So What Would You Do If Your 13 Year Old Student Came to Class

[jberryhill]

22. You'd love the facts in Newsom v. Albemarle County School Bd., 354 F.3d 249 (4th Cir. 2003)

$150,000 - cha-ching!


https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1173598.html

On April 29, 2002, during the student lunch period at Jouett, Elizabeth Pitt (Pitt), an assistant principal at Jouett, observed Newsom, who at the time was a twelve-year-old student in the sixth grade at Jouett, sitting at a table on the opposite side of the cafeteria with his back towards her.1  Pitt's attention was drawn to Newsom by his purple t-shirt, which depicted three black silhouettes of men holding firearms superimposed on the letters “NRA” positioned above the phrase “SHOOTING SPORTS CAMP.” Although the men appear to be aiming their firearms, the t-shirt did not indicate what or whom their targets may be.   The front of the t-shirt bore a smaller but identical version of the men superimposed on the initials “NRA,” but no other writing or symbols.

According to Pitt, she had the immediate impression that the figures were “sharpshooters” which reminded her of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and other incidents of school-related violence.   As a consequence of her impression, Pitt was immediately concerned over the appropriateness of Newsom's t-shirt in a middle school environment.   Pitt believed that the t-shirt had the potential to disrupt the instructional process since the graphics on the shirt were so large and bold as to be distracting and she feared that Newsom's fellow middle school students would also associate the images with the events at Columbine High School and other incidents of school-related violence.   It was Pitt's judgment that the images on Newsom's t-shirt could also reasonably be interpreted by other middle school students to promote the use of guns.   Pitt felt that the imagery on the t-shirt was at odds with her obligation as a school administrator to discourage and prevent gun-related violence since the images on Newsom's t-shirt conflicted with the message that “Guns and Schools Don't Mix” and had the potential to create confusion among middle school students over the appropriate boundaries between firearms and schools.   Pitt was also aware of at least one prior incident at Jouett when a middle school student brought a firearm to a school function.

According to Pitt, she further explained the inappropriateness of the t-shirt to Newsom in terms she felt he would understand, that the school did not allow alcohol or drugs in the school and did not permit clothing with references to alcohol or drugs.   Similarly, the school did not allow weapons in school nor images of such weapons on student clothing.

...

During the summer of 2002, the student/parent handbook was revised to prohibit students from wearing, inter alia, “messages on clothing, jewelry, and personal belongings that relate to drugs, alcohol, tobacco, weapons, violence, sex, vulgarity, or that reflect adversely upon persons because of their race or ethnic group.”

....

We begin our overbreadth analysis by noting that there simply is no evidence in the record (as the record has developed through the preliminary injunction stage of the case) demonstrating that clothing worn by students at Jouett containing messages related to weapons, nonviolent, nonthreatening, or otherwise, ever substantially disrupted school operations or interfered with the rights of others.   Indeed, there is no evidence that Newsom's t-shirt, let alone any other article of clothing worn by a student that contained a message relating to weapons, ever caused a commotion or was going to cause one at Jouett.   This lack of evidence strongly suggests that the ban on messages related to weapons was not necessary to maintain order and discipline at Jouett.


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Okay, now, that is a shirt depicting people with guns, and a specific school rule prohibiting messages that relate to weapons. In a school. Post Columbine. Still, there was no apparent evidence of such clothing causing a disruption.