Student Free Speech
The ACLU-Vermont has gone to court to protect the right a Vermont middle school student to wear a T-shirt critical of President George Bush.
Zachary Guiles was suspended from Williamstown Middle School in May 2004 for wearing a T-shirt that called Bush “Chicken-Hawk-in-Chief” who was engaged in a “World Domination Tour.”
He was later allowed back in school, but he was told that he couldn't wear the T-shirt unless he taped over certain pictures on the T-shirt -- pictures of a martini glass, a marijuana cigarette, and cocaine. The pictures were allusions to Bush's alleged former substance abuse problems -- which were also described in words on the T-shirt.
The school claimed the display of the pictures violated the school’s dress policy, which prohibits all images of drugs, or drug paraphernalia, on student clothing.
The ACLU believes such images should be allowed when part of a political message, as opposed to promotion of drugs and alcohol.
After a trial in August 2004, Judge William K. Sessions III ruled that Guiles' free speech rights covered the written words on the T-shirt, even those words describing Bush's alleged drug problems. However, said Sessions, those rights did not cover the pictures on the T-shirt. The school's policy against drug images of any type allowed it to censor that part of Guiles' shirt.
The ACLU has appealed Judge Sessions' ruling to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals because we think that images deserve the same First Amendment protection as words -- especially in core political speech.
Arguments in the appeal will be made Nov. 28 in New York City.
Guiles has been represented by ACLU cooperating attorneys Steve Saltonstall of Bennington and David J. Williams of St. Johnsbury.
Documents in the case:
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