Posted on 07/06/2009 2:01:59 PM PDT by rawhide
A California mom says her public school administrators violated her daughter's First Amendment rights when they ordered the seventh-grader to take off her pro-life T-shirt.
Anna Amador has gone to court on behalf of her daughter, who she says was ordered by her principal to change her shirt on "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day." The shirt the girl was wearing displays two graphic pictures of a fetus growing in the womb.
The incident occurred in April 2008 at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, Calif. Amador alleges in her legal complaint that school Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W. Smith and office clerk Martha Hernandez mistreated her daughter and denied the girl her First Amendment rights when they ordered her to leave the cafeteria and change her shirt.
"Before Plaintiff could eat [breakfast] she was ordered by a school staff member to throw her food out and report immediately to Defendant Smith's office, located in the main office of McSwain Elementary School," the complaint reads.
"Upon arriving at the main office, Defendant Hernandez, intentionally and without Plaintiff's consent, grabbed Plaintiff's arm and forcibly escorted her toward Smith's office, at all times maintaining a vice-like grip on Plaintiff's arm. Hernandez only released Plaintiff's arm after physically locating her in front of Smith and Defendant Rohrer...
"Smith and Rohrer ordered Plaintiff to remove her pro-life T-shirt and instructed Plaintiff to never wear her pro-life T-shirt at McSwain Elementary School ever again.
"Completely humiliated and held out for ridicule, Plaintiff complied with Defendants' directives and removed her pro-life T-shirt, whereupon, Defendants seized and confiscated it. Defendants did not return Plaintiff's property until the end of the school day.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Dingdingding!!! Post of the Day!
Nothing political -— no candidate, no political party, no office holder, either elected or appointed, no political party, and no legislation, current or proposed -— was mentioned on the shirt.
So how does that make her a walking political billboard? Perhaps a walking health sciences billboard, but one would not think health sciences out of place in a school...
You don't know California Schools do you? They try to get every one to sign up for free breakfast, regardless of income level. They then tout the statistics of what percent of the school is eligible for the free breakfast as a sign of the poverty level. The more ‘poverty’ they have the more funding they get for other programs.
In the 90’s I was married with 3 kids and making $75,000. We had a hell of time NOT getting the kids signed up for the free breakfast program. Being a fiscal conservative (social also)I felt it was not appropriate for us to avail ourselves to a misguided social experiment.
“I agree with the school. Children should not be sent to school as walking billboards for any political cause, on the left or right.”
You’re tryin’ to put that Genie back in the bottle, yes? You may agree with the school in “principle” but legally, if they allow “walking billboards” for ANY other cause, then they must allow Mrs. Amador’s daughter to be a walking billboard for HER cause also.
In fact, it is not only commendable that this young woman wore that t-shirt, it is heroic in the most basic sense of that word. She will win her case, probably out of court. (That grinding noise you hear is the school district rapidly shifting into reverse.)
Please cite that law to me.
They should ban screenings of An Inconvenient Truth in that school too, to be consistent.
It has graphic (but simulated) depictions of New York flooding as a result of Man’s reckless disregard for the environment.
Agreed. They need to nip it before a giant can of worms is opened. The insuing arguement would become a major distraction and disruption at the school.
I tell my people here at work not to talk about issues like this, even if they are things I agree with just to keep from starting a war.
Banned?
Surely you jest.
They’re soon to be mandatory.
So long as the school ALSO takes a “hands off” approach on pushing for political causes (Earth Day, Gay Pride, Communist Women’s Day...) and does not put advocacy posters into hallways.
Are Young Conservatives and Young Liberals student clubs permissible?
Here is a bit of Justice Thomas’s take on it (while citing the relevant case of Lander vs Seaver)....
Justice Clarence Thomas has argued that Tinker’s ruling contradicted “the traditional understanding of the judiciary’s role in relation to public schooling,” and ignored the history of public education (127 S.Ct. 2634). He believed the judiciary’s role to determine whether students have freedom of expression was limited by in loco parentis. He cited Lander v. Seaver (1986) which held that in loco parentis allowed schools to punish student expression that the school or teacher believed contradicted the school’s interests and educational goals. This ruling declared that the only restriction the doctrine imposed were acts of legal malice or acts that caused permanent injury. Neither of these were the case with Tinker.
If the school bans all politically based T-shirts, then it might have a chance of winning. However, the words "other inappropriate subject matter" suggest that some political views are considered appropriate. That would be "viewpoint discrimination" and so a violation of the First Amendment.
Rather than trample the First Amendment and our God-given rights or allow chaos to reign, I have a solution:
ABOLISH GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS!
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A fetus in a womb is graphic huh? How about a picture after it’s had it’s brain sucked out?! Would that be more appropriate?
I think conservatives should wear whatever necessary to upset the administration into over reacting.
By using their own rules against them ( using Saul Alinsky techniques) we can squander resources and time, generate publicity, delegitimize the schools, and further drive government schooling into a deeper pit ineffectualness.
You mean the kids might have to think for themselves and debate the issue? We might see the end of the world if that happens. School shouldn’t be like a workplace in at least one respect; we should encourage debate and independent thinking.
They probably signed you up anyway.
I was assuming they were going to say it was the latter when I read the word “graphic.” That would truly violate the “violent” provision of their dress code. Instead they rely on blanket censorship thanks to the phrase “or other inappropriate subject matter.”
The best solution would be to declare all government k-12 schools in violation of the First Amendment! They are anyway.
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