Summer CE Week #2: “Freedom to say what school officials allow” Aug. 24th
I’m still trying to get my head around the idea that a public school can ban a student from wearing a T-shirt with the First Amendment printed on the back.
Where is that written in the Constitution?
“Congress shall make no law …” isn’t really an anything-goes license for expression. But surely even limits on students’ speech must themselves abide by reasonable limits.
Most of the news stories I’ve seen about the lawsuit Pete Palmer and his parents filed against the Waxahachie, Texas, school district have focused on his being told his “John Edwards for President” shirt violated the high school’s dress code.
Not so highlighted is the fact that officials also rejected a shirt flaunting the text of the First Amendment.
And a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week said it would not issue a preliminary injunction against enforcing the ban.
If you analyze the case by just applying sterile legal tests, I suppose, maybe you can reach that conclusion.
As court papers describe the dispute, Palmer was a sophomore who showed up at school in September 2007 wearing a black T-shirt that read “San Diego.”
An assistant principal said he was violating the dress code’s no-messages provision, so his father brought him a T-shirt with a logo resembling a John Edwards ’08 bumper sticker.
Couldn’t wear that one either. Palmer and his lawyer-father couldn’t convince various district officials that the code should exempt clearly political messages that weren’t disruptive, lewd or advocating illegal behavior.
So the family sued.
Under a revised dress code, students could no longer tout their favorite college or pro team but could flash political buttons, bumper stickers or wristbands. That was supposed to compensate for not being able to wear even an Edwards for President polo shirt or a T-shirt with “Freedom of Speech” on the front and the First Amendment on the back, both of which officials rejected, according to the 5th Circuit.
In a series of rulings, the most famous of which is Tinker v. Des Moines School District in 1969, the Supreme Court has said that students don’t shed their constitutional free-speech rights at the schoolhouse gate.
But none of those cases really matter for Waxahachie, it turns out, because the dress code bars all messages – innocuous, popular or controversial – that aren’t related to school teams, groups or activities.
That makes it viewpoint-neutral, the 5th Circuit said, and therefore a pretty straightforward call: Promotes an important government interest; doesn’t aim to suppress speech; and is not broader than necessary.
This ruling also makes me wonder where the court will go with another dress code brouhaha in which students and their parents decided to pick a fight.
A different three-judge panel heard arguments in February over whether Burleson (Texas) High School could require a pair of students to leave their Confederate flag purses home.
This is not a content-neutral rule; it admittedly targeted displays that officials said had caused too much racial hostility and turmoil to be allowed at school.
The girls, who’ve since graduated, have argued that the amount of conflict has been exaggerated, the school doesn’t uniformly police inappropriate displays and, in any event, displaying the flag promotes healthy discussion.
It would be just perverse if a federal appeals court were to let Waxahachie ban the First Amendment on a shirt but require Burleson to allow Confederate flag-emblazoned purses.
But it wouldn’t be the first time the First Amendment’s been stood on its head.
Linda P. Campbell is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star- Telegram. Her e-mail address is lcampbell@star-telegram.com.
I was actually not aware of public schools with such deep dress codes that they ban messages on clothing, and I thought our school’s dress code was a little over the top. What’s next, no public protesting? No public opinions at all? I find this a direct violation of the First Amendment. The author stated, “‘Congress shall make no law…’ isn’t really an anything-goes license for expression,” but I honestly think that it is. That is if it’s a non-violent expression. Just because students are not “adults” by the terms of the government means that they are not guaranteed their constitutional rights? That doesn’t make sense. Expression is especially important to young adults for figuring out who they are as a person. Taking away their expression is like trying to make them all the robots. There should be no exceptions to Amendments unless you want them entirely changed. If our country even finds this remotely acceptable, then we should just become fascist now and get it out of the way. I would like to know how school districts can get away with dress codes such as those in Waxahachie if there was such a Supreme Court ruling as Tinker v. Des Moines School District. Was there a loop-hole, or was it just being ignored?
Commenting On Linda p. Campbell:
What I Know: Although I do have a general idea of the first amendment and its content, the subject of this article is a mystery to me. I know that the first amendment promises free speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, freedom to petition, and freedom of press. When constructing a school dress policy or any other school code for that matter the constitution is obviously a deciding factor.
