NEW YORK — The Spencer-Van Etten Central School District
agreed to make a public statement supporting students' right to wear T-shirts
with controversial messages, satisfying demands made by civil liberties
advocates after a student was punished for wearing a shirt supporting gay
rights.
Heathyre Farnham, a 16-year-old student at Spencer-Van Etten High School,
was sent home Sept. 21 because Principal Ann Sincock believed Farnham's T-shirt
— which read "gay? fine by me" — would spark a disruption by
prompting anti-gay responses.
District officials, including school district attorney Jim Young, later
acknowledged that Sincock's action was a mistake and that Farnham's T-shirt was
a form of protected expression. Barrie Gewanter, director of the Central New
York chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, pressed the school board at
an Oct. 23 board meeting to issue an apology to Farnham and a public statement
to students that district schools would respect students' free-expression
rights.
The school board did not grant either request at the meeting. But after
further negotiations with the NYCLU, the district agreed to both. According to a
Dec. 6 NYCLU press release, a Nov. 2 message read over the high school's public
address system said the school dress code "does not prohibit students from
displaying controversial or political messages," and that among the "wide range"
of acceptable messages are those "supportive of lesbian, gay bisexual and
transgender people." The announcement did note that the dress code bans obscene
or profane words and images, as well as messages promoting the use of drugs,
alcohol or tobacco.
Sincock also apologized to Farnham privately, Farnham told the Student
Press Law Center.
Superintendent Steven Schoonmaker declined to comment on the details of the
agreement, saying only that the issue had been resolved.
"Everyone seems to be happy and we're going to go back to educating
children," he said.
Farnham said she is satisfied with the resolution of the controversy.
"It wasn't storybook, but it turned out OK," she said, adding that
"everything's pretty much back to normal."
Gewanter said the public statement directly to students was important to
dispel the chilling effect of Farnham's initial punishment.
"You can't cure the chill of censorship with silence," Gewanter said.
Farnham's punishment was troubling not only because it infringed on students'
free-speech rights, but also because censoring a message supportive of gay and
lesbian students called the school's support for those students into question,
Gewanter said.
"We are very happy that the school district decided to cure the message of
censorship with a message of tolerance," she said.
By Michael Beder, SPLC staff writer
