SPLC

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, alleges that Principal David Davis told several students who were wearing rainbow belts and shirts and writing pro-gay expressions on their hands that supporting gay and lesbian rights was impermissible at the school. Davis suspended several of the students, leading junior Heather Gillman to question what expressions the school board prohibits.

Benjamin James Stevenson, a Florida ACLU attorney representing Gillman, sent a letter to the school board asking for guidance on what was regarded as permissible speech. The letter included 16 examples of phrases, symbols and images, such as "I Support My Gay Friends," "GP [Gay Pride]" and "Pro-Gay Marriage," and asked which if any of the symbols or phrases students could wear at school.

Brandon J. Young, an attorney for the school board, replied in a Nov. 12 letter that none of the symbols or phrases would be allowed. The letter said that, although the school board does not restrict pro-gay or anti-gay expression as such, school policy bars students from wearing anything "that may reasonably disrupt and interfere with the educational process of that student or other students."

Since the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1969 ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, courts have ruled that school officials generally cannot restrict independent student expression unless they have specific evidence that the expression in question would "materially and substantially" disrupt the school or invade the rights of others. In Tinker, for example, the Court ruled that administrators could not ban students from wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.

Young's letter said the pro-gay rights symbols and messages worn by Gillman and other students "were used and can further be used by select students to show participation in an illegal organization as defined by the school board. Please remember that many of the students that previously were wearing 'G.P.' on their skin and clothing admitted to planning a walk-out and protest of a school assembly at Ponce de Leon School."

Gillman's lawsuit acknowledges that students planned a walk-out but notes that the protest never took place.

In a written statement released from the Holmes County School District, Superintendent Steve Griffin said, "The School Board's primary mission is the delivery of a high-quality education to each and every student ... in order to achieve this and enhance the student's ability to learn, the educational environment must be free of distraction and disruption. We also support an individual's Constitutional rights of freedom of speech and expression."

The Ponce de Leon High School Student Code of Conduct, in its policy banning illegal organizations, prohibits "any attempt to use the school day for activities that are not school related or school sponsored. Students shall not wear any color, clothing, insignia, emblem or jewelry or other object in such a matter as to indicate membership or association with any secret organization."

Florida state law prohibits K-12 students in public schools from forming secret or closed societies.

But Stevenson said applying that rule in Gillman's case is a stretch.

"I appreciate that the school board is trying to implement Florida law ... but they've tried to use this strange definition of an illegal organization to justify prohibiting the expressions in support of gay and lesbian people," he said.

Stevenson said the school district has 20 days to respond to the complaint, filed yesterday. The complaint asks the court for an injunction to prohibit school officials from suppressing students' First Amendment rights. Among other things, the suit also asks for $1 in nominal damages, attorney fees and a declaration that the school violated Gillman's rights.