My Opinion: The case involving Pete Palmer infuriates me. I agree with the author that the situation is absolutely mind boggling. It’s the school policy that confuses me, it would make sense that when writing up school regulations the actual constitution would have some weight in the decisions made but I guess not in Texas… Even after they sued, the school still wouldn’t allow shirts with political (or otherwise) messages on it and that just seems blatantly stupid to me. And the fact that they did allow political paraphernalia in other forms just shows that while giving into the law in some way they still gave common sense a slap in the face by banning t-shirts.
PS: The whole confederate flag thing just seems unpatriotic in the first place and probably should have been banned.
Questions: I wish to know where the rights stated in constitution, and the rights of minors meet. I understand that schools are allowed to violate some rights given to students (such as searching your locker or car) but I want to know which rights and which parts of the constitution are always upheld and which ones aren’t. It seems to me that the line between government based rights and minors is a blurred one at best.
I’ve heard some of the ridiculousness that school codes have amounted to, but not much about this particular case. I can understand not allowing kids to wear shirts that are vulgar or offensive, but to not allow someone to wear a shirt stating the first amendment? Isn’t that a bit ironic? I can slightly understand banning political slogans, but this is isn’t a matter of opinion, like the Edwards shirt.
I’d like to know if there was any particular reason why the school created that particular “no messages” rule.
First off I am thankful for the relaxed nature of the dress code at MSHS, because these instances seem utterly ridiculous! If a school wants to be as harsh as these schools seem about what kids can and can’t wear, they should just have uniforms. I understand the purpose of a dress code to stop kids from wearing things that could distract from learning or promote illegal activities – these rules make sense.
But by giving the school officials this power to decide what is right and wrong for kids to wear to school, it is going to be very hard to draw a line between the appropriate and inappropriate rules. The first amendment is not distracting to school work and I believe should be allowed in schools, just as you should be allowed to support a political party a sports team or a band. I don’t know anyone that would go to court for such a purpose though; this seems to me like those people must have time and money to waist. Even if you disagree with the rules of your school shouldn’t you be responsible for following them? Or find a place that suits you better.
I want to know my classmates opinions on if there should be a line drawn for what is appropriate or not by each state so that there is no confusion? If the rules should be different for public or private schools? And what people think those rules should be?
Having been in both public and private school systems, things seemed pretty relaxed compared to what I heard in this article. I know private schools have the ability to dictate and enable different dress codes much differently than public schools.
I think that the balance between a neutral learning environment and freedom of speech is very interesting. Has anyone ever participated in a school or even class walk-out? It is just an expression of protest within bounds of the Law, but is it allowed at school? I am impartial, but not objective, to the idea of allowing political paraphernalia. But not letting kids wear their favorite sports teams? I would think wearing my USC jersey would be just as offensive to a UCLA fanatic as Hollister wearer to a Hot Topic regular. And now that I think of it, sport affiliated shirts could cause just as much argumentation as political affiliated ones. You cannot make everyone happy, and anything you do can offend someone; so I believe we need to stop tip-toeing around everything and anything based off of someone’s false presumptions.
If there were to be a standard rule regarding slogans and writing on clothing in public schools, what should it be? Is it possible we could create free expression in schools within healthy, productive bounds?
Mary I think that the state regulating school rules on things like dress code is an amazing idea. If there was a committee set up to go over rules set in by school systems, maybe confusion and conflicts like this wouldn’t be such a problem. I also am very thankful that Mt Spokane is pretty relaxed when it comes to things like this.
I found this article very interesting. There has always been an occasional story in the news about how a family has sued the school because of various reasons, but this article really stood out to me. I know every school has its dress code. For example, Mt. Spokane doesn’t allow gang related clothing, baggy clothes, or anything too revealing. However, from what I’ve observed, I don’t think our school really enforces their rules they’ve established concerning clothing. So when I hear about schools like the one in Texas, I’m taken back a little. It sounds so absurd and completely ridiculous.
First off, I wish the article gave some more background info. I wonder if there was an incident within the district that caused such extreme actions to be taken? Well, with the information given I believe the school is taking it a little too far. They’re spending their energy trying to enforce a harsh dress code when they could focus their attention on something more important such as fixing behavior problems and bettering students academically.
