Can you hear the tolling of the bell?
A U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday that public schools can remove clothing with slogans it deems hurtful. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a San Diego high school’s contention that it had the right to ban a T-shirt with the message “Homosexuality is shameful.”
Judge Stephen Reinhardt writes in the majority decision, students “who may be injured by verbal assaults on the basis of a core identifying characteristic such as race, religion, or sexual orientation, have a right to be free from such attacks while on school campuses.”
He adds, “The demeaning of young gay and lesbian students in a school environment is detrimental not only to their psychological health and well-being, but also to their educational development.”
Judge Alex Kozinski disagreed, writing, “The types of speech that could be banned by the school authorities under the Poway High School hate policy are practically without limit. Any speech code that has at its heart avoiding offense to others gives anyone with a thin skin a heckler’s veto – something the Supreme Court has not approved in the past.”
Unrestrained political correctness is America’s greatest weakness.