Expert: Michael Troy - 4/16/2002

Question
I would like to find summeries of specific cases of individuals fighting school dress policies. My son told me about a case where students went to the supreme court to wear armbands to school to protest the Vietnam war. I need to quote from cases like these in a letter to my sons school I am writing. He has been asked not to wear something that is not specified in the school conduct codebook and we disagree with their selective dress code. If you could point me in the right direction I would be greatful.

Answer
Hi There,

First, keep in mind that I cannot give specific legal advice in this forum.  Because I am not licensed to practice law in your state, providing specific legal advice would constitute unauthorized practice of law.  However, I am happy to discuss generally the right of students to certain free speech activities in public school.

The case you are asking about is a 1969 Supreme Court case called Tinker v. Des Moines School District.  You can read the full court opinion here:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=US&vol=393&inv...

Since then, Courts have continued to emphasize that public schools do have the authority to place some limits where they believe a form of expression would be disruptive to the educational experience.

Lower courts have been divided on what constitutes disruption.  In some cases, offensive T-shirts have been held to be disruptive.  In other cases in other districts, very similar T-shirts have been protected.  Unfortunately, I happen to be on vacation at the moment and do not have access to my cases.  If you send me a follow up next week and let me know what State you are in, I might be able to find a few other useful cases in your area that might be of interest.

However, if you are really interested in pursuing this, I strongly recommend you consult with an attorney in your area.  The ACLU has brought many similar cases involve free speech in schools.  They might very well be willing to provide you with free legal representation.  Go to www.aclu.org to find out more about them and to contact your local ACLU chapter.  If they can't help, send me another follow up and I can point you toward a few other organizations that might be interested.

I hope this helps!
- Mike