I can understand restricting students to wear vulgar or disrespectful shirts with rude messages, but if the clothing has nothing like that then it should be allowed. Clothing is a way to express ourselves and show our personalities. And really, if the school does not want that they should just have uniforms. If the 1st amendment doesn’t apply to clothing then what does it apply for? I can’t understand why a school would let you voice your opinion in a class discussion but not in clothing. What’s going to come next–we can’t wear the colors of a Middle Eastern flag because it insinuates that we are unpatriotic? I really think this school in Texas has gone too far. They should just relax and resort to uniforms if it’s such a big issue.
Before this story, I’d never heard of high school dress code problems. What didn’t make sense to me was the part about the shirt that had the First Amendment printed on it being banned. The First Amendment is all about freedom of speech etc., so it’s a little ironic. Another part that didn’t really make sense was when, “Under a revised dress code, students could no longer tout their favorite college or pro team but could flash political buttons, bumper stickers or wristbands.” It’s pretty ridiculous. Why would they be allowed to flash political buttons but not college team stuff? I’m pretty sure that everyone who attends school is smart enough to wear clothes that are pleasing and appropriate. So what if someone wears a “someone for President” shirt, it just shows their personal opinion on that matter, and shouldn’t be taken offensively by anyone.
Say one day i show up in a Starbucks Shirt or something to school, and someone there doesn’t like Starbucks. What, are school officials going to ban me from wearing it just because someone doesn’t like the coffee? What we wear shows a part of who we are and what we like, it definitely doesn’t mean that everyone else has to like it just because we do.
What if schools were to have uniforms? That would make life simpler for a lot of teenagers, one – because no one can judge you based on what you wear, and two – because students can then focus on schoolwork instead of fashion.
I guess I’m not really for or against the guidelines of what to wear. I’m sort of in between because there are pros and cons to both sides.
I hadn’t heard of this case specifically, but I had heard of a thousand cases just like it. Whenever I hear stories like this, my mind goes to the robot kids in the “Another Brick in the Wall” video. School districts should know by now that they need to leave them kids alone!
It is understandable what the school district is trying to do, though. They want to avoid conflict (Quick! Call the superintendent! The kids are – gasp – debating) and protect its students and faculty from being offended, but it is not the school district’s place to protect them. There is no in between on free speech. You either have it or you don’t. And when school districts try and silence a voice, like they did with Pete Palmer, they are stifling freedom of speech.
My question is: Who, at Mt. Spokane, has the shirt with the most offensive slogan, and what does it say? And can you wear it to school on the first day?
In response to Mary Konis:
My personal opinion is that there should be no line. Anyone should be allowed to say anything, no matter how offensive. They should know, though, that someone will probably use their free speech and tell them how wrong the offender’s opinions are.
When I read this article I was shocked. Some schools are pretty strict on their dress code, but this is a little ridiculous. At my old school we had a dress code and a few times I got in trouble for having a little design on my sweatshirt. Most people get in trouble because what they are wearing is offensive, but I don’t think the constitution is offensive. I know that we have a freedom of speech and there are some things we shouldn’t say around certain people or in certain instances, but it doesn’t sound like this kid did anything wrong. What was the school’s dress code? Was there more to this than clothing?
Before reading this article, I was unaware of public schools being allowed to have such far-reaching and ridiculous dress codes. I know about the first amendment and the rights it guarantees, but I didn’t know that the courts supported such a suppression of those rights in this case.
I think the court ruling in favor of the school in this case is disapointing. Earlier rulings, such as the one mentionned in the article (Tinker v. Des Moines School District) even established that students keep their rights at school. I understand and support school officials banning shirts that are offensive or dangerous to other students. But banning a shirt displaying part of the document that our nation was founded on does not fall under either of those categories. It also would be fine in a private school, but unless the author of the article just left that fact out, it doesn’t appear to be one.
I question how the courts are able to support such a decision. I understand how something like this could happen in a lower court and later be rectified by a higher one, but how could the 5th circuit make a decision that is in direct opposition of an earlier decision by the Supreme Court?
