The school opened the door when Aurora Frontier Elementary School students were encouraged to show their patriotism by wearing red, white & blue.But one fifth grader, Daxx Dalton, was "encouraged" to show his father's politics instead by wearing a homemade T-shirt which read:
Obama is a terriorist's best friend
Despite the fact that the shirt was white with red and blue lettering, the school asked him to remove it.
He refused saying, “They’re taking away my right of freedom of speech...If I have the right to wear this shirt I’m going to use it. And if the only way to use it is get suspended, then I’m going to get suspended.”
Daxx was suspended.
But the school says his suspension was for willful disobedience and defiance - not for wearing the shirt.
The school's case is what civil liberties attorneys typically refer to as "a loser."
This from the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog:
E. Christopher Murray, a partner at New York law firm Reisman, Peirez and Reisman and the president of the New York chapter of the Civil Liberties Union sent the Law Blog the following in an e-mail:
“The wearing of this t-shirt can only be prohibited if it could cause a risk of material disruption at the school,” wrote Murray. “It is hard to see how this t-shirt could be viewed this way. Students have a constitutional right to express their opinions about politics, and this t-shirt was not vulgar or anything other than a political statement. While the courts have recently cut back on student’s rights of expression, this case clearly seems to be an illegal curtailment of this student’s rights. ”
Dann Dalton, Daxx’s father, (a “proud conservative” who has taken part in anti-abortion protests) thought he'd help out. He told MyFOXColorado.com that the school is making a mistake by suspending his son and that he intends to sue the district. “It’s the public school system,” he said. “Let’s be honest, it’s full of liberal loons.”
Daxx's mother, Nann was unavailable for comment.
OK. I made that last part up.
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