Tyler Chase Harper’s lawsuit against his former high school, California’s Poway Unified School District, has officially come to an end. The boy sued after school administrators forced him to remove a shirt with “Homosexuality is shameful” on the front and “Be ashamed. Our school has embraced what God has condemned” emblazoned on the back side.
The United States Supreme Court upheld the school’s right to bar offensive t-shirts and, further, said that Harper can no longer challenge the dress code because he’s since graduated. The Los Angeles Times reports:
In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court agreed with a federal judge that Harper lost his ability to challenge the policy when he graduated last year.
Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the policy to remain in effect pending the outcome of the lawsuit and sharply criticized the student’s challenge. The appellate judges said the T-shirt was “injurious to gay and lesbian students” and “collides with the rights of other students in the most fundamental way.”
Harper’s defense team insists that the school’s unjustly coming down on a Christisan perspective in favor of faggotry. The school, of course, insists this isn’t the case.
Cases like this come up every once in a while and we’re always torn on where we stand. On the one hand we don’t think such opinions of any social group belong in schools. But, then again, we’re very wary of any ruling that infringes on free speech. We’re stumped, really. So, readers, what’s your take on this matter?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Mark
Can you imagine how many distractions would be in schools should students decide to wear whatever political t-shirts they want? If that student wants to share his beliefs, he can and should be allowed to write a letter to the editor in the school newspaper.
nystudman
It’s a tuffy, but it’s basically the old “free speech stops at yelling fire in a crowded theater” argument: any statement that promotes violence toward a group should probably be verboten in a school setting.
werdna
Actually that’s not the standard for free speech in schools. The standards have to do with disruption of the school’s educational mission, or violations of school rules which interfere with discipline. Also school newspapers enjoy much less protection than “real world” press do.
Queerty wrote “The United States Supreme Court upheld the school’s right to bar offensive t-shirts,” but that is not correct. All they decided was that Tyler Harper didn’t have standing to pursue the lawsuit sinced he’s no longer a student. They also set aside the appeals court ruling against him, meaning the school policy’s validity is still an open question.
Tyler’s sister Kelsie (charming family, clearly) is still a student and is pursuing her own case, which is now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Since they ruled against Tyler in his case it seems likely that they’ll do the same in her case and if she’s still a student by the time it gets to SCOTUS we may actually get a ruling from on the issue itself.
Paul Raposo
This kid wasn’t and isn’t the only Christian in the village. His bleating about persecution was ridiculous considering what GLBT students have to suffer and the fact that his shirt contributed to that suffering.
ace
hey im doing a school report on this matter
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