Student may wear Bush 'terrorist' shirt

[bob_barron 0]

DETROIT - A high school student has the right to wear a T-shirt to school with the face of President Bush (news - web sites) and the words "International Terrorist" on the front, a federal judge ruled.

 

"There is no evidence that the T-shirt created any disturbance or disruption," U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Duggan said in the ruling released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) of Michigan, which sued the Dearborn school district on behalf of Bretton Barber.

 

An assistant principal had ordered Barber in February to conceal the anti-Bush message or go home. Dearborn High said it worried about inflaming passions at the suburban Detroit school, where a majority of students are Arab-American.

 

But, the judge said, "The record does not reveal any basis for (the assistant principal's) fear aside from his belief that the T-shirt conveyed an unpopular political message."

 

Attorneys for the school district declined to comment on the case. There was no answer at the district offices Wednesday evening.

 

"The court's decision reaffirms the principle that students don't give up their right to express opinions on matters of public importance once they enter school," Kary Moss, executive director of the state ACLU, said in a news release Wednesday.

 

Barber was 16 when he wore the shirt on a day he was scheduled to present a "compare and contrast" essay in English class. Barber had chosen to compare President Bush to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

 

At the time, Bretton said he wanted to express his anti-war position by wearing the shirt, which he ordered on the Internet.

[Vern Gagne 0]

The sad thing is a picture of a real terrorist wouldn't be allowed, because it would be deemed racially insensitive.

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

Oh, bullshit.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Don't want to start an abortion debate/explosion, but I wonder if this same judge would allow a student to wear a t-shirt with some pro-abortion person on the front with the words "baby killer" underneath?

 

Personally, I say let the student wear both shirts -- but tell him not to be surprised when he gets beat up after school...

Edited October 2, 2003 by kkktookmybabyaway

[Guest MikeSC]

Don't want to start an abortion debate/explosion, but I wonder if this same judge would allow a student to wear a t-shirt with some pro-abortion person on the front with the words "baby killer" underneath?

 

Personally, I say let the student wear both shirts -- but tell him not to be surprised when he gets beat up after school...

Creepy thought --- but you're most likely correct.

-=Mike

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

Don't want to start an abortion debate/explosion, but I wonder if this same judge would allow a student to wear a t-shirt with some pro-abortion person on the front with the words "baby killer" underneath?

 

Personally, I say let the student wear both shirts -- but tell him not to be surprised when he gets beat up after school...

Of course.

 

A student can wear whatever hateful bullshit he wants on his shirt.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Kids today are too starved for attention

[Guest BDC]

Hey, if he wants to get his head beaten in, who are we to stop him?

[NoCalMike 0]

I doubt he would get beat up for either shirt. In highschool, the majority of kids are not politically driven or can really careless, or in that mode where they just automatically hate the president for whatever said reasons.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I disagree. If there's a kid whose parents are in the military, he/she might take offense to Bush = terrorist shirt. In addition, when I was in high school I made an abortion crack ("It's people like you that make me think about becoming pro-choice") and almost got beat up by a bunch of kids that overheard my remark...

[Jobber of the Week 0]

I disagree. If there's a kid whose parents are in the military, he/she might take offense to Bush = terrorist shirt.

Oh come on. Freedom of Speech is all cool as long as it's on your side, and when it's not it ought to be on sight.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Oh come on. Freedom of Speech is all cool as long as it's on your side, and when it's not it ought to be  on sight.

In case you missed it, here's an earlier post from me in this thread.

 

"Personally, I say let the student wear both shirts -- but tell him not to be surprised when he gets beat up after school."

 

I'm a free-speech anarchist -- Free speech everywhere! Let the kid wear a Bush = Terrorist shirt, and let the other kids laugh at him and call him names. That's what makes this country great.

 

And I was merely conjuring up a scenario where the kid wearing the Bush = terrorist shirt might catch some flack. I think something like this could happen to him in a high school. Lord knows I got worse treatment for lesser "free-speech" controversies during my time as a student.

 

Oh, and I can too...

[lomasmoney 0]

trust me i live about 10 minutes from dearborn and not too many of their citizens are big fans of bush. Hell, not too many people in my area are fans of bush. I live in an area where a good majority of the people work in the auto or related industries. The city i of dearborn is mostly arab-american and there was one story about a poor kid who had the unfortunate name osama right after 9-11 and how he was picked on at first but then people realized that this kid is in no way a terrorist. There wereterrorist ties to residents of the city , but of course for the most part not everyone is a terrorist there. These guys were just on visas and stayed a little too long and got caught. This kid absolutely has the right to wear whatever the hell he wants in school. One of the problems with schools today is that they try act as your parents even when you are legally an adult. They constantly infringe on students' constitutional rights with this idea "you arent an adult so your constitutional rights don't exist". Apparently this gives them the right to take my cell phone away even when technically i wasn't even a student there anymore.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Students have limited free speech rights.

