Are schools infringing on the students’ first amendment?

Katthy Santiago, Reporter

On Tuesday, March 1st, a California school district told students they couldn’t wear anti-gay stickers while on campus “for now.” Administrators argued that asking the students to remove the stickers was a violation of their free speech. Some said that students have the same right to wear anti-gay stickers as those who support gay rights, Los Angeles Times reported. The Desert Sands Unified School District said in a statement that it will ask students to stop wearing a rainbow pattern sticker with a line through it, until “a proper course of action” is decided.

Many teachers and students complained that the stickers made gay and lesbian students feel unwelcome at the school. Amy Oberman, a History teacher at Shadow Hills High School, quoted “yes, there is freedom of speech established by Tinker”, referring to the 1969 Supreme Court case. The case established that students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The district didn’t say why it changed its stance and officials lacked details on what the punishment would be for those who didn’t remove the anti-gay stickers. Fortunately, nearly a dozen students complied with the requests of the staff members to remove the stickers, according to the Los Angeles Times.