bayonne free speech buttons

i teach street law every summer at the paterson ymca to a group of teens enrolled in a leadership and job training program. and every summer i teach, i hear the same stories of racial profiling, endless terry stops, illegal searches (T.L.O. standard) and a lack of due process for disciplinary hearings and suspensions at school.

we discuss a variety of issues, mainly how to know their rights. we spend time debating search and seizure concepts, the limits of free speech and the meaning of due process. i love teaching street law -- it's always a challenge for me to prepare interesting lessons, create a dynamic class setting and engage students who don't have the luxury i possess as a white, middle-class person.

last week, i read about a recent case decision involving students in bayonne, nj that will certainly add a new twist to our studies on protesting, the first amendment and the tinker standard.

the student press law center offered the following summary:

Two students — a fifth-grader and a seventh-grader — can wear buttons with the phrase “No School Uniforms” over a background picture of the Hitler Youth, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The court held that because the buttons were not disruptive, the Bayonne School District's censorship was “unwarranted.” Karin R. White Morgen, the students’ attorney, said it was a “wonderful” decision for student free speech. “The school will think twice before it suspends students for wearing honest buttons,” she said. “You are allowed to have an opinion, even in grammar school.” read the opinion here.

The case dates back to November 2006, when two students at two different schools in the district — fifth-grader Michael DePinto and seventh-grader Anthony LaRocco — wore buttons with a red circle and slash through the words “No School Uniforms.” The words were superimposed over an image of rows of young boys in uniforms. While the image contained no visible swastikas or specific Nazi references, both sides agreed that the picture featured members of the Hitler Youth. In response, administrators sent letters to the students’ parents warning that their sons would be punished if they continued to wear the button. Both sets of parents joined in the lawsuit, claiming their children’s First Amendment rights were violated.