JJ Scott and Dillon Fischer – The part where I think people get hung up on is the term “viewpoint-neutral”. Basically it means that it isn’t targeting a specific group but rather affects everybody in general. The best example I found of this is “viewpoint-neutral funding”, which means that everybody can be funded whether or not the people providing the funds disagrees with a group’s viewpoints or not. Turn this upside-down and you get the 5th circuit court’s answer to the issue. Because the dress code bans all messages, they weren’t directly limiting Pete Palmer’s freedom of speech and thus not violating his First Amendment rights. It’s one of those things where vague or hard-to-understand legal terms make getting to the heart of the issue difficult.
What I Know: Before reading this article, I never really thought much about school dress codes. Like Kaylie said, I know our school has one, but rarely do I see it being enforced. It is interesting to me to find out that a public school would have the right so say a student couldn’t wear a shirt saying “San Diego”. To me, that is in no way offensive or lewd.
My Opinion: Of course, like many others, I think this is crazy. I can see where there could be some gray area between having clothing portraying your freedom of speech and expression, but then also being lewd, offensive, and inappropriate ect. I don’t understand why someone would not be able to where a WSU sweatshirt to school! Who could that possibly be offending? A student who wants to go to University of Washington? Give me a break.
Questions: It seems weird to me that school dress codes are not all the same. I mean, if they are public high schools shouldn’t the students be treated the same whether they live here in Washington or in Texas? Also, since state’s dress codes obviously differ, are dress codes at high schools within the same state the same?
In response to Karen Burunov: “What if schools were to have uniforms? That would make life simpler for a lot of teenagers.”
Well, private schools have uniforms. I don’t think that a public school has the right to make everyone wear the same thing, it doesn’t make sense. Also, I don’t think it would make life easier. Obviously this particular case got a lot of attention, but I don’t think enforcing a cookie cutter uniform at a public school would do much good either. It would bring about more bad than good. One of the perks of going to a public school is that you can express yourself.
Before reading this I had read about many cases in which the First Amendment rights were violated and opinions suppressed. The case described in the article seemed extreme in comparison to other “fashion in school” debates.
Like most everyone, I wish to have my freedom of speech in whatever way I desire, I want to say and do whatever I want, and express my personal opinion in whatever way that I want. Everyone has different opinions and some people are more easily offended than others. I think that the school districts described in the article are trying to avoid confrontation through clothing, but if that’s what they are doing it is ridiculous that they would allow “political buttons, bumper stickers or wristbands”. There is a lot of flaw in the school district’s rules; they should have a firm opinion about opinions. However, at least it is opinion neutral. No one can wear their opinion. That is fair, in a sense that it is not siding with any one group. As opposed to Burleson, that is obviously against the confederate opinion. It is unfair to ban purses with the confederate flag, if there was no prior rule that banned opinion based fashion. In that case, if a girl wants to sport a confederate flag purse and risk the chance of being shot, why should the school care? I’m sure that the school didn’t ban any African American pride purses in order to protect the feelings of the people who support the confederate flag purses, if they did that it would be racism. That is what America is supposed to be about, housing the opinions of all, even if it differs from your own. As for Waxahachie, there must have been a specific incident that made them have the policy that they do. I also feel that Pete Palmer was just trying to make a point by wearing the first amendment shirt, and therefore causing the conflict that the school was trying to avoid. The school probably didn’t allow that shirt because they wanted to uphold their previous rule of no logos on shirts. In theory that rule would work, but not for very long, obviously. I think there is a pretty fine line between how public schools can make us dress. Anything that is distracting to the learning of the students should be banned, is the general feeling, but who can say what is distracting to my learning? In our school there has not been very much distraction because of logos, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened. People like conflict. There is no way to avoid it. My guess is that there is probably a school close to Pete Palmer that would let him wear what he wanted; he probably just liked challenging the school. This whole article just goes to show that people need to grow up and deal with people that have differing opinions than your own. Opposition will always be there and it would be better if people learn to discuss their opinion cordially.
My main inquiry about this article:
What drove the two mentioned school districts to have their dress codes?
In response to the many questions about uniforms in public schools:
I agree that because the dress code is such an issue in these schools, they should enforce a uniform policy. And in fact uniforms in public schools are on the rise.
http://www.educationbug.org/a/public-school-uniform-statistics.html
• Schools in 21 states and the District of Columbia have some sort of uniform requirements.
