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Two female high school students in Minnesota have gotten themselves in hot water with school officials for refusing to remove buttons that read "I [heart] my vagina". The two were inspired to wear the buttons after seeing The Vagina Monologues.
4 Comments:
To me, this is obviously a case of the school infringing on the girls' right to free speech. As both girls state, the buttons are meant to spark debate concerning women's issues. They are not obscene, are not inciting violence or deviant behavior. I don't see how the school can prohibit them from wearing the buttons (or the t-shirts) without squelching Constitutionally protected speech. Am I missing something?
I have the same take as you. But I think there's precedent for censorship in public schools, since administrators act in loco parentis.
I'm confused, because what you say, Sean, sounds right. But, in the article, the ACLU rep from MN references a Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines, in which "the court ruled that First Amendment rights are available to teachers and students and that administrators' fear about how others might react is not enough to squelch those rights." If the ACLU guy is right, and this is deemed "political speech" (the most heavily protected class of speech), then the school would have to go pretty far to show why its censorship of the buttons is justified.
I'm speaking off the top of my head but I think the Des Moines case Harris is talking about said that free speech rights are greatly reduced in schools because they are balanced against the needs of the schools. My understanding is that so long as a school can show a decent reason for the censorship, it's fine. That's why schools can make kids wear uniforms but Anthony Williams can't order all DC residents to do the same.
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