School Bans USMC T-Shirt, Student Responds with Lawsuit
by Jim Brown
March 8, 2004
(AgapePress) - A civil liberties group has filed a lawsuit challenging an Indiana high school's decision to suspend a sophomore student for wearing a T-shirt with the Marine Corps creed and logo.
Sixteen-year-old Nelson Griggs recently wore a T-shirt to Elmhurst High School in Fort Wayne that bore the image of an M-16 rifle and a portion of the "Marine Corps Creed." Although school officials warned Griggs he would be disciplined if he wore the shirt again, the following day he wore the shirt and was served an in-school suspension.
Now the Rutherford Institute is suing on his behalf. Attorney Rita Dunaway believes the school overstepped its authority.
"We got involved in this case because it's just another example of school officials going too far in suppressing student expression and applying zero-tolerance policies," she says. "We believe what the school officials have done in this case is to infringe the First [and Fourteenth] Amendment rights of the student."
The attorney says such zero-tolerance policies stem from a noble desire to make schools safe -- but when applying these policies, school officials often thrown common sense out the window. She cites a case in point.
"Ironically, the room to which the student was sent to serve his in-school suspension includes a Marine Corps poster [depicting a] picture of the same M-16 rifle being held by a Marine," Dunaway says. That room, she supposes, may be used for military recruiting purposes at the school.
Dunaway says by wearing the T-shirt a second time and being punished for doing so, Griggs demonstrated that school officials are serious about enforcing an "overly broad" policy that bans any clothing depicting a weapon, regardless of context. Rutherford attorneys point out that under that policy, students could be subjected to disciplinary action for wearing clothing that depicts such things as the Seal for the City of Fort Wayne. Included in the city seal is a sword.
