Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, WMBB-TV
PANAMA CITY -- Saying "the core message here is of tolerance and fairness," a judge ruled today Heather Gillman can wear a t-shirt with pro-gay messages.
U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak decided Tuesday the Holmes County School Board violated Heather Gillman’s right to free speech in November and ordered the board to alert students in writing that they are allowed to express their support for the equal treatment of gays in an appropriate and non-disruptive way.
Gillman’s shirts included the slogans, “Gay? Fine by me,” “Gay Pride” and “I’m straight but I vote gay.”
Smoak added that administrators missed a chance in September to address students’ issues about homosexuality.
“This could have been an opportunity for leadership, an opportunity for understanding and civil discourse and a learning opportunity for tolerance and diversity. Unfortunately, those opportunities were missed,” Smoak said. He said demonstrations at Ponce De Leon High School in September were not so disruptive to allow the school to suppress students’ rights to express their opinions on gay issues.
The ruling went into effect immediately. Gillman, 17, a Ponce De Leon High School junior, sued the Holmes County School Board last year because it prohibited her from wearing T-shirts she had made in support of gay rights. Gillman made the shirts after her ninth-grade cousin, who is openly gay, was suspended along with nine other students for disruptions they caused in September.
Her case went to a bench trial Monday and Tuesday.
On the stand today, School Board Superintendent Steve Griffin said the District did not restrict gay slogans and symbols until they caused what he characterized as a "disturbance" in school, thus violating School Board policy.
Griffin asserted that Gillman's wearing the shirts didn't violate policy, but he said Gillman and other students had created a "movement" that prevented administrators and teachers from providing order on campus.
Student witnesses said many students wore shirts, made posters, and wrote gay slogans and drew rainbows on their arms and face. Those students were suspended for five days.
A 14-year-old student said in her deposition that Principal David Davis asked her and other students who had participated if they were gay.
Theresa Cottle testified Tuesday about a conversation she had with Davis about her daughter, who was partaking in the demonstrations. “He told me, ‘If there was a man in your house and you were going to church, you wouldn’t be having these gay issues’.”
Smoak pressed the attorneys during their examinations of the witnesses to focus on disruptions that were outside the norm for middle and high school students. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled suppression of students’ constitutional right to free speech can occur only if there have been “material and substantial” disruptions to the educational process.
“Giggling, whispering and passing notes does not meet that standard,” Smoak told the lawyers.
Gillman’s attorney, Garrard Beeney, told the press this case was not breaking new legal ground but would support existing law and influence future cases.
Beeney told the students assembled outside the courthouse they now are responsible for expressing themselves properly.
“With freedom comes responsibility,” he said. “You have to live up to the judge’s faith in you.”
Full article: Judge: School must allow pro-gay shirts | Northwest Florida Daily News
Gay Rights Case Over, Student Wins | WMBB-TV