Removal of 'Lesbian and Proud' shirt prompts threat of lawsuit against school board

May 17– The Southern Poverty Law Center is threatening to take the Hardin County Board of Education to federal court over what it contends is a discriminatory dress code preventing students from expressing support for homosexual, bisexual, and transgender individuals.

In a letter to the board today, the nonprofit civil rights organization based in Montgomery, Ala., charges that an assistant principal at Hardin County High School recently prohibited students from "peacefully expressing their views about one of the most pressing societal issues of our time, specifically the societal acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people."

Said Sam Wolfe, a staff attorney for the SPLC, "Students’ constitutional rights to freedom of expression do not stop at the school house gate. Public schools are not totalitarian enclaves where school officials may ban speech they dislike."

The current student dress code for Hardin County Schools for students in grades 6-12 bans clothing that "advertises/promotes alcohol, controlled substances, wrestling, sex, suicide, satanic worship, the occult, gang activities, skulls or groups that promote such."

The Southern Poverty Law Center is representing HCHS student Isabella Nuzzo, who is not gay, but wants to express her viewpoint that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people "should be treated equally and with respect," the organization said in the letter to the board.

In a news release from the SPLC, Nuzzo, who will be a senior next year, said she and other students were "really upset with the school for shutting down free speech about a topic I feel strongly about. I love my gay friends and believe life is hard enough without being judged for who you are or for believing in equality."

According to the SPLC, a lesbian HCHS student on April 20 wore to school a tee shirt that said, "Lesbian and Proud" as part of the National Day of Silence, an event intended to bring awareness to harassment and bullying against LGBT youth.

The assistant principal cited the dress code and warned the student she would be suspended if she did not turn her shirt inside out to conceal the words, so she complied.

In support of the student, other students organized a "Week of Pride" and participated by wearing clothing of a certain color or by displaying rainbows or slogans. The assistant principal instructed students to "immediately terminate the Week of Pride and to stop expressing support of LGBT people or face discipline such as suspension, class failure, and disqualification from graduation."

The letter to the board further claims students have reported a "hostile environment" at HCHS against those who are or are perceived as homosexual, bisexual or transgender, and that the school’s "unlawful suspension of the speech at issue" has intensified anti-LGBT hostility and "silenced supporters of change."

The SPLC is demanding that the school board rescind its "unlawful restriction on protected expression" by June 12, and allow Nuzzo and other students to "peacefully display pro-LGBT symbols or slogans."

The letter states that in a similar lawsuit against a Florida school board, a federal court ruled students could not ban students from wearing pro-gay symbols or slogans, and that the case cost the school district $325,000 in attorneys’ fees.

Hardin County Director of Schools John Thomas declined to comment this afternoon, but said the matter has been referred to the board’s lawyer.