School Board Says Sending Student Home for Pro-Gay T-Shirt a 'Mistake'

The attorney for a New York school board acknowledged that it was a "mistake" for a high school principal to send a student home for wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a pro-diversity message.

Heather Farnham, 16, a student at Spender-Van Etten High School in Spencer, NY, was sent home by the school principal, Ann Sincock, on Sept. 21 for wearing a shirt bearing with the words, "gay? fine by me."

Now the attorney for the school board, Jim Young, says that Sincock misconstrued the law that enables school authorities to send students home from wearing garb that might create a disturbance, according to an article posted at the Student Press Law Center (http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1640&year=) on Nov. 1.

Farnham recalled the incident in the article, saying, "The principal came up to me at lunch and said it was inappropriate and disruptive," after which Farnham went home.

However, said Farnham, "No one was screaming or yelling about it; I wouldn't call it disruptive."

Said the teenager, "Everyone was still learning."

Acknowledged attorney Young, "The young lady had a right to wear it."

At a subsequent meeting of the school board, the article reported, members of the community, along with students and their parents, were welcome to give their views.

A chapter director for the New York Civil Liberties Union was on hand at the meeting.

Said Barrie Gewanter, director of the NYCLU's Central New York branch, "When you enact censorship like this, it puts a chilling effect on the student body."

Said Gewanter, "We wanted to make sure this would not happen again."

Gewanter characterized the incident as resulting from the principal having "a total misunderstanding of a student's right."

Together, Gewanter and Young outlined for the school's instructors the laws governing and protecting students' right to free expression, an opportunity that Gewanter called "positive."

But Gewanter also raised the issue of a student who wore a shirt reading, "lesbo? fine by me," and was instructed to change into another shirt.

Explained acting superintendant Charles Clemens, "The principal thought the word 'lesbo' was offensive."

Said Clemens, "If it were 'lesbian', that would be fine."

Even so, Gewanter characterized the student being told that the shirt was not acceptable as further evidence of censorship.

Said Gewanter, "The district says [the issue] has been addressed."

Added Gewanter, "We [the NYCLU] don't share that confidence."

Continued Gewanter, "The school board decided they would not comply with our strong request for the school to send a message to the students that they have the First Amendment rights to display messages on their T-shirt and that lesbian and gay messages were okay."

In principle, Young's explanation on what sorts of slogans are acceptable and which are not seemed to bolster Gewanter's concerns.

According to an Oct. 23 article in The Ithaca Journal, Young explained, "If it's simply a political statement, which I believe this was, according to the Supreme Court, so long as there wasn't disruption or violence, it's OK."

Added Young, "There's not a big deal."

According to Young, courts have found that messages that promote the use of controlled substances or alcohol, are vulgar, or attack certain classes of people can be banned by school officials.

However, such messages would have to take a certain character: Young did not believe that "God hates gays" would stand up to the test of what is protected speech, according to the Ithaca Journal, whereas the slogan, "gay? not fine by me" would still be a legally acceptable message.

Brynda Beeman, the student's mother, also expressed concern. The article cited her as claiming that what she was told by school officials does not jibe with what the school has told the press.

According to Beeman, the principal told her, during phone exchange between the two the day Farnham was sent home, that the shirt's slogan was not acceptable as it was "advertising sexual preference."

Beeman also said that the school has not made an attempt to communicate with the students directly about the issue, and indicated that Farnham, who is heterosexual, has been targeted for harassment as the issue has grown into a controversy in the community.

Said Beeman, "The faculty did not experience a chill, the administration did not experience a chill, it's the students."

Continued Beeman, "What they are insisting on is silence vis a vis the student, and you can't cure censorship with silence."

Meantime, residents of the town of Spencer and beyond have found ways to weigh in. A local pastor, Clarence Windnagle, of Faith Bible Church, authored a letter that appeared in the Spencer Random Harvest, a local paper.

"I swear to God, gay is not fine by me," Windnagle's letter read in part, according the Oct. 23 in The Ithaca Journal story.

The same article referenced a petition taken up by the school's alumni, condemning the principal's actions, and cited students in Spencer and other towns wearing "gay? fine by me" t-shirts en masse.

T-shirts with the slogan "gay? fine by me" originated in 2003 at Duke University when a small group created and gave away 2,000 t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan as a means for the school to counter a homophobic image. In the wake of the slogan's genesis, a non-profit organization by the same name has been formed to help promote support by GLBT as well as heterosexual people for full equality.

Said Beeman, "My daughter and all the students that wear the shirts are my heroes."

Added Beeman, "I'm proud of them for taking a chance, maybe getting in trouble with their parents and the school."

Beeman also said, however, "It has been stressful on all of us because I don't think we thought it would be this big."

Farnham indicated she wished for an apology, but Young was unsure whether one would be forthcoming to the teenager.

Said the school board's lawyer, "I don't deal with apologies, I deal with the law."

(Sources: Student Press Law Center, Nov. 1; The Ithaca Journal, Oct. 23)