said "Being Black is Shameful" or "Black People Suck"? Neither is inflammatory...but I wouldn't want to get caught wearing it! It's only because it says stuff about homosexuality that he dared put it on. My guess is that he's gay too and overcompensating. :rofl:

[bluestateguy]

3. I think his free speech was abridged

Now if the shirt had a picture of a gay man being beaten to death, or lynched, or some kind of obvious inducement to violence then it could be argued that the shirt was a disruptance to the learning environment. Based on the information presented here, I would argue that his shirt is protected speech. There is no constitutional right to not be offended, and young people had better learn that now, before they go out into the real world.

But what a hateful young man.

[Red_Viking]

8. At school, unfortunately, his rights aren't absolute

SCOTUS has said this over and over again. At school, the administration has a legitimate interest in keeping order. If the shirt is disruptive, it can be banned. He and the RW hatemongers can cry all they want, but if a principal can justify searching a kid's locker or purse, they can tell him not to wear that shirt. Schools aren't public places, so content-based speech can be regulated. In just about any other setting, he'd be free as a lark to wear that shirt, or just about anything else, and I support his right to be a hateful douchebag. He has a message to get out and that's fine, he just can't do it at school if it's disruptive. Heck, the school controls what's in the student newspaper, and the content of their graduation speeches, and it's OK.

Where was the RW rescue squad when kids have been in trouble for wearing anti-* shirts, or painting anti-* pictures in art? Sounds like the same thing to me. :P


Peace,

RV

[Orsino]

15. Partly because the students are a captive audience, I hope.

Since the other kids are required by law to be present, they deserve special protections against his hate speech.

[BOHICA06]

4. Equate it with the Confederate Flag ....

...the government school has a responsibility to keep order and control behavior and head-off disruption

[Downtown Hound]

5. They should have just let Tyler wear the shirt

and watch his social life take an even bigger nosedive than it likely already had.

[bluestateguy]

7. Not only that

Now he's a martyr and he'll become a "victim" as he makes the rounds on the RW talk shows.

[roseBudd]

13. Unfortunately the children of the Fox watrchers future college republicans

are popular, like the girls in heathers.

[progressivebydesign]

9. amazing how these little hateful shits have money to sue people.

When so many hardworking people out there are victimized and unable to sue because they have no access to an attorney.

[devilgrrl]

11. Jesus, what a faggot!

the kid with the shirt I mean....Sorry, in my book homophobe=homo. What an asshole.

:puke:

[cboy4]

14. He's well on his way to attacking gay people with a baseball bat.

I wonder if his parents see him leaving the house with that shirt, or whether he changes later on?

[niyad]

17. I would have immediately worn one which read, "bigotry, hatred, stupidity

and homophobia are shameful and obscene" wonder how far THAT would have gotten.

[deadparrot]

18. Court: Schools can ban hurtful T-shirt slogans

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Public schools can bar clothing with slogans that are hurtful, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday in the case of a student who wore a T-shirtsaying "Homosexuality is shameful."

The 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals backed a San Diego-area high school's argument that it was entitled to tell a student to remove a T-shirt with that message.

The officials were concerned the slogan could raise tension at the school, where there had been conflict between gay and straight students.

The student sued, claiming the school's dress code violated his free speech, religious freedom and due process rights.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060420/pl_nm/life_dresscode_dc

[realisticphish]

19. this is one of those areas

where i'm EXTREMELY hesitant. I just don't know what I think about the applicability of civil liberties in schools, and what is "hateful" and what isn't. What's religious freedom, what isn't?

It's one hell of a murky issue.

[rodeodance]

20. to me this is form of hate speech and has no place in schools

[toopers]

21. This might not stop at the appeals court level.

I have to believe we will be seeing this one in front of the SCOTUS in a few months. If they don't take this one, there will be a plethora of others to follow.

[Maat]

22. Bob Tyler .... the infamous Religious-hardrightie lawyer ...

has his office in a certain California city ..... with ..... dah tum te da .... Maat, the Goddess of Truth, Justice and the Law (beautiful Murrieta, California)(although we don't know each other).

[IKScott]

23. I thought wrong

I thought there has been a law about that for sometime now.

[Maat]

24. I should explain ..

Robert Tyler, the lawyer, has an office in the same city in which I live. I was amazed to find this out ... when I started to research the Religious Hardright (and the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit legal organization which receives funding from favorite hardright millionaires). The main office of the Alliance Defense Fund is in Arizona, but one of the two satellite offices is in ..... (drum roll) ... in Murrieta, Ca., one of the few deep red areas in an otherwise blue state. There are a few hundred progressive activists in the area (at least), and we are a pretty tight group.

I'm buddies with some of the lawyers/retired-lawyers who are members of local A.U. (Americans United for the Separation of Church and State).

To me, the important thing here is the legal standard: compelling interest. There must be a compelling interest to interfere with the fundamental right of free speech, but the government may regulate the time, place and manner of free speech, if the aim is not viewpoint or content discrimination. Like the DUer above said, the government may regulate the free speech of students if it is disruptive (the actual words of the standard are basically delineated in the article). The thinking behind that is, basically, that keeping the schools free of major disruption is a very compelling thing.

Maat, J.D.

[noonwitch]

25. The school has the right to institute a dress code

The codes tend to vary by commuity, but my guess is most school districts would ban a t-shirt like this because it is offensive to gays. If the kid wants to wear it in his own house or the neighborhood, fine, but not to school. If he pushes it, the school should just ban all t-shirts.

[callous taoboy]

26. I hope a most flaming gay saves this boy's life some day. n/t

[stepnw1f]

27. "People Don't Tolerate My Hatred...WAAAAAA"

I'm telling my daddy, he'll sue you all!"

How embarrasing is that?