School Makes Kid Change Pro-Life Tee
I may not agree with its message, but a California school’s in trouble for forcing a teen to take off the pro-life tee she was wearing in honor of “pro-life t-shirt day.”
Her mom says they violated her First Amendment rights, and she’s taking them the court.
I hope she wins. Yes, I said it.
It’s not that I think the shirt has merit or even that a teenage girl should be putting that kind of pressure on other teen girls. But as long as I have the right to BE pro-choice, Anna Amador’s daughter has the right not to agree with me. And the right to say it out loud, or, in this case, wear it on her chest. If she doesn’t, my right to fight for women everywhere will be at risk.
The shirt in question was not graphic. It didn’t have swear words or images that would send kids running out of the room to vomit. If anything, it’s the simplicity of the message that was supposed to drive home the pro-life message. A picture of a small fetus, a picture of a slightly larger one and then a black box with the words “growing, growing, gone” underneath them in succession. Amador’s lawyer is using the defense that the same pictures are available in textbooks within the school building.
It was political, sure, but so is a “Vote for Obama” tee or a “McCain/Palin” top. But the right to free speech inside a school building is still a right to free speech - there can be certain limitations, but this wasn’t one spelled out ahead of time.
The school’s handbook calls for shirts to be banned that bear a “suggestion of tobacco, drug or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, vulgarity, or other inappropriate subject matter.” The last few words pretty much leave it all up to the discretion of school staff.
Do you think the handbook should have been more to the point?
Image: FoxNews
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Tags: abortion, education, First Amendment, free speech, Jeanne Sager, lawsuit, pro-choice, pro-life, school, schools
10 Comments
Tiffany commented on Jul 08 09 at 12:55 pmI find it incredibly sad that people can kill their babies but people can’t wear shirts that try to send a message about the very same subject. I could totally understand if the shirt were extremely graphic or used foul language. But this isn’t the case. I’m sure there are teenagers wearing far worse shirts in school. Just goes to show that the schools only want children to conform and have no opinion of their own.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Jul 08 09 at 1:25 pmI agree with her right to wear the shirt, even if I don’t support her message. I keep coming back to the rationale for school uniforms… it would prevent any of these arguments… but then again, young people have to learn about appropriate dress for the situation and knowing their audience. Schools love keeping that ambiguous crap in their handbooks. They don’t like strong statements in any direction because it stimulates uncontrolled thought and discussion. Can’t have that.
leahsmom commented on Jul 08 09 at 1:50 pmI think it’s a good life lesson - discretion is part of most laws and rules of conduct, and the kids might as well learn that sometimes, they are just going to disagree with an authority figure’s decision, and how to respond to it. Anyone who’s ever been stopped for “DWB” can attest to discretion being used there, and that how you respond can be really crucial to your future. I do indeed hope she wins, but I doubt she has much of a case - she was on notice that “inappropriate” shirts would be banned and that she had no way to tell what inappropriate was.
Marj commented on Jul 08 09 at 1:58 pmI agree that if you can wear a Vote for Whoever shirt, you can also wear a pro-life shirt, provided it isn’t graphic or offensive.
Geminita commented on Jul 08 09 at 2:05 pmI’m staunchly pro-choice. I think its her right to wear it, but its also well within the rights of other students to rail against her for wearing it. The shirt is tacky, and I can understand why she was asked to change. It doesn’t make it right, and I do hope that she wins her case.
Twintown commented on Jul 08 09 at 2:10 pmI absolutely agree with other posters that she should be able to freely express herself. However, I disagree with Mistress_Scorpio’s comment that schools don’t like strong statements because of a control issue. When you boil it down, the job of public schools is to educate as many children as possible as efficiently and inexpensively as possible. Having to spell out every rule and policy would be nearly impossible. Something would inevitably be left out, and kids/parents would seize that to make a point. While uncontrolled thought and discussion might be beneficial (I loved my critical thinking class!), there are still state standards that MUST be met, tests that MUST be passed, and to be honest, many parents who don’t WANT their kids to be stimulated by certain topics. There’s just not time enough in the day to do everything. I think we have really unrealistic expectations of schools and teachers. They’re not in it to brainwash our kids, and that attitude really undermines getting them the resources they need to be more effective.
GP commented on Jul 08 09 at 2:16 pmI think school attire should parallel work attire, as in business casual. I wouldn’t wear a shirt like that to work, so she shouldn’t wear it to school. I like the idea of NOT having uniforms so that kids can flex their style, but if I was a school administrator, I’d go with the work/business casual rule.
Mila commented on Jul 10 09 at 9:22 amWOW first an article that questions teaching unions and now standing up for first amendment rights???? Good for you BABBLE - maybe the horrible new design/setup of the site will be made up for with morebalanced articles
Shana commented on Jul 10 09 at 9:27 amI think that it is funny that you guys seem to think teenagers have first amendment rights in high school. My high school banned black eyeliner (on girls!) and if they ever saw more than one student wearing specific color shoe laces those would get banned too. The whole thing is that a lot of schools give themselves the leeway of banning things that can be considered distracting to the education of other students. I am sure that just as this student was not allowed to wear this shirt a student wearing a Pro-Choice shirt would have been told to remove it.
Voice of Reason commented on Jul 10 09 at 10:20 amI must say I second Mila’s view on the new design/layout. It’s not at all user-friendly and it’s really difficult to find older Strollerderby posts. The old layout was great. Why fix something that wasn’t broken?
