The ACLU: Our Misunderstood Legal Friends?

According to the Orlando Sentinel the ACLU is suing the Florida Alachua County School District on behalf of students who were told they couldn’t wear t-shirts that read “Islam is the of Devil”.

While the ACLU said it didn’t agree with the message of the t-shirts, they believed in the student’s right to “free speech”.

We were quite surprised when we first read this story as in some “circles”, “Islam is the Devil” would be “construed” as “hate speech”. We also wondered when the students began wearing the t-shirts, and what propelled them to wear the shirts?

According to MSNBC, a “handful” of students-a 10-yr-old elementary student, three high school and one middle school student-wearing the t-shirts were sent home back in late August, and that the students were connected to a local church:

“The shirts are connected to a local church called the Dove World Outreach Center. Church Senior Pastor Terry Jones tells The Gainesville Sun that spreading the church’s message is more important than education.”

On August 25, the Gainesville Sun reported that the school felt the t-shirts violated the school code as “being offensive” or that the t-shirts “disrupted” the learning process. Even so, the school did admit that it allowed students to wear t-shirts with “messages”.

By LBG