Supreme court declines to hear 'I (heart sign) boobies' case

[Sunlei]

Source: reuters


(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a school district's appeal over an attempt by officials to ban breast cancer awareness bracelets bearing the message "I (heart sign) boobies," handing victory to two students who challenged the decision on free speech grounds.

The court's decision not to take up the case means that an August 2013 ruling by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of students Brianna Hawk and Kayla Martinez is left intact.

School officials at Easton Area Middle School banned seventh- and eighth-grader students from wearing the bracelets in October 2010 prior to national Breast Cancer Awareness Day. At the time, Hawk was in eighth grade and Martinez was in seventh.

Both girls continued to wear the bracelets, citing their freedom of speech rights, and refused to remove them when asked. School officials punished the girls by giving them 1 1/2-day in-school suspension. The girls also initially were banned from the school's winter ball, although they were later allowed to attend. The school district eventually banned the bracelets from all schools.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/10/us-usa-court-freespeech-idUSBREA290SA20140310

[MADem]

1. I wonder if people would have had a different view of this case

and the victory had the defendants been male?

[NickB79]

5. Yeah, a "I Heart Balls" slogan might have gotten different results

If this were a couple of young men drawing attention to testicular cancer, for example.

[MADem]

6. Or two lads coming out for breast cancer....

Someone might take the impression that they're having more of a "Hooters" than a "Health" mindset....

[Trillo]

2. So the kids were punished for 1.5 days.

Where's the amends from the school for that punishment?

[valerief]

3. So is everyone wearing their school-approved "I Hate Boobies" bracelets now?

Or their school-approved "Boobies. Whatever." bracelets?

Or was the school's objection to the original bracelets the use of the heart instead of the word love? I can certainly understand that, because I heart words.

[LynneSin]

4. What a waste of money over the word 'Boobies'

Personally the only person who should be punished is the dumbass who couldn't deal with the word 'Boobies'. It seems alot of tax dollars were wasted on the narrow-minded attitude of a few people.

[Scuba]

7. Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

[LynneSin]

9. Did I need to post that just to be declared a winner?

I mean people already know that about me!

[Scuba]

10. There's noobies here. They might not have known.

[LynneSin]

12. My aura is so strong that's not necessary

But it is appreciated!

[cyberswede]

13. Can I get an "I (heart) noobies" bracelet? nt

[Scuba]

18. Udderly ridiculous.

[Grins]

8. Indeed. Goes back to 2010

This all started in 2010 and some "dumbass&quot s) decided to fight this through the courts all this time. That ain't cheap, and I'm sure the city/county/state officials could have spent their time and the taxpayer's money better.

[Sunlei]

20. Freedom of speech issues are very important. The Supreme court & the lower courts are to darn slow

[underpants]

23. Clarence Thomas was probably very excited about this case

Almost forgot

[groundloop]

14. How does this case square up with the recent one regarding American flag T-shirts?

My take on the American flag T-shirt case was that the courts decided that school districts had the right to put restrictions on the free-speech rights of students. This case seems to say just the opposite. I'd love to hear opinions from those who know more about these cases than myself.

(As far as "I Heart Boobies", I personally think it was silly and petty of school administration to worry about that.)

[Jim Lane]

21. As is often the case, there's a balancing of interests.

The students have a valid interest in exercising their First Amendment rights. The school administration has a valid interest in maintaining a peaceful and orderly environment.

The general rule that students in public schools have First Amendment rights was established by the Supreme Court in its decision in Tinker v. Des Moines School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969). The Court stated:

In order for the State in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint. Certainly where there is no finding and no showing that engaging in the forbidden conduct would "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school," the prohibition cannot be sustained. (393 U.S. at 509)

In the recent flag case, according to this story, the issue was students who wanted to wear American-flag-themed clothing on Cinco de Mayo Day. The school administrators feared that it would incite trouble with Latino students. The Ninth Circuit accepted the school administrators' argument as setting forth a reasonable basis under the Tinker standard.

An issue that's not mentioned in that news story, but that might have come up in the briefs, is that of the "heckler's veto". It's one thing to say, in the classic example, that preserving public order entitles authorities to prohibit shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. The speaker is provoking violence. What if, however, the threat to public order is that some people who disagree with the speech will become violent? The argument is that, if violent reaction against speech is accepted as a valid reason for suppressing it, then people who disagree with the speaker can shut him or her up by getting violent.

Wearing an American flag -- or even wearing a t-shirt that says "Wetbacks Go Home" -- is not itself a violent act. IMO, no such speech should be prohibited if the only rationale is that some people who don't like it will get violent. If the "Wetbacks Go Home" t-shirt incites violence against Latino students, however, that's a reasonable basis for a ban.

[groundloop]

24. Thanks for that....

I agree that attempting to ban the I heart boobies bracelets, and then taking it all the way to the Supreme Court was foolish and a waste of time and taxpayer money.

I guess my take on the T-shirt case was a bit different. I gathered that there was a handful of white students who were going to try and stir up trouble with the Mexican students, and in that case I felt that the school was probably justified in taking whatever means necessary to keep tempers from flaring. I (stupidly) was peripherally involved in a bit of racial related BS many many years ago in middle school, and I can attest to the fact that it doesn't take much at all to stir up a lot of teenagers.

[CVN-68]

15. I seem to be missing something here.

Did the school object to the heart or the word boobies?
Couldn't they figure out it was a slogan for the prevention of cancer?
Why did they have to fight it all the way to the highest court in the land?
How much better could that wasted money have been spent on the schools themselves?

[groundloop]

16. Kid's minds will be forever damaged by seeing or thinking about boobs, boobies, etc. etc.

(of course)

And welcome to DU.

[CVN-68]

17. There is that.

Thank you for the welcome.

[cyberswede]

19. I sent my 12 yo son to a ball game in a shirt that read.

"Don't let breast cancer steal second base."

I read it, but totally didn't "get it."

I borrowed the shirt from my sister, whose daughter wore it in college for the softball team's "pink out" for breast cancer awareness.

Fortunately, no school officials had a problem with the shirt (or didn't read it).

Oh...this is my same kid who ordered a football jersey to wear to school with the number 69 on it when he was in 4th grade (he liked some Viking player with that number). Oy.

[NaturalHigh]

22. If you don't let teenagers wear these bracelets...

then they won't think about boobies, and their learning experience will be more productive.



Seriously, though, my kids' high school banned these things too.