Judge: Public High Schoolers have the Right to Wear T-Shirts that Depict or Mention Guns

High School student Matthew Schoenecker wore three tee shirts to school in Wisconsin that caused him to land in hot water.  One says “diversity” under a wide array of different types of guns.   Another spelled out the word “love” using various weapons.  A third one didn’t have any weaponry imagery, but it did include this sentence:  “If guns kill people, then I guess pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons make people fat.”

Matthew was told he could not wear these shirts to school, because they violated the dress code:

Clothing or articles displaying obscenities, suggestive slogans and/or images, nudity, gangs, crime, violence, occult worship, slanderous or harassing material, encouragement of disruptive behavior, weapons, beer/alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or other drug designs are prohibited.

Not so fast, says U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, in Schoenecker v. Koopman.

On Friday, she granted a preliminary injunction blocking the school from enforcing this rule, since it is likely unconstitutional. T-shirts = protected speech.  (Yes, even speech that the school district doesn’t want to see.)  The judge said the images on the shirts “are pure speech, in that they contain images and words that convey a message.”

Well, that’s a good development.  It’s almost like the Founding Fathers were onto something that perhaps the Markesan High School bureaucrats are not. In a world that is growing increasingly hostile to basic freedoms, it’s invigorating to see the First Amendment applied to protect the Second.

Hat Tip: Reason