Calif. School District
Defends Banning Anti-Gay T-Shirt
by 365Gay.com from the Web, August 24, 2004
Poway, CA, Aug. 23 -- The Poway Unified School District, in Southern California, feared that a student's anti-gay T-shirt would incite violence, according to legal papers that for the first time detail the district's position on a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year.
Tyler Chase Harper, 16, filed the suit against the school district in June, accusing it of violating his civil rights.
Harper wore the T-shirt on The National Day of Silence in April. When he refused to remove the T-shirt he was suspended and subsequently filed
the lawsuit.
The T-shirt was hand-lettered with the words "I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned" on the front and on the back it read "Homosexuality is Shameful" and "Romans 1:27," a reference to a Bible passage.
According to the legal documents, released Monday, school administrators feared the T-shirt would contribute to a polarized atmosphere between homosexual and heterosexual students.
Two gay and lesbian students filed a sexual harassment lawsuit last fall against the school district, saying they were forced to enter independent study programs because of taunting, physical assaults and death threats at the school.
School officials denied those allegations. That case is scheduled to go to trial next year.
Officials also claimed they did not suspend Harper for wearing the T-shirt, but gave him a choice between changing into another shirt or spending the day in the office, according to the legal papers.
Harper's suit, filed on his behalf by the conservative Christian law firm the Alliance Defense Fund, says that his civil rights were violated by the school for not letting him express his religious views
Poway High School's student policy handbook states that the dress code forbids "violence or hate behavior, including derogatory connotations directed toward sexual identity."
The suit alleges the policy is too broad and vague.
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