Constitutional Law

ACLU steps into dispute over 'boobies' bracelets in Pa. school

By By The Associated Press

EASTON, Pa. ? The American Civil Liberties Union is asking an eastern Pennsylvania school district to rescind a ban on breast cancer-awareness bracelets featuring the word "boobies," saying the policy violates students' free-speech rights.

At least two Easton Area Middle School students received in-school suspensions in late October for wearing bracelets that say, "I (Heart) Boobies. Keep a Breast." October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

School officials have told The Express-Times of Easton that the rubber jewelry is inappropriate, distracting and demeaning.

Mary Catherine Roper, an attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, says that although schools can ban lewd, lascivious, profane or indecent speech, the bracelets don't fall under any of those categories.

"'I (Heart) Boobies' is silly, it's funny, it's irreverent, it's juvenile ? that's why it attracts the attention of young teens," Roper told the Associated Press. "This is not a four-letter word."

School districts in Wyoming, Florida, South Dakota and California have run into similar disputes over the bracelets, which are sold by the California-based nonprofit Keep A Breast Foundation to raise awareness and money for breast cancer organizations.

The Pennsylvania ACLU is representing two girls who were suspended last week and told they couldn?t attend their middle school dance later this month, Roper said.

The ACLU sent a letter to the Easton Area School District yesterday asking to settle the issue without litigation. Roper said Easton was the second district in the state to get a letter from the ACLU about the bracelets, though she declined to identify the other one.

An Easton school official referred questions to the school district?s attorney, who did not respond to the AP's request for comment in time for this story.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on November 04, 2010 (boomark / email).