Anna Amador, the mother of a seventh grader at McSwain Elementary School in Merced, Calif. is taking legal action after her daughter was forced to remove a pro-life t-shirt she wore to school for National Pro-life T-Shirt Day in April 2008, according to a recent
article. The shirt features two graphic images of a fetus in the womb with the word "growing" under them. Next to those images, there is a blank black square, captioned "gone."
The complaint alleges that the school principal, assistant principal and office clerk mistreated the child, allegedly forcing her to throw away her breakfast, dragging her away from the cafeteria, berating her, and demanding that she remove her shirt. Amador states that her daughter was humiliated in front of her classmates, none of whom were offended by the girl's shirt.
According to the complaint, the office clerk, forcibly dragged the girl to the principal's office, where she was told never to wear such a shirt again. The shirt was not returned to her until the end of the day.
District officials argue that not all of Amador's allegations are valid, but they do not deny that the girl was forced to remove her shirt. The district asserts that this particular shirt is not permissible under the dress code, which does not allow clothing that promotes "inappropriate subject matter" like tobacco, drug or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity or vulgarity.
Amador counterargues that the school applies this dress code subjectively and the pictures on her daughter's shirt can be found in school science textbooks.
Considering that McSwain houses grades kindergarten through 8, perhaps Amador doesn't have as strong an argument as she expected, as some forms of speech are seen as detrimental to younger kids. However, William Becker, Amador's lawyer, argues that there is nothing detrimental about the message on the young girl's shirt.
"The message of the T-shirt is that life is sacred," says Becker, a First Amendment attorney. "One would be very hard pressed to find anything wrong with that particular idea, except that some people do object to the political message."
Do you think it's okay for kids to be billboards for causes that they may or may not understand, pro-life or otherwise, in school? Do school officials have the right to demand that such clothing be removed?
Comments (81)
To begin with, free speech is truly fundamental in this country, and wearing a shirt that expresses ideas does fall into the free speech category.
That said, I think the crucial factor is whether the girl chose to wear the shirt, or if it was the mother's decision. A young girl (kindergarten - 8th grade) might not have her own opinion on this matter yet. For the mother to express her (the mother's) ideas through the girl would be inappropriate. But if the girl chose the shirt herself, it does become a free speech issue.
The difference here is the same difference between making a speech, and forcing your way into your neighbor's house to make a speech. A girl wearing a shirt could be seen as making a speech, but a mother choosing a shirt for a girl who doesn't understand the issue yet, she would be forcing her influence into her daughter's school. And the mother has no legal right to force her influence into a school.
On a side note, I wonder if parents have the right to pass their opinions to their young children? Young children aren't able to think critically for themselves yet. Is it ok for a racist parent to teach their children to be racist? If it's not, then why is it ok for parents to teach their kids their religion?
How is it inappropriate? That opinion wasn't hurting a single person.
Besides, when I was in high school there would be shirts with girls barely wearing clothes, shirts basically promoting violence, etc etc. They were supposedly against the rules, but some people got away with it, anyways.
Either way, it's an opinion. One we have the right to have. One that hurt no one. It's not as though the shirt was attacking people who get abortions, simply showing the person's personal belief that they're wrong.
I say someone of the same age wears a pro-choice shirt to that school and sees what happens. Or any school, really. Just as an experiment, really.
@they_call_me_steffyjean@xanga - 13 is plenty old enough to know the difference between pro-life and pro-choice. I was raised in a pro-life home, and I knew the difference when I was 5. I might not have known all the implications and the deeper issues, but I knew the difference. Give kids a little more credit. They often understand more than you would guess.
I applaud the girl for wearing the shirt, if she really believes it. And those images are not at all inappropriate. If the argument that she was around kids too young for it is to be held up, they would have to examine how much time she spent around the younger kids, right? It is my impression that schools tend to separate by grade most of the time, except at certain times of the day or for special events. This is just a free-speech case, and it can't even be held up as something that is vulgar or sexually inappropriate. Only pro-choice people will be offended, and that is their right, just as it is her right to wear the shirt.