Student Believes School Policy on Offensive T-shirts is Unconstitutional

Posted by Ban Shirts

April 3, 2008

Student Tyler Chase Harper was punished for wearing an anti-gay t-shirt to Poway High School back in 2004, His attorneys are not asking a federal appeals court to declair the school policy unconstitutional. The student believes that he has the right to wear t-shirts with offensive speech. To make matters more interesting Harper wore the shirt on the Day of Silence which is an annual event to protest harassment of gay, lesbian and transgender students. The federal district judge ruled in the past that Harper’s freedom of speech are not protected when at school.

The most recent appeal argues that the school’s policy that bans hate speech does not “respect the broader free speech rights students enjoy under California law…and the policies are facially unconstitutional and violate the law.” We are in year four of Harper trying to prove that his rights were violated. As we have seen in the dozens of other cases featured on this blog these cases rule in favor of the schools who have the right to limit certain forms of free speech.

Source: SPLC

T-Shirts Banned at Schools