(NY) Teen sues over "lesbian Barbie" shirt ban

NewsYahoo.com ^ | June 19, 2003

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

A New York teen-ager has alleged teachers violated her civil rights when they suspended her from school for wearing a "Barbie is a Lesbian" T-shirt.

Lawyers who filed a lawsuit on her behalf in Manhattan federal court on Thursday said 14-year-old Natalie Young is openly lesbian and that a teacher laughed at her, calling the garment and its reference to the popular Barbie doll "inappropriate."

Young alleged that the principal held her for three hours in an office at the school in the borough of Queens on April 10, 2002 and refused to allow her to return to class while she wore the T-shirt.

A spokesman for the city education department, a defendant in the lawsuit, declined immediate comment.

Young was suspended for the day and the principal threatened to send her home again if she wore the T-shirt to school in future, the lawsuit alleged.

"Schools cannot legally engage in this type of selective, content-based suppression of speech," lawyer Dan Perez said. "If she had worn a 'Barbie Supports the Troops in the War in Iraq (news - web sites)' T-shirt, she would have been called a patriot."

Perez said that on another school day before the T-shirt incident, teachers made Young remove rainbow coloured beads from her hair, although she was not suspended then.

The lawsuit, which names the education department, school principal and several teachers as defendants, seeks a declaration from the court that Young's constitutional right to free speech was violated. It asks the department to issue guidelines on students' dress and on dealing with students' expression of their sexual orientation.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the name of the student's mother, Kathleen Hodges, because Young is a minor, also seeks unspecified monetary damages.

"That is not the most important issue here but if a jury decides to contribute to Natalie's college fund, all the better," Perez said.

[smadurski]

If the shirt violated the school dress code then she has no case. There were all kinds of shirts banned when I was in HS like beer and tobacco company shirts.

[bedolido]

At 14 she doesn't know she a lesbian. She may have tendencies (sp), but she probably just wants attention, and she's getting it.

[Thud]

My daughter at age 6 created a "biker" Barbie with marking pens.

[FeliciaCat]

Barbie is lesbian?!!?!?!?!? Poor Ken, he was the last to know...

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

My sons created a gaggle of headless barbies, much to my daughters' shock, a couple of years ago.

:*)

[bedolido]

gaggle of headless barbies

Barbies come in gaggles (still on point).

[Servant of the Nine]

Barbie is lesbian?!!?!?!?!? Poor Ken, he was the last to know...

I always thought Ken was a little light in the loafers himself.

So9

[AdamSelene235]

Poor Ken, he was the last to know...

Ken's a Eunuch !!

[bedolido]

little light in the loafers

agree!!!...lol

[ikka]

If she is practicing lesbian, time for some investigation by the police.

[FeliciaCat]

It depends on which Ken...mine was "sporty Ken" he came with a tennis racket and golf club and the cool 70's haircut....my barbie had aqua eye shadow and a matching bikini with a killer tan...

[thegreatbeast]

Is something special going to happen when the one millionth teenager talks his or her parents into suing the local school authority over an issue of dress? Will they be included in the next Real World? Will Fifty Cent play a concert in their town?
We should do something to mark this special event. It's coming up fast.

[Prodigal Son]

Exactly. What's a 14 year old even doing having sex?

[bedolido]

It depends on which Ken...mine was "sporty Ken" he came with a tennis racket and golf club and the cool 70's haircut....my barbie had aqua eye shadow and a matching bikini with a killer tan...

When my older sister would leave I would take her barbi--- maybe this is for another time.

[Dan from Michigan]

I couldn't wear my old "Red Dog" T-shirt in high school. Life sucks, get a helmet.

[robertpaulsen]

"Schools cannot legally engage in this type of selective, content-based suppression of speech," lawyer Dan Perez said. "If she had worn a 'Barbie Supports the Troops in the War in Iraq (news - web sites)' T-shirt, she would have been called a patriot."

Would he still say that if school officials wore T-shirts with "Dan Perez is a Headline Grabbing Shyster"?

[week 71]

It's this girl's constitutional right to wear that ridiculous shirt. Just as it should be a students constitutional right to where a shirt that states proud to be heterosexual or Jesus saves.

[FeliciaCat]

you were one of those brothers who took thier sisters barbie's cut their heads off and tied their bodies to your tonka trucks while racing them down the steepest hill you could find...am I right? ;)

[Xthe17th]

OK, time to bring back school uniforms: