A federal court overruled the Bayonne School District last week, saying that students should be allowed to wear buttons protesting the school’s uniform policy. But the ruling also said students could be prohibited from distributing the buttons while at school.
The buttons in question were created by students a year ago and featured the slogan “no uniforms” over a picture of Hitler Youth. They had been banned by the school district with the warning that if students continued to wear them, they would face suspension.
The badges did not bear the image of a swastika.
U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. ruled that the district could not stop the students from wearing the buttons, citing a 1969 ruling that supported the wearing of black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.
“A student may not be punished for merely expressing views unless the school has reason to believe that the speech or expression will materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school,” Greenway said.
The students wore the protest badges to make a statement about the school district’s effort impose a mandatory school uniform policy, comparing the practice to the social control conducted in 1930s Germany, when Nazis used its youth corps to recruit German children into the Nazi Party.
“We have received the decision of Judge Greenaway, granting a preliminary injunction that will allow two Bayonne elementary school students to wear buttons prominently displaying Nazi images in school,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patricia L. McGeehan last week. “Obviously, we are extremely disappointed in the ruling and are very concerned with the precedent this may set not only for Bayonne, but for every public school district in New Jersey that tries to create and maintain a school environment conducive to learning and that is not offensive to the school or staff.”
McGeehan said that it has been the position of the school district that images of racial and ethnic intolerances not be allowed in an elementary classroom.
“Further, recent statutes, regulations and legal guidelines that have come out of the state of New Jersey have reaffirmed the obligation of public schools to prevent harassment and offensive conduct toward students and staff,” McGeehan said. “It is very difficult to reconcile this decision with other legal obligations the Bayonne School District must follow.”
McGeehan said the district will be reviewing its legal options.
The battle began last year
The battle between protesters and the school district began in June 2006 when Bayonne instituted a uniform policy in elementary schools under threat of punishment. When the buttons first appeared in September of 2006, school officials banned them. The parents of the students took the matter to federal court, claiming that the school district’s prohibition of the badges is a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech.
“The badge suit concerns First Amendment rights, and is not in and of itself related to the uniform issue,” said parent Laurie Coles, an outspoken critic of the policy, when the suit was filed last December. “There would, however, have been no badge at all if it were not for our opposition to the uniform policy.”
In a brief filed with the court, Robert Merryman, attorney for the Bayonne School District, said the parents have no legal grounds to force schools to allow the badges.
“In order to preserve the integrity of the educational system and to allow school officials to make those decisions necessary to provide an atmosphere conducive to learning, this court should deny the request … and dismiss the complaint,” Merryman said.
Attorneys for the students also claimed the school had no right to threaten students for wearing the buttons.
Coles and other parents claim that First Amendment infringements seem to be part of a pattern of behavior by the Board of Education in its actions regarding the uniforms.
“It’s interesting that people are so offended. It’s as if they think we are promoting Nazism, when in fact it is the exact opposite,” Coles said. “Hitler and his regime made many insidious inroads into the lives of German citizens, of which demanding that the children wear these uniforms was part of. Some of these efforts seemed innocuous enough at the time to the German citizenry, but we all know what the outcome was. Apparently they felt helpless and intimidated. Those of us who oppose the policy felt helpless, but not intimidated.”
Coles said the First Amendment protects not just speech that some may find offensive, but all speech.
“The wearing of this button by these two students did not cause any disruption or disturbance at their schools,” Coles said. “The legal brief submitted by our attorneys on Monday cites nine cases which support our position, protecting the First Amendment rights of students. The defendants in this case, who are the BBOE, Supt. McGeehan and the two principals of the students’ schools, are not claiming that the protest buttons caused a disturbance. They only claim that the buttons are ‘offensive to some Bayonne residents.’ ”
Why did they select Hitler Youth for the protest?
“The Hitler Youth image was chosen because we felt it represented the entire concept of uniforms as an insidious form of repression and denial of personal liberties in a democratic society, where these freedoms are protected by the Constitution,” Coles said. “The suggestion that another, more innocuous image would be allowable because it is less offensive is to restrain free speech based upon others’ interpretation of the image. The Supreme Court has held in numerous challenges that ‘government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable.’ ”
Coles said the purpose of a protest is to provoke dialogue, conversation and the exchange of ideas, hopefully to make people think and perhaps see an issue from a different perspective.
“I’m pleased with the judge’s decision,” Laura DePinto said, a parent. “It reaffirms the First Amendment American right to peacefully protest. If the Bayonne Board of Education permits us to opt out of participation in their punitive mandatory school uniform policy, we will not wear the badge or any badge protesting the uniform policy. The BOE will be able to go back to the business of teaching our children academics, and parents can assert their rights to appropriately dress their children either in or out of the Bayonne Board of Education’s uniform.”