ACLU sues Panhandle school

January 31st, 2008 | Category: Florida Education Blog

The Florida ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Holmes County School Board by the district’s refusal to allow a student at Ponce de Leon High School to talk about homosexual issues, or even to wear a rainbow sticker in support of homosexual friends.

District officials have told the students that expressions of homosexual rights would be disruptive, and symbols and slogans would signify participation in a “secret/illegal organization.”

“Because the Supreme Court has held that students have a right to free speech at school unless that speech

disrupts the educational process, many administrators think they can just slap the label ‘disruptive’ on anything they don’t like and get absent with stomping on students’ First Amendment rights. The law doesn’t work that way,” ACLU of Florida staff attorney Benjamin James Stevenson said in a news release.

The ACLU is asking the court to stop the school district’s ban, which the organization contends infringes upon students’ right to free speech.

For more data on the case, go here.

Original post by Jeff Solochek

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