letter to the editor: Student's anti-Bush t-shirt
Thank you for your continuing coverage of the Appoquinimink student’s t-shirt tribulations. It appears that the Everett Meredith Middle School administration and Appoquinimink District staff deserve failing grades in the subject of students’ rights. Delaware’s ACLU executive director correctly paraphrased the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines ruling, where the Supreme Court stated the following: “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The students in the Tinker case wore black armbands to protest the U.S. invasion of Vietnam; Stephen Truszkowski’s t-shirt protesting Bush’s invasion of Iraq is quite similar.
Later court rulings established restrictions on “vulgar and offensive” student language, but that is not at issue here: the only relevant principle is the First Amendment’s protection of civil discourse. Whether or not one agrees with either the sentiment or the language of Mr. Truszkowski’s t-shirt, his right to dissent from the status quo is protected by law. Why has the school administration singled out this particular criticism of the White House’s current occupant? The unmentioned irony is that the current dress code (prohibiting clothing that “glorifies violence or criminal behavior”) would actually be violated by pro-Bush t-shirts. Mr. Truszkowski’s denunciation of violence and criminality should be celebrated instead of being condemned.
At the very least, Mr. Truszkowski is owed sincere apologies by the Everett Meredith Middle School and Appoquinimink District staff for teaching them a valuable civics lesson. If they continue to demonstrate an incapacity for respecting the rights of students, perhaps they should consider employment in a different field.