The American Civil Liberties Union has accused Oil City Area School District of violating students' right to free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and has threatened legal action if the district doesn't provide written assurance that such a violation will not happen again.
In a letter addressed to Joseph L. Carrico, district superintendent, and Scott Stahl, Oil City Senior High School principal, the ACLU states that several students were sent home on April 25 for refusing to remove or cover up their “Day of Silence” shirts and other students were told to remove Day of Silence stickers.
The Day of Silence is a day to protest the bullying and harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and their supporters.
The ACLU letter, which was signed by ACLU staff attorney Sara J. Rose and legal director Witold Walczak, states that the school justified its ban on the Day of Silence T-shirts by pointing to its policy prohibiting homemade T-shirts. However, the ACLU did not find any such policy in the student handbook, stated the letter, adding that if such a policy did exist it would be unconstitutional to the extent that it prohibits students from wearing homemade shirts with expressive messages.
The student handbook prohibits “visibly altered clothing,” but does not define the term, the ACLU wrote.
The letter also stated that the ACLU has learned that students have previously been permitted to wear homemade shirts bearing other school messages.
Read more:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment