I understand that the school has leeway in protecting the students, but in upholding this they are legitimizing the potential violence that might arise from kids wearing t-shirts with the American flag on them. The school is allowing themselves to be blackmailed by a group of students who threaten violence. What if a gang in a school threatened violence if a students wore a certain color on a particular day, would the school then be justified in sending home all kids that wore that color shirt to school? This is both asinine and cowardly. If violence is a problem at a school, send home the kids who threaten the violence, not the kids who are expressing their first amendment rights. And this over something as benign as wearing a representation of the country’s flag to school. This episode reads like an article from The Onion.
The school officials have their heads up their asses. And the 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit just joined them.
A question for the lawyers here, what do you think the odds are that the full panel of judges will agree with this? And how about the Supreme Court? I can’t see ho the threat of violence can trump the first amendment. Thoughts?