Boy punished for T-shirt with gun image
Posted on March 12th, 2008 by bile Categories and Tags: Uncategorized, 1st Amendment, CA court, censorship, collectivism, Donald Miller III, education, fascism, freedom, guns, Iraq, Kevin French, LANCASTER, liberty, Millersville, New Jersey, Penn Manor High School, Penn Manor School District, Pennsylvania, police state, politics, Salem, Salem High School, Tina Miller, United States, United States Army, your rights 8 Comments »LANCASTER, Pa. - The family of a middle school student who was given detention for wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of a gun has filed a federal freedom of speech lawsuit against the school district.
Donald Miller III, 14, went to Penn Manor High School in December wearing a T-shirt he said was intended to honor his uncle, a U.S. Army soldier fighting in Iraq.
The shirt bears the image of a military sidearm and on the front pocket says “Volunteer Homeland Security.” On the back, over another image of the weapon, are the words “Special issue Resident Lifetime License - United States Terrorist Hunting Permit - Permit No. 91101 - Gun Owner - No Bag Limit.”
Officials at the Millersville school told him to turn his shirt inside out. When Miller refused, he got two days of detention.
His parents, Donald and Tina Miller of Holtwood, have accused the Penn Manor School District in a lawsuit of violating their son’s First Amendment rights with a “vague Orwellian policy” that stifles both patriotism and free speech.
But an attorney for the school district said school must create a safe environment for students in the post-Columbine era, and bringing even the image of a gun to school violates the district’s policy.
“There’s a much higher level of sensitivity these days,” Penn Manor attorney Kevin French said. “But it’s based on reality.”
The lawsuit was filed in January. A federal judge will hold a conference on the case March 31.
This one is very familiar to me. I had a similar issue with Salem High School in Salem, NJ. I owned at the time (and still do) this Type O Negative t-shirt:
What the image here doesn’t show is that the back says “Express yourself” at the top of the image and “Just say yes” at the bottom. I was requested on a few occasions to not wear it. “Requested” is perhaps the wrong word. I was instructed to not wear it and threatened with detention and expulsion. To turn it inside out that particular day an never to wear it again. Me being such a troublemaker refused. I believe I may have flipped it to get out of the office and back to class but changed back later. Similarly I was told not to wear wallet chains or pocket watches with chains. I continued wearing the shirt (and others like Manson’s hangman and “God is dead” shirts) and the chains but I never bothered taking the issue this far. I did take an image of the principal (who really didn’t like me, the feeling was mutual) who had issued the decree to not wear the items and altered it so it appears she was wearing the shirt and some friends printed it and passed it around school. Of course I caught the shit for that and was in fact threatened by her to have any college recommendation letters and applications sabotaged. The furtherest it got was my parents being called and both my mother and father going off on how immature and ridiculous she was being. To hear nothing but “No sir, no, I do not think I’m being immature.” coming from the principals mouth was priceless.
Unfortunately, I very much doubt his case will succeed. The courts rarely rule in favor of those who bring these cases against the government. The court will likely claim that given the gun crimes which have occurred in the government schools it is reasonable to suppress speech in order to keep from startling other students or something. Given that a CA court just recently ruled that parents have no right to even homeschool their children and that the role of public school was to make good little state drones… I don’t see much luck in this family’s future.
