Anti gay shirts
CALIFORNIA — Afederal appeals court ruled yesterday that a educational facility district was justified inbarring a pupil from wearing a T-shirt with anti-gaystatements.
School officials can restrict what students wear to avoidviolating the rights or well-being of vulnerable pupil populations like gaystudents, according to the decision handed down by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court ofAppeals.
In a 2-1 decision, the court held that officials at PowayHigh College in Poway, Calif., did not violate student Tyler Harper’s FirstAmendment rights when they forbade him from wearing a T-shirt that said, ”Homosexuality Is Shameful” at school.
Judge AlexKozinksi issued the dissenting belief, asserting that academy officials werewrong to censor Harper because there was no evidence gay students were harmed byhis wearing of the T-shirt, which also said, ”Be Ashamed, Our SchoolEmbraced What God Has Condemned.”
Robert Tyler, an attorneyrepresenting Harper in the case, said he will petition immediately for anen banc re-hearing, where the entirepanel of circuit judges is called to re-hear and rule on the appeal. He said isalso considering taking Harper’s case to
It’s been a while since I had to study SAT vocab so maybe somebody can refresh my memory on what “pride” means. Is it “making others feel threatened, inferior or otherwise undesirable.” No? Really? A student at St. Charles North High School in Illinois wore a “straight pride” tshirt to school last week, the support of which featured a quote from Scripture advocating putting homosexuals to death. The next evening two other students wore the similar shirt. The first day the administration let the shirt go by without incident, only asking the student to cover up the quote from scripture at the finish of the evening. The second time the two students were asked to wear a sweatshirt over their tshirts. The school district says that they allowed the revolting tshirts to continue in the academy because this was a “teachable moment” about maintaining your own opinion while respecting others.
There are, to be polite about it, a few problems here. First is the obvious – that suggesting that someone’s identity could be punished by death is not actually a very “respectful” reaction to their “opinion,” if you call your R
Schools may ban hurtful T-shirt slogans
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Public schools can lock clothing with slogans that are hurtful, a U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday in the case of a student who wore a T-shirt saying "Homosexuality is shameful."
The 2-1 ruling 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 queer and straight students.
The trainee sued, claiming the school's dress code violated his free speech, religious release and due process rights.
Writing for the panel's majority, Judge Stephen Reinhardt affirmed a lower court's conclusion against an injunction against the school and said schools may bar slogans believed to be hurtful.
Students "who may be injured by verbal assaults on the basis of a core identifying characteristic such as race, religion, or sexual orientation, have a right to be free from such attacks while on school campuses," Reinhardt wrote.
"The demeaning of adolescent gay and lesbian students in a schoo
ILLINOIS — Two high school students filed a lawsuit against their school district on March 21 claiming one student was told to remove her anti-gay T-shirt that read, “Be happy, not gay.”
A lawyer for Neuqua Valley High School senior Heidi Zamecnik and freshman Alexander Nuxoll filed the lawsuit, claiming that Zamecnik’s First Amendment rights were violated when administrators told her she could not wear the shirt because it was offensive. The lawsuit requests a preliminary and permanent injunction to permit her and other students to wear their T-shirts.
Zamecnik wore the T-shirt on April 20, 2006, in opposition to the nationwide observance of the “Day of Silence,” an annual protest that encourages students to visibly support homosexuality, but remain silent to back those who are discriminated against. Neuqua Valley students had been permitted to wear T-shirts for the “Day of Silence,” which is sponsored by the Queer , Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
According to the complaint, Zamecnik was taken to the office by a school official to come across with Dean of Students Bryan Wells, who said she had to change her shirt or she wou