Students Win Free Expression Case Against School

Posted by Alex Blaze, The Bilerico Project at 8:27 AM on May 14, 2008.

A federal judge ruled in favor of students in a case at Ponce de Leon High School in Florida, where junior Heather Gillman sued for the right to wear pride gear. The principal argued this week that students couldn't do things like write "gay pride" on their arms and notebooks and wear rainbows and triangles because they "make students unable to study because they'd be picturing gay sex acts in their mind."

Hmmmm... I remember a few things that made me picture gay sex acts in my mind in high school (other boys, rocks shaped kinda like penises, warm weather), but I can't say rainbows were among them.

The argument might seem lame, that kids would start to think about gay sex if they see pride stuff, but, then again, these people think automatically about gay sex whenever they think about anything gay. Maybe, for this principal, that's true.

Or, since schools can't regulate free speech of students unless they can prove that speech disruptive, the principal might have just thought of the only way pride gear can be disruptive isn't.

Wearing a Confederate flag, though, is OK:

Another interesting point, Davis says clothes with the confederate flag are allowed at school. He says they haven't caused a distraction. Of the 406 students at the high school, none of them are African American.

So, because most American schools are effectively segregated, it's OK to support racism? And kids think about gay sex when they see a rainbow, so it's not OK to support queer liberation? I suppose we're not exactly dealing with the Brain Trust here.

Oh, well. Go kids! And go ACLU!

Tagged as: students, lgbt, aclu