• Some cities have widespread uniform use in their public schools:
• 95% of New Orleans’ public schools require uniforms
• 85% of Cleveland’s public schools require uniforms
• 80% of Chicago’s public schools require uniforms
• 65% of Boston’s public schools require uniforms
• 60% of Miami’s public schools require uniforms
• 50% of Cincinnati’s public schools require uniforms
Although the use of uniforms in public schools are on the rise, I don’t think in would help in the two situations referred to in the article. The issue in the article is probably not because the student actually cares about wearing a logo shirt, but the moral behind being allowed to wear whatever you want according to the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. In these cases a uniform policy enacted after the case would do no good and perhaps make the situation worse. Uniforms do a lot to keep attention away from clothes, but seeing as how the logo issue was a completely neutral rule; the uniforms would probably be seen as a violation of opinion and expression as well.
I know that schools have dress codes, and Mt. Spokane’s dress code is pretty tolerant. The First Amendment guarantees free speech, and it shouldn’t be denied to anyone.
Although I wouldn’t like to go to a school with a dress code that doesn’t allow any writing on students’ clothing, I think that the school officials probably had their reasons to restrict the dress code so. Maybe the school had a history of students being provoked by a written message on a t-shirt, and the outcome was disruption of the learning environment, like at the Burleson High School. It is very ironic that the school was banning the text of the First Amendment, but from what I just read, that’s not the point. I don’t think that the issue was serious enough to sue for. I see banning writing on clothing just as a way to keep everything running smoothly. As long as everyone is forbidden from displaying messages, it’s fair. The title of this article, “Freedom to Say What School Officials Allow,” is a little off, because the article didn’t talk about actually saying something, rather wearing something, which is totally different. You still have your tongue, and you can use it to express your opinion. I think if we had more information on this case, my opinion might have changed.
I would really like to find out the whole story, the circumstances under which such a strong dress code was adopted at Palmer’s school. Also, I’d like to know why the first ever school dress code was adopted; it’s just interesting.
Wow. I knew nothing about this case before reading this article, but this is just bad. Not being able to wear a sports team? Uhh… are you serious? It’s a public school, many people can’t afford private school and I bet over half of the students’ entire wardrobe could be deemed opinionated by these standard. Offensive? No. Distracting? Hardly. It’s almost as though the school is just asking for trouble with such ridiculous bans. Move on to uniforms if you are that hardcore about it. But wait, if the uniform has a school logo on it, that might be promoting our school over another. No good! Who knows, maybe with these current implemented standards, all the kids with the Nike billboards on their chests will rise up and finally rebel against those with the Adidas billboards! Freedom! Really? The policies implemented by this public school district creates far more problems than it actually solves.
Response and Questions:
Response to Mary Konis: Well Mary, my opinion on the matter is that our school has it about right. The bottom line is, dress code should not be made a huge issue. The school should plan a dress code that fits in the context of what is for the most part normal wear. If it is what is normally worn, then it won’t be distracting in a learning environment. It is not rocket science though, there are things that are obviously inappropriate. This is where I disagree with Kyle Hicks. Kyle, I disagree with you when you say “Anyone should be allowed to say anything, no matter how offensive” (in regards to t-shirts, I am assuming). Am I correct in assuming there are certain clothes (for example, a shirt with a busty blonde washing a car, wearing next to nothing) that are not appropriate for a school environment? First of all, why would someone buy a shirt like that in the first place, literally no one thinks it’s cool. Second, why would you wear a shirt like that to school in the first place? Because you are asking for trouble. That is the purpose of having a dress code. It is not a black and white issue and dress code should be handled on a case by case basis, but if you are not going to have uniforms, then students should be able to grab basically anything out of their closet that they would normally wear and wear it to school. My question is this: What kind of tensions would rise as a result of various responses to separate instances. Would someone have potential to sue over such a minor issue (I can’t wear this but she can wear THAT?)?
“Freedom to say what school officials allow”
I have not heard about these types of issues addressed in the article. The schools the author writes about are cutting freedom of speech to their students telling them they can not show support for different opinions, even political, through the clothing and accessories they wear. I think if a school is going to go so far as to not allow writing then they should just require uniforms. On the other hand though, if the students and parents have personal problems on what the limits on clothes are, would it not just be easier to go to a different school with different policies then go to court because of a t-shirt? If you look nationwide each school has slightly different policies then others, at least that is what it seems like to me.