 

Deal with it.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

It reminds me of the guy who wore a pin-on button that said "SUSPECTED TERRORIST" as a sign of how the administration wants to investigate all our lives to make sure we're not going to blow up a building.

 

He wore it through the government's passenger security checkpoint without problem. He explained the meaning of the button to the passengers around them so they'd understand, asked them if they were uncomfortable with it, and when they said they didn't mind him wearing the button, a stewardess asked him to take off the button because it made people uncomfortable. He refused and said he'd talked to all those within eyesight of it and she had security throw him off the plane. Later, he had a talk with a woman from the airline who admitted that they'd have no problem with a "Go Bush!" button but then had no answer as to the problem with this one.

 

 

Now, is it smart to wear stuff like that in these areas? Not really. But should we have the right to? Absolutely. People like this are probably just trying to stir up attention, but bless them because if they were silent the rest of us would never know that those rights were taken from us.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

If that guy would have been next to me, I would have said, "You may be a suspected terrorist, but you're a fucking moron and I hope you or someone you love dies via terrorist attack."

 

Free speech, gotta love it...

Edited October 2, 2003 by kkktookmybabyaway

[lomasmoney 0]

yes we all know students have limited free speech rights, but why do they ? Aren't they also citizens of the United States of America where i believe it says in the constitution that you have the right to free speech

[Internet Warfare 0]

Where can I get this shirt?

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

I remember Mick Jagger wearing a shirt with a big swastika on the front during a concert (in Buffalo?).

[Vyce 0]

If that guy would have been next to me, I would have said, "You may be a suspected terrorist, but you're a fucking moron and I hope you or someone you love dies via terrorist attack."

 

Free speech, gotta love it...

Now, wishing death upon him is a little harsh.

 

I would have wished sterility upon him, however, so that his inferior bloodline does not continue.

 

yes we all know students have limited free speech rights, but why do they ? Aren't they also citizens of the United States of America where i believe it says in the constitution that you have the right to free speech

 

There are restrictions to that right, though, and one of them can be as simple as a dress code which prohibits students from wearing inappropriate or "offensive" clothing. The judge in this case, apparently, did not define this shirt as offensive, no matter how distasteful it may have been.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Now, wishing death upon him is a little harsh.

I know, but I'm an evil bastard who's going to hell.

 

A little free speech story:

 

I was at one of my many go-nowhere jobs while in college and was doing the cashier thing. One guy in my line came up to me and was talking to some other people in line. While taking his order I read these three big-ass buttons on his jacket.

 

1) Abolish the death penalty.

2) Lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

3) Free Mumia (most of you know where this is going)

 

Since he saw me look at his buttons -- and these three buttons were hard to avoid -- he asked me my opinion on them. Using my freedom of speech, I politely pointed to each one and said.

 

1) Agree for the most part.

2) As soon as Castro dies.

3) Not in a million years.

 

Of course, he didn't like some of my answers and bitched to my manager about my rudeness. Now the case could be made that he was a (stupid) customer, but I wasn't snide or mean about his positions. He asked for my opinions and I gave them to him.

 

The point of this? I don't know. Just felt like telling it...

[Youth N Asia 0]

Let the little asshole go live somewhere else if he doesn't like it here. This isn't a communist country that forces its citizens to stay against their will.

[Guest Cerebus]

"If freedom means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don't want to hear." - George Orwell

[Vern Gagne 0]

Oh, bullshit.

In this country nothing would suprise me.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Not that he deserves to die, but he definitely has an ass kicking coming.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

he doesn't have an "Ass kicking" coming. And if he does the person who does it is a bigger moron then him.

 

All he's doing is using his freedom of speech. If someone beats him up because he doesn't like someone slandering the president then it's he that's acting undemocraticly.

[Dr. Tom 0]

yes we all know students have limited free speech rights, but why do they ? Aren't they also citizens of the United States of America where i believe it says in the constitution that you have the right to free speech

More accurately, it says in the Constitution that Congress shall make no law inhibiting the freedom of speech. School districts throughout the country are thus free to enact their own policies in the name of bettering the educational process.

 

Not to pick on you or anything, but it really surprises me how many people are clueless about how the First Amendment really works.

[Highland 0]

People's rights are constantly being erroded and even more so after 9/11 for the sake of 'Nation Security'

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

As stated before students have limited speech.