I (Heart) Boobies?

That was the message on bracelets worm by two middle school girls in Pennsylvania meant to raise breast cancer awareness. The school district, took a dim view of the fairly obvious sexual double entendre, and banned the bracelets. The two girls defied the ban and wore them on their school’s Breast Cancer Awareness Day. The school district suspended the girls for defying the ban.

Of course the girls, with the support of the ACLU, sued claiming an infraction of their right of free speech.

On April 13th, 2011, a federal court in Pennsylvania agreed with the girls saying that the bracelets were not lewd or vulgar and can’t be banned by school officials that found them offensive. The court ruled that the school district had not demonstrated that the bracelets would be disruptive.

Already I can hear the howls of “double standard” and hypocrisy considering that a few years ago the courts decided that a school was correct in forcing a student to remove a T-Shirt saying that homosexuality was shameful that he was wearing in a counter to the GLSEN “Day of Silence.”

Interestingly enough, the ACLU was on the losing side in that debate.

So what do I think of this? To be honest, I suspect that the school has a better handle on what could be disruptive that a federal judge. The school had no issue with the concept of supporting breast cancer awareness, just with the way the concept was being expressed. If were up to me, I think I might have gone with the school’s judgment on this one.