Yes, I believe that the specific schools mentioned in the article are too extreme but you can not just let students wear anything they want at anytime. Is this topic such an issue that the nationwide government needs to get involved and make a median that all schools must abide to prevent issues like these.
Are there schools in the U.S. that do allow students to just wear anything they want, no limits? Why is there such a difference in rules to each area/state?
I honestly cannot believe this even happened at a school. Yes I understand dress codes and why we have them but I have never heard of a school being so completely ridiculous and controlling. Most schools don’t allow the revealing tank tops and violence promoting t-shirts, but putting these kinds of restrictions on clothes just seems way over the top. I mean not being able to promote colleges? Did I even read that right? That’s crazy. I want to know why a school would be so demanding and strict with the dress codes. If they are that worried about things why don’t they just get uniforms? Then they will not have this problem.
In response to Kyle Hicks:
You honestly think that there should be no line? I disagree with this. I do think that this school went a little overboard but if there is no line at all kids will abuse that to the max. Can you imagine students being able to wear any shirt they want no matter how offensive? Kids would come to school wearing shirts saying they hate teachers or students or anything at all. It would be completely ridiculous. There definitely needs to be a line because clothes that can be bought are often way too inappropriate for a learning environment.
After reading “freedom to say what school officials allow” I learned that in Waxahachie, Texas, the school district isn’t allowing Pete Palmer to wear a shirt that had the first amendment on it and a shirt that had John Edwards for president on it. Pete’s dad who is a lawyer sued the school district. The court couldn’t do anything because the school banned all logos not just political ones. But in Burleson (Texas) High School, they banned confederate purses. The girls with the purses now say that the conflict was exaggerated and say that it would be perverse if the court banned shirt’s with the first amendment on it, but allow confederate purses.
I think that schools shouldn’t be allowed to ban shirts with the any amendment on it because your constitutional right shouldn’t stop just because you are at school.
I would like to know the outcome of that event and how the school has the power to stop people’s constitutional rights. Did the school ever change their dress code policy when this was all said and done.
This amazes me. If a school has such strict policies on a dress code, why not resort to a school uniform? Prevention of wearing t-shirts with any script on it not pertaining to the school itself seems to be a complete lockdown of any situation where a shirt may be considered “offensive”. My response: Since when has a t-shirt labeled by a logo of a college or professional sport team been considered controversial (please leave the Duke lacrosse team out of the conversation).” Complete control over expressively worded clothing could manifest in other forms of public expression. Remember: Actions speak louder than words.
In Response to Taylor Jordan:
That is a battle I would love to see. You’ll find me on the Nike side sporting Shox and a Just Do It attitude if it ever boils down to that. After reading your responses though I feel the need to throw away my busty blonde t shirt. Truthfully I don’t own one and for those of you who do, feel free to wear it everywhere but school. Not for the sake of the learning environment, but for the sake of the hundreds of parents who will catch wind of this article of clothing and create an uproar. Truthfully, thats where I believe the fear of clothing expression in school comes from: the parents. The school doesn’t want to deal with little Tommy’s parents as they bark at the principal for having to explain to their dear son what exactly that word meant on Anti-Establishment Jr.’s t shirt.
Continued:
That goes for those in the elementary school. As for high school, try to be more vague with your t shirt message so that it doesn’t catch the attention of upper authority.
In response to Karen Burunov:
One of the reasons for going to public school is to wear what you want. When people go to private school they expect to wear a uniform. Public schools shouldn’t have a uniform. That is one of the great things about going to a public school when you wear clothes that you like. And freedom of speech is part of wearing the freedom of wearing any clothes you want.
In response to Taylor Jordan:
I love irony, and this story is just full of it. I agree wholeheartedly with you, it’s like the school was just looking for trouble. Is it really necissary to ban kids from wearing sports logos? No. It’s not. My only wish was that students had some way, besides frivolous law suits, to fight back against…poor academic leadership (You know what/who I mean, hahaha).
Really, I think that this school is afraid of its students and is resorting to the Big Brother meathod of control. It’s easy to stay at the top if everybody else is the exact same. Make all the students wear “dry” clothes and teach them the same material without any diverse debates and soon enough you will have a group of little high school clones. Alright, maybe that was an exaggeration, but the rule does seem to stifle free thought, does it not?
In response to Ashton: I agree completely with you. Either let go of this somewhat oppressive ban or just go straight to uniforms.
Response to Kylei Tompkins
“What was the school’s dress code? Was there more to this than clothing?”
Answer- If you want to see the school’s exact dress code you can find it pretty easily. I searched google.com for the school district and found the high school’s homepage and from there you can find the web section for the dress code for students grades 6-12: http://www.hs.wisd.org/fyi/2009-10%20Secondary%20Student%20Dress%20Code.pdf. I will forewarn you, however, that the rules they list are intense. As far as being more to the situation than clothing, I couldn’t find anything where I looked that suggested that. I think in the students mind, it was mainly the fact that he could not show support by what he wore that lead to the court case. The school’s rules, however, state that “student clothing should be free of any slogans, words or symbols except those that promote the school district”. This causes me to believe that the school was just enforcing the rules, not targeting the shirt or any meaning behind it specifically.
First of all, I don’t agree with banning all logos from clothing. I did not realize schools went to such extremes to make clothing appropriate at school. I understand and agree with banning inappropriate logos, but I think a lot of time students’ personalities are expressed through the clothing they wear, and sometimes their clothing happens to have words on it.
I think telling a student they can’t wear a shirt with the first amendment written on it is taking it a little to far. Since the Constitution and the Amendments are taught in school, why should you be able to write it on paper and not on your clothing? I also don’t understand why it would be appropriate to wear these logos on buttons but not on clothing. You’re wearing it either way.
In response to Ashton:
You make a good point in bringing up logos of different schools colleges. I think a lot of the time, even if the conversation turns into an argument, a shirt labeled “Gonzaga University” could strike a good conversation. I also agree that if the school is going to ban all logos, they might as well just resort to administering school uniforms.
In response to J.J,
Though I agree with you about students being allowed there constitutional rights I think that maybe this situation was taken out of context. I do not believe that the school was trying to dis the first amendment or take away freedom of speech. I think they are just trying to take the disruptive part of wearing clothes that convey controversial messages out of there school. Though I do not agree with the schools opinion that wearing a shirt that has your favorite sports team is going to disrupt anything, I do believe that school has a right to make up a dress code rule if it is actually disrupting learning.
Ashton Boothroyd:
Dude, I agree with you and disagree with you. My middle school was just like this. The dress code was very strict. It was so lame not being able to fly my college shirts or sport the Angel hat. We even had to have our hair really short. It was brutal, and I don’t see how wearing a shirt can be seen as offensive. However, I don’t think resorting to uniforms would be a good idea. Having to wear a uniform would be ten times worse then not being able to wear some shirts. Great talk.
The furthest school dress code that I’ve been made aware of that goes along the lines of banning messages are those involving illegal substances and crude ideas, the kind of things that the general public wouldn’t necessarily want to know about, especially educators and pupils. What I did not know was that schools had the power to ban any kind of clothing suggesting an individual opinion, especially one involving our Constitution and who should be our next President. It seems to me as though this schools district is far off the mark as far as its dress code is concerned. Should a kid feel the need to express his support for freedom of speech, why would any one of us do anything to try and stop him? As far as I’m concerned, I believe that every single person that has read this article has used the First Amendment to their advantage, whether aware of it or not. Banning clothing that advertises your favorite team? I am a strong advocate of individuality and the freedom of expression. If it truly is the school’s policy to remove any kind of logo or advertisement from their students’ wardrobes, it would be wise for them to follow said policy just as strict as they would follow their individual classroom policies and so forth. Did the family that sued the school district come out on top?
In response to Krystal Roach:
I agree that the school should either establish a school uniform policy or that the students with the problem should find a different school, but that’s not going to be an option 100% of the time. The student and their family is either going to have to deal with the way the school runs things, or the school is going to have to adjust, which I believe the first option is going to be the easiest. There’s a balance, and if the school is willing to hold up with their policies on dress code, the student and their family, with full knowledge of the school dress code, shouldn’t find things for the student to wear that violates dress code.