Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for September 27, 2007 BANNED IN SESSER

Doggone T-shirt banned

By Blackwell Thomas, The Southern

SESSER - David Clark said he's worn his T-shirt which reads, "I ? My Wiener" to school in the past with no trouble. So the 17-year-old Sesser-Valier High School junior said he was shocked Wednesday morning when school officials asked him to lose the shirt or leave school.

Clark said the shirt, which includes a silhouette of a dachshund under the text, is a playful way to pay tribute to his dachshund "Peewee," who died when hit by a car four months ago.

"There is nothing offensive or obscene about the shirt - nothing," he said, while seated on his family's front porch. "If the teachers think that, they need to get their minds out of the gutter. If it had a picture of what they think then I wouldn't have worn it."

School Principal Wes Choate gave him three options, Clark said: Turn the shirt inside out, change shirts or leave school. Citing "the principles involved," Clark chose to leave and take zeros in all of his classes for an unexcused absence.

Clark's mother, Cathy, drove to get her son wearing a shirt with a message of her own.

"I wore it on purpose," she said with a laugh. "The principal just shook his head when he saw it. This whole situation is just ridiculous."

Sesser-Valier District Superintendent Jason Henry said law prohibits him from discussing disciplinary action against a specific student

But, reading from the district's dress code, Henry said the school prohibits "students from wearing any clothing that is disrupting to the educational process, interferes with the maintenance of a positive teaching and learning climate or compromises reasonable standards of health, safety and decency."

Principals have the final call on determining what clothing crosses the line, Henry said.

Clark's father, David Sr., said he is baffled by the school's actions and said the dress code is arbitrarily enforced.

"They make the rules up as they go," he said. "It depends on what mood they are in that day. If you can't wear that shirt," he said, pointing to his son, "you shouldn't be able to wear one that says 'Coke.'"

The Clarks said they are considering legal action against the school and a Southern Illinois University Carbondale law professor says they might have a case.

William Schroeder said, because the shirt is not promoting drug use, violence or otherwise upsetting the educational process, Clark has a legitimate, if not legal, complaint.

"Well, it's not fair," Schroeder said of the school's action. "I do think that, if this case got in the courts, there is a realistic chance he (Clark) could prevail. There is also a reasonable chance he could fail."

The chance of failure, Schroeder said, depends on whether the speech promotes "bad things."

Further, Schroeder said, constitutional rights to free speech don't protect high school students to the same degree as the general public.

"The (U.S.) Supreme Court has pretty consistently held that students have reduced free speech rights; they are not on the same footing as adults," he said. "But I think this is a real close case; it's right on the cusp."

Clark said he will be in class Thursday but without the shirt.