Posted by Cheryl Ross on 12/21/2007, 9:49 am
70.155.70.112
A Wilson High School student, taking a class at I.C. Norcom High has brought the ACLU into a dispute over her 1st Amendment rights to express her desire to advertise her lesbian status on a T-shirt.
The American Civil Liberties Union demanded in a letter to I.C. Norcom High School officials Thursday that they allow the lesbian student to wear a T-shirt displaying "two interlocking female symbols."
The organization contends that a teacher and an assistant principal censored the student by requesting she not wear the shirt.
The ACLU wants officials to apologize to the student, not engage in other such "censorship" and strike any disciplinary notices regarding the incident from the student's file.
School officials have until Jan. 11 to respond. A possible action by the ACLU could include a lawsuit if the demands aren't met, said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia.
Attempts to reach Norcom officials and the division superintendent were unsuccessful Thursday. However, Joseph L. Wiggins, the
superintendent's executive assistant, said he had not seen the letter and could only speculate about why the student was reportedly asked not to wear the T-shirt.
"The concern could be that we are training students to go out into the business world," he said, "But again, I don't know."
The ACLU contends that in early December, a teacher and an assistant principal at Norcom told 17-year-old Bethany Laccone to conceal a T-shirt that depicts a "well-known and historic signifier of lesbian pride and female solidarity." According to the ACLU letter, Bethany was threatened with suspension if she did not respond.
"We frequently hear these complaints about students being threatened with suspension or other discipline because of the T-shirt they are wearing," Glenberg said. "Usually we are able to resolve the situation with a letter like this. Often it's just a matter of teachers and administrators being educated on students' First Amendment rights."
In a phone interview Thursday, Bethany, a Woodrow Wilson High School student who studies hotel management at Norcom, said she had worn the T-shirt to both schools numerous times and no one had ever made an issue of it.
The most she had heard: "A few students said they liked it and it fit me," she said.
Then one day at Norcom in early December, Bethany contends, a teacher told her the shirt might cause controversies. The teacher did not specify what she meant by "controversies," Bethany said. The teacher told her not to wear the shirt to Norcom after that day, Bethany said. Then, she said, the teacher let her go back to class.
On Dec. 10, Bethany came back to the same class wearing the shirt, she said. She said she didn't see a problem in wearing it again because no one except the teacher had ever complained about it.
This time, the teacher asked her to cover the shirt, she said. Bethany said she refused.
The teacher allowed her to finish taking a test, then she was made to report to an assistant principal's office, Bethany said.
The assistant principal, she said, told her to cover the shirt with her jacket or turn it inside out. He "told me if I didn't listen or cooperate with them, I could be suspended," Bethany said.
Bethany zipped up her jacket to hide the T-shirt, then went back to class. She said the teacher wrote up the incident in a referral report.
That same day, Bethany told her dad, Michael Laccone, about the day's happenings. He encouraged his daughter to contact the ACLU if she wanted to push the issue.
A few days later, Laccone said he met with the assistant principal who his daughter claims had spoken to her.
"I didn't think it was right to make her cover up a shirt when they allow other students to express themselves while wearing T-shirts," Laccone said Thursday.
Laccone said that the administrator told him the shirt had upset Bethany's teacher to the point that it interfered with her ability to teach.
Laccone said that sounds like a problem the school needs to resolve with the teacher, not with his daughter.
