ACLU Sues Florida School District Over “Islam is of the Devil” T-shirt Rule
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
[...] More here: ACLU Sues Florida School District Over “Islam is of the Devil†T … [...]
Thank that’s bad? My handicapped daughter was told by her teacher she couldn’t wear a t-shirt that said “world’s greatest Mom” because they wanted her to fit in better with the other students…and since none of the other students wear a shirt with “world’s greatest mom” she couldn’t either.
Then yesterday my daughter got off the bus and told me her teacher didn’t want her wearing another shirt that had a joke on it. The shirt said: “if you choke a smurf what color does it turn?”
The teacher said she couldn’t wear it because of the world ‘coke” on the shirt.
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[...] the White House turkey: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.” ACLU THE GOOD GUYS FOR ONCE? ACLU Sues Florida School District Over “Islam is of the Devil†T-shirt Rule Sarah Palin and the Low Ebb of the Cultural Left NEXT TIME, SHOOT THE BASTARD: Three Navy SEALs [...]
I hope the Sapps and the Boeckens lose this suit. I believe they will.
Their complaint alleges that the messages “IIOTD†and “Islam is of the Devil†were non-vulgar and non-obscene. The ACLU specifically used that language (non-vulgar and non-obscene) in order to avoid being subject to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bethel School Dist. No. 403 vs. Fraser.
I think the majority ruling in that case is still good law and if so, the Alachua County School Board has a decent shot at prevailing.
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LBG1 Reply:
November 26th, 2009 at 12:53
Junaid,
Thanks for taking the time to comment on this post.
I visited your site and read your very informative and thoughtful post on this subject. A very good analysis of what is “Free Speech” and how it applies to Hate Speech, and how this applies to schools.
I urge readers to go to your site and read:
“Islam is of the Devil”: Wayne Sapp, Stephanie Sapp, Ludger Boecken, Heike Boecken sue Alachua County School Board to protect their hate speech
Thanks again,
LBG
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