Federal Judge Hears Gay Button Case (Very odd case)

[WillParkinson]

*It's very interesting what they say about the organization...*

(Ponce De Leon, Florida) A Florida high school is "trampling the First Amendment rights of students who support equal rights for gay people", a federal judge was told on Monday.

Heather Gillman, a 16-year-old junior at Ponce de Leon High School, is suing the school after she was told she could not wear buttons, stickers or clo0thing that supported LGBT civil rights.

After she received the warning the ACLU last November sent a letter in November to the school board’s attorney on behalf of Gillman, asking for clarification as to whether a variety of symbols and slogans, such as the rainbow flag or “I support my gay friends,” would be allowed at the school.

The school district replied that it would not allow any expressions of support for gay rights at all because such speech would "likely be disruptive."

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon08/05/051208school.htm

[msongs]

1. yeah those christian high school students resort to disruption over the slightest thing nt

[davidinalameda]

6. it's a public high school

[Occulus]

10. I bet most of them are christian n/t

[davidinalameda]

11. and I bet they're also stupid

which one are you?

[Occulus]

12. I'd rather be called stupid than christian.

:sarcasm: <-- bitter

Happy now?

(It was in Ponce de Leon, FL, man. WTF religion do you think most of them were- Pagan? Jewish? Muslim? ...Pastafarian??)

My comment stands; I got curious and did some Googling. While doing so, I stumbled onto (among other things) Valparaiso University's 2000 census data for Florida, as represented by county-level chloropleth maps. Ponce de Leon, FL, is in Holmes County, way up in the middle of the Florida panhandle. There are more christians than anything else in and around Ponce de Leon, FL, and mostly baptists at that.

The OP happened at the bottom of where the bible belt is buckled, for frak's sake; it's not like my comment is in the least improbable:



ed.: added 'bitter'

[galledgoblin]

13. it'd be interesting to see the way that "Catholic" breaks down further

between liberal/modern/Vatican II accepting Catholics and conservative/reactionary/Vatican II rejecting Catholics.

[Occulus]

14. I'd like to see the same for all sects, actually.

Something tells me, though, that the result might be... shall we say... depressing.

[davidinalameda]

15. bigoted much?

[Occulus]

17. I said

:sarcasm: <--bitter

[hulklogan]

2. Some schools have a seriously insane idea of "disruptive"

It's like bizarro world. Silence = disruptive and shooting other kids in the head = safe learning environment.

[Ian David]

3. You know what else is disruptive? Being sued by The ACLU.

Ponce De Leon should STFU and count their blessings and praise Jeebus every night that The ACLU isn't suing their asses.

[MNBrewer]

4. Christ disliked hypocrisy

more than any other sin...

[galledgoblin]

5. is this a Christian/Private school?

if it is, it's within their rights to clamp down on free speech... but if it's a public school, I have no idea how this case went anywhere.

a rainbow button today "disrupts" about as much as a black armband did during Vietnam.

[WillParkinson]

7. Doesn't appear so...

http://pdlhs.hdsb.org/

But I could be wrong. It's taking too long to load things.

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. I remember reading about a free speech case during the Vietnam War

The case was Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. It went badly for the school district. From the Wikipedia:

Justice Abe Fortas wrote the majority opinion, holding that the speech regulation at issue in Tinker was "based upon an urgent wish to avoid the controversy which might result from the expression, even by the silent symbol of armbands, of opposition to this Nation's part in the conflagration in Vietnam," and, finding that the actions of the Tinkers in wearing armbands did not cause disruption, held that their activity represented constitutionally protected symbolic speech.

The so-called "Tinker test" sets a very high bar for Gilman's school to leap.

[galledgoblin]

9. exactly, I have no idea why the school district thinks it has a case here (n/t)

[Mabus]

16. You should read their Code of Student Conduct

In the introduction starts off, "The Holmes County School Board recognizes fully the constitutional rights of students enrolled in its schools." In the next paragraph it says, "Behavior and discipline policies shall, therefore, demonstrate recognition of both individual student constitutional rights and of the paramount need for maintaining a proper and safe atmosphere for learning within each school."
(pdf document http://hdsb.org/SiteDocumentation/StudentCOC0708.pdf?FCItemID=S000DC514.pdf page 4).

Looks like they're acting like the Bush Administration by picking and choosing which of the students' constitutional rights they will honor